Server HTTPS access not working after re-install

Question

I've setup a Citadel groupware server, plus its WebCit web admin interface. It worked well with HTTPS access. However, I had to reinstall the server, and when I try to access the server again via HTTPS, I get the following error in Firefox:

You have received an invalid certificate. Please contact the server administrator or email correspondent and give them the following information:

Your certificate contains the same serial number as another certificate issued by the certificate authority. Please get a new certificate containing a unique serial number.

(Error code: sec_error_reused_issuer_and_serial)

What can I do on the server side to alleviate this problem? Or is it simply a matter of resetting something in Firefox?? What would be a way to prevent this problem in the first place? Thanks.

Answer 1

I've seen this error before while using FireFox with a WiFi router - it's annoying, because FF does not behave as you'd expect (i.e. let you add an exception and be done with it).

Granted, the problem is with your SSL certificate (it should have a new serial number when it is generated) but because the cert is generated with a hard-coded value it is going to be easier to apply a workaround for FireFox.

Here's the fix that worked for me:

Thinking "How does it know?" I thought it must be storing the certificate elsewhere. I shut down Firefox, opened my profile directory, found cert8.db, renamed it and started Firefox. The cert8.db file was recreated and I was able to add the exception for the new certificate.

Same Serial Number of Certificate Error at FireFox Support