tOMPSON’s blog
some personal, more technical – by Thomas Einwaller
Invalid apache ssl Firefox error code
In: Linux
4 Jan 2007If an ssl configuration of an apache2 web server is invalid you get error messages that say nothing. Today I for example I got the message “… received error code -12263″ from my Firefox when requesting a site over https. I checked the log files on the server but there was no entry. The apache2 server started without errors and when requesting the same page with the Internet Explorer it only said “Page can not displayed”.
I fixed the problem by generating a new server certificate and key file and configuring it in the apache2 ssl configuration file.
You get similar error when requesting a site that requires a client certificate that you don’t have. Is this intentionally for security reasons or weren’t the browser developers able to figure out a better way? Or is it an apache2 problem?
Comment Form
Photostream
Categories
Archives
- June 2010
- May 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- June 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- June 2005
- tompson: Hi Roman, my main class is a groovy class [...]
- Roman Gonzales: Hey quick question: your main class is a java class that calls the groovy classes or is your main [...]
- Nathan Rodriguez: i am only using free virus scanners like avast and avira but they seem to be great tools though:;` [...]
- sim4000: Yay, it works. Thank you! [...]
- Ewan Matthews: there would be a great demand for mobile browsers in the coming years that is for sure.;'- [...]
- Create executable jar package with dependencies
- Issues with Mylyn and JIRA 4.1
- Equals and HashCode and Hibernate
- Using twhirl with StatusNet
- Problems connecting with jconsole to linux jvm
- BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express and facebook app
- Error code 1920 when installing VMware converter
- tightvnc messes up keyboard layout after Ubuntu upgrade
- The old Bold and the new Bold
- Windows Media player streaming problem
tOMPSON's tweets
- first time restoring new MacBook from a Time Capsule backup worked great! Time Machine FTW #fb
- Being a BlackBerry fan with an iPad I can not understand how people could live that long with an iPhone without multitasking #fb
- Can't wait for the iOS update for de iPad #fb
- Wow, The new official twitter client for the iPad os brilliant - though I think it violates some style guides #fb
- just uninstalled the Google Wave Notifier from Chrome - LOL
- I favorited a YouTube video -- Ed Byrne slates Alanis Morissette http://youtu.be/nT1TVSTkAXg?a
- I'm at Il Teatro Antica Trattoria (Hamerlingerstr 46, Linz). http://4sq.com/7ccwyW
- so the spare parts for my wife's MacBook cost 1000 EUR and a new one the same? wtf #fb
- Livestream of Apple keynote works great so far, no bandwidth problem, looks great on the iPad #fb
- RT @timr: new post: More report options: Today we released a new version of timr including the long awaited feature ... http://bit.ly/9QqNgy
18 Responses to Invalid apache ssl Firefox error code
M
January 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I receive the same firefox error trying ssl but the logs do say ” Invalid method in request \x16\x03\x01″
atari
January 11th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
It’s a apache2 error.
Edit your etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl
in this line:
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/XXXXXX
XXXXXX must match with the filename in /etc/apache2/ssl/
(not apache.pem the other one)
apache -k restart
good luck!
Good luck
tompson
January 11th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
This is correct.
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/KEYFILENAME
and
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/CERTFILENAME
must match correct certificate and keyfiles. My question was if the bad error messages comes from the apache2 implementation or the firefox code.
syiay1
January 27th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
It’s a good effort, but would you advice how we solve same problem on Win XP pak2.
Best Regards
tompson
January 28th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
You mean you have an apache2 server installed on a Win XP SP2?
Fix it in the same way, check the path to your SSLCertificateKeyFile and SSLCertificateFile and that the two files are valid.
Creating server and client certificates with openssl « tOMPSON’s blog
February 10th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
[...] server and client certificates with openssl I got so much response on my post about the certificate problems with apache2 and Firefox that I decided to post a howto about [...]
Invalid apache ssl Firefox error code « tOMPSON’s blog
April 25th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[...] Invalid apache ssl Firefox error code this post was moved [...]
david
July 8th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
When we connect to https://www.testserver.com, we get the 12263 error… now for giggles, try this: http://www.testserver.com:443. Notice that it is different: it is using HTTP protocol (not HTTPS) over port 443… look at what comes back: THE PAGE!
The problem seems to be that even through we activiated SSL and mod_ssl is present, that APACHE2 fell back to running just HTTP over that port.
That’s what’s causing the error in Firefox and ANY OTHER BROWSERS (I tested with Firefox, links, wget, and such…).
I can’t help but feel that when we turn on SSL that by default it should just work and encrypt the connection and only complain about a certificate mismatch. This is just too fiddly — and insecure.
Joe
August 1st, 2007 at 10:20 am
David, I am receiving the same error and tested the :443 as well and received ‘the page’ however it gives the 12263 error as I proceed further…have you found any solutions? Thanks.
Joe
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:04 am
All fixed and good to go…one thing I failed to change was a ‘deny’ to ‘allow’ line among some other stuff.
Dan Sackinger
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 am
If you are using Apache2:
In the ports.conf file, make sure it looks like the following:
— clip —
Listen 80
Listen 443 https
— clip —
The https after the 443 tells Apache2 to use the SSL protocol on that port. It cleared my problem right up.
tompson
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:48 am
The https in your second directive should no be needed, it is important to listen to both port 80 and 443 but the https does not mean anything else than 443 (defined in /etc/services)
see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mpm_common.html#listen
Dan Sackinger
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:58 am
I’m using Apache 2.2. The https at the end of the line in Apache 2.2 indicates that the protocol used on that port should be https.
I’m listening on 443, so according to the documentation I shouldn’t have to specify https as the protocol. My installation didn’t function correctly until I specified https. Who knows… it could be because I am using an IPv6 address.
Here is the Listen info for 2.2:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mpm_common.html#listen
tompson
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
Sorry Dan, you are right, I did not use version 2.2 very much up to now
Gallycyborg
August 7th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Hi everyone
My question is for Dan, if possible : I’ve got the same issue with my webserver at work, needed to listen on few ports (443,444,445…), but the apache is in version 2.0.52. How can I solve it with this release ?
Thanks
stefan
August 8th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
hi, ich habe mich auch lange mit dem problem rumgeschlagen und will euch mal helfen: die datei /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/vhost-ssl.template einfach umbenennen in blablabla/vhost-ssl.conf
apache akzeptiert nämlich nur solche dateien, wenn sie auf “conf” ende. hat bei mir sofort funktioniert. ich hoffe ich konnte euch helfen
gruß stefan
Kingsly John
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Thanks David for pointing out that apache is serving out non-ssl content.. helped me get to the solution.
The problem is caused because the non-ssl virtualhost entry for that IP address doesn’t specify a port.
ie VirtualHost x.y.z.a and not VirtualHost x.y.z.a:80
not specifying the :80 makes it apply for any port on that IP address.
Peady
September 7th, 2007 at 2:13 am
I also just ran into this problem. Exact same error code only when attempting a SSL connection whereas a non-SSL connection to the same site created no error and this was consistent with different browsers although the error message differed. I found though that I had simply misconfigured my VirtualHost settings. I had one spelling error and one ‘illegal option’ associated with ‘SSLOptions’. Once I corrected these and made sure that the site was enabled (a2ensite) and restarted the server, it was no longer generating the error. So my lesson learned is always double-check your syntax.
[1] check your syntax
note you can check that the virtual host syntax is correct with the following command:
# sudo apache2ctl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
[2] make sure the site is enabled
# sudo a2ensite fileNameForYourVirtualHost
[3] restart the server after making changes
# sudo apache2ctl -k restart