#67: Unknown password when importing a client certificate in Firefox

Solved!
on October 06, 2009, 12:52 AM UTC   —   from   92049143cabb7ba896d7c06e19906303_small yliu    ( 2,684 views )
When installing a StartCom client certificate for Firefox, a box pops up with "Please enter the password that was used to encrypt this certificate backup". I tried my root password, admin password, a blank password, and Firefox Master Password to no effect. The certificate was not encrypted with a passphrase.
Tags: OS X security Firefox certificate client certificate
Add Solution Add Reference

Solutions

Solutions Feed

Wrong file format when importing the client certificate

0

- 92049143cabb7ba896d7c06e19906303_small yliu on October 06, 2009, 12:57 AM UTC

So Firefox appears to require certificates that are in PKCS12 format (.p12) when importing. It cannot determine whether a client certificate file is encrypted, or if it is simply not a PKCS12 format file. My certificate, as downloaded from StartSSL, was in .cer format. Firefox would keep prompting for a password that doesn't exist.

The solution was to export the certificate in PKCS12 format, upon which point it was accepted by Firefox without triggering the password dialog. I was able to do format conversion via Keychain Access.app in OS X.

References used:

Comments

  1. Here's my problem. The original machine with the browser cert installed is gone. Stolen.

    Sigh! Any suggestions in this case?

    Thanks in advance.

     — Om on August 19, 2012, 01:03 AM UTC
Add a Comment

Think you've got a better solution? Help 92049143cabb7ba896d7c06e19906303_small yliu out by posting your solution

References

The Fedora Community Portal - Forum - Fedora Devel List - Fedora User Certificates

https://fcp.surfsite.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=thread&topic_id=68540&forum=11&post_id=330422 - found by 92049143cabb7ba896d7c06e19906303_small yliu on October 06, 2009, 12:53 AM UTC