Thanks, Ken.  I have attempted to do so (verify chain back to root), but
this is not really something I have any experience with (so I might not
be correctly interpreting what I am seeing).  As I mentioned in my last
message, I am attempting to re-import again.  I am still struggling to
understand why it would work for one user on a machine, but not another,
though.  Is there any permission/privilege in XP that would auto-accept
vs. auto-decline a certificate?

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Schaefer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:15:20 +1100
X-Message-Number: 137

Have you verified the certificate chain back to the root certificate?

As for why some users see this on some machines, and not others: this is
because certificates can be stored in multiple different stores. Each
user has a certificate store, as does the machine itself. If a valid
root certificate is only installed in the machine store on some
machines, but not others, then you'll have problems on those latter
machines, and not the former, regardless of the user account.

You should also check the intermediate certificates in the chain - it
maybe that the vendor's site is not providing the entire intermediate
certificate chain, and you do not have the requisite intermediate CA
certificates installed on some machines. That would also cause the
problem.

Look at the expiry issue tat someone else mentioned as well.

Basically you are verifying all the basic facets of all the certificates
in the chain (is the certificate that signed this cert trusted? Has it
expired? Does the DNS name match the CN or SAN fields etc)

Cheers
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Mayo, Bill [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, 3 January 2008 8:55 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Certificate Problem with IE

We have a vendor that changed their certificate over the weekend and now
have mixed issues with our staff accessing the site.  Connecting to the
site with a Windows 2000 machine or a browser other than IE (in XP or
other) will cause a message come up asking if you want to trust the
certificate.  On XP, there is no such prompting, but it works for some
people and not for others.  It looks like the certificate is
automatically being trusted or declined for XP staff, but we can't
figure out why it works for some, but not others.  From what we can see,
it is user-specific--it works for one user on a computer, but not
another.  The local permissions don't seem to be an issue (we made one
of the users an administrator temporarily with no joy).

If you connect to the site in Firefox, it explicitly states that it is
unable to verify the certificate.  I have attempted exporting the
certificate from a working connection and importing it as a trusted site
for a non-working user with no success (I will admit that I just barely
know what I am doing in that regard).

Googling hasn't turned up anything to this point that was helpful.  Does
anyone have any idea what might cause that behavior and what might be
done to correct it?

Bill Mayo
Pitt County MIS

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