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While going to renew one of my SSL certificates, I came across an error that prevented me from logging into the StartCom Control Panel. The error stated:

Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to auth.startssl.com.
Peer does not recognize and trust the CA that issued your certificate.
(Error code: ssl_error_unknown_ca_alert)

The browser I use to administer my StartCom account is Firefox 34, and after looking around online I found a workaround.

• Go to Preferences -> Advanced -> Certificates -> View Certificates -> Authorities
• Scroll down to the StartCom Certificate Authority
• Now Delete/Distrust every certificate that is marked Software Security Device

Doing this allowed me to once again log into the StartCom Control Panel. Although I do not like the prospect of manipulating certificate authorities in the browser, I understand that StartCom recently changed one or more of their certificates, which will undoubtedly cause problems.

Resources¶

• https://forum.startcom.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2522&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=8e35c7ce6440a09fbf7e808e0444e579&view=print