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Why can't I delete my security exception??

  • 6 replies
  • 17 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by TLOP

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I allowed a security exception for a website I thought was a familiar one, but found out later it was not (one letter difference in the address-grrr). By going to tools, option, encryption, and view certificates, it allowed me to delete it under "servers", but will not allow me to do ANYTHING to it, not even view it, under authorities and others (it appears in both sections). Is this bad? Is there a way to get it off my computer??

I allowed a security exception for a website I thought was a familiar one, but found out later it was not (one letter difference in the address-grrr). By going to tools, option, encryption, and view certificates, it allowed me to delete it under "servers", but will not allow me to do ANYTHING to it, not even view it, under authorities and others (it appears in both sections). Is this bad? Is there a way to get it off my computer??

All Replies (6)

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Delete the cert_override.txt file in the Firefox Profile Folder or rename the file to cert_override.txt.old to remove permanent exceptions stored in the file.

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

See if you can find that exception in the Certificate Manager:

  • Tools > Options > Advanced > Encryption: Certificates: View Certificates

Rename the cert8.db file in the Firefox profile folder to cert8.db.old or delete the cert8.db file to remove intermediate certificates that Firefox has stored.

If that helped to solve the problem then you can remove the renamed cert8.db.old file.
Otherwise you can rename (or copy) the cert8.db.old file to cert8.db to restore the previous intermediate certificates.
Firefox will automatically store intermediate certificates when you visit websites that send such a certificate.

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Thank you for your response. I deleted both files and now it no longer shows up under "other", but it still shows up under "authorities" and will not delete.

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How are those entries marked in the Certificate Manager?

You can't remove built-in root certificates, you can only remove the trust bits.
If the entries are marked a Software Security Device then you should be able to remove them.

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That must be why I cannot delete it-it's marked "Builtin Object Token".

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Then it looks that some else is wrong.

Why do you want to delete this certificate?

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Sorry, I got swamped at work and haven't been able to reply to you! My computer has been running like crap ever since I allowed the exception, but it may just be a coincidence. Everything is really slow now and Mozilla keeps "not responding", even though I updated it.