Expired certificate help please.

[kristell]

Am trying to help my son with his MacBook. I am a windows person myself so would appreciate some help.  He hasn’t been able to update his software and getting this message. Not sure if the two issues are connected. The MacBook is about 7 years old.  I do not know where to start. Thank you in advance.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by kristell
Typo

[David H. Lipman]

The Let's Encrypt certificate chain for; 1416721566.rsc.cdn77.org  by visiting;  t.supersimplesearch1.com  is valid.  I had no issues in Firefox

[kristell]

Thank you, will give that a try

[kristell]

Unfortunately those links don’t work.

[David H. Lipman]

They are not links, they are Domains.  Just the same they use HTTPS and thus have a site certificate and the certificate chain is valid.

 

[kristell]

I am sorry, please accept this is totally new for me. Can you explain what I need to do please? Thank you.

[David H. Lipman]

The graphic you posted shows "This certificate is not valid (expired root)" with a site expiration date in the future, not in the past, of 12/22/'21.  The problem was the certificate was not verified with the Certificate Authority and thus shows a invalid certificate chain.  It could be based upon a bad/expired Root Certificate or a simple glitch of that moment or something with the Browser.  It is not a fatal error that blocks the site from working, only that "This certificate is not valid" due to some unknown reason, most likely your certificate store has an old Root Certificate that needs updating.

I looked at that graphic you posted and deciphered t.supersimplesearch1.com where I entered that Domain into Firefox (not a fully qualified URL) which gave me "404 Not Found" because it was not a fully qualified URL to supply content.  I then went to view the Certificate and it showed it was for; 1416721566.rsc.cdn77.org , just like in your graphic, but unlike your graphic it showed the site certificated was validated.

The below as the latest Root Certificate by the Let's Encrypt Certificate Authority and can be installed in your Certificate Store that the Browser uses for validation.

https://letsencrypt.org/certificates/

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and/or grammar

[1PW]

12 hours ago, kristell said:

The MacBook is about 7 years old.  I do not know where to start. Thank you in advance.

Hello @kristell:

When you, and your son, are finished sorting out certificate issues with @David H. Lipman, you will want to keep the macOS baked in system security safe with OS updates by Automatically/manually querying Apple's servers:

•  Menu -> System Preferences... -> Software Update - (That system may still be eligible for macOS Big Sur 11.6.1)

Notarized user apps, from the Apple App Store, are available and updated by:

•  Menu -> App Store... -> Update - (Notarized freeware and notarized proprietary payware)

Software updates not from or by Apple or its App Store:

• Individually/manually check for updates through the app itself. e.g. Open the app and "Check for updates".
• Subscribe to a Mac client app update checker such as MacUpdater 2.
• For the extremely advanced Mac users, the Linux-like Homebrew repository will be worth examination after experience.

Of course this forum would also suggest supplementary real-time anti-malware protection such as Malwarebytes for Mac Premium and Malwarebytes Privacy (VPN) and the free to all, Malwarebytes Browser Guard for major browser protections.

HTH

Edited November 1, 2021 by 1PW

[treed]

I have a couple clarifying questions I'd like to ask.

First, you say he's having trouble "updating his software" and that he's seeing the message you posted. What software is he trying to update?

Second, how is he ending up on that t.supersimplesearch1[.]com website? Is it appearing when he attempts to update the software in question, or are these two separate issues?

The t.supersimplesearch1[.]com domain looks super sketchy to me. There is no page that loads if you go to the base site, and using exactly the same URL as the one shown in your image redirects to Bing. This suggests it's a scam search engine redirect, so we need to understand all the context of how he's encountering this page.

[kristell]

@treed it is the operating system that he is having issues with updating.

I think we are dealing with two separate issues - the operating system update and then the error message one (as shown in the screenshot). appears intermittently in his browser (Chrome) when he goes to a web page e.g. YouTube.

 

I did go to the link that David Lipman shared to download the root certificate - but there were a lot of options there and to a novice like me, it scared me silly so didn't do anything!

 

 

[treed]

Okay, yup, those sound like two separate issues.

For the OS update, what's happening when he tries to update? It's entirely possible, depending on the model of the computer, that it might no longer be supported by the latest version of macOS. There are very few 7-year-old models that are capable of running macOS Monterey:

https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-12-requirements-full-list-of-compatible-mac-computers/

For the website redirect issue, if this is happening randomly on one or more specific sites, it may be a malvertising issue, and using an ad blocker can help. Malwarebytes Browser Guard is a good free option:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/browserguard

However, if it's happening every time he does a search, he may have been infected with search hijack adware. Scan the machine with Malwarebytes for Mac. If anything is detected, reboot the machine if you're instructed to do so. Then, regardless of whether anything was detected or not, try the suggestions here:

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/236261-how-to-remove-the-after-effects-of-adware/

If none of that works, let us know.

[kristell]

Thank you - so you don't think we need to download the certificate of follow the advice given above? 

 

"The graphic you posted shows "This certificate is not valid (expired root)" with a site expiration date in the future, not in the past, of 12/22/'21.  The problem was the certificate was not verified with the Certificate Authority and thus shows a invalid certificate chain.  It could be based upon a bad/expired Root Certificate or a simple glitch of that moment or something with the Browser.  It is not a fatal error that blocks the site from working, only that "This certificate is not valid" due to some unknown reason, most likely your certificate store has an old Root Certificate that needs updating.

I looked at that graphic you posted and deciphered t.supersimplesearch1.com where I entered that Domain into Firefox (not a fully qualified URL) which gave me "404 Not Found" because it was not a fully qualified URL to supply content.  I then went to view the Certificate and it showed it was for; 1416721566.rsc.cdn77.org , just like in your graphic, but unlike your graphic it showed the site certificated was validated.

The below as the latest Root Certificate by the Let's Encrypt Certificate Authority and can be installed in your Certificate Store that the Browser uses for validation.

https://letsencrypt.org/certificates/"

[treed]

Nope, I wouldn't worry about that. Whether or not that site's certificate is valid is no longer relevant. More important is figuring out why he's seeing it. (BTW, Browser Guard should be updated to block that site soon, but we still need to make sure we understand what's going on, to ensure there's nothing unwanted on his machine.)

[kristell]

Hi again, he has his laptop set up to do automatic updates but this time this isn’t happening it goes to the App Store and says no updates available. Here is a screenshot of his system.  Many thanks for the support you are giving, it is very much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[treed]

Hmm, that machine should definitely be capable of upgrading beyond Yosemite. It should be able to upgrade to macOS 11 (Big Sur), but not macOS 12 (Monterey). Note, though, that I probably wouldn't advise upgrading such an old machine to Big Sur. At most, I'd upgrade it to macOS 10.14 (Mojave), but that would be more difficult to download. (Apple doesn't make it easy to get specific older versions of their systems.) It might not even be a good idea to upgrade to Mojave with only 4 GB of RAM.

One reason it might not see any upgrades available, though, would be that some kind of adware is installed that is messing with network communications, as a means for redirecting him to the aforementioned bad website. That's the more important issue that needs to be addressed.

[kristell]

Will do the suggestions above to see if that helps. Browser Guard and a scan. Will let you know how we get on. Any other suggestions gratefully received!

[1PW]

Hello @kristell:

You may wish to have the following information stored regarding your son's MacBook Air:

Reference: https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=C02NDSWHG085&g-recaptcha-response=03AGdBq263pqf6Dxsd3wWmZzOcNe6hV_pohAw-XhVyi9dBApBGJKClGuNN8qHiSm9a5OlYjzNJdsEIHElIZ08O7TA-CEu0ZrRLHM--eZEmFMOuQcgRX7Ymiwr1U24rPrhccaTVCq3F_gc7TM2Xbn_yBGzjg6ztu2a1kdcwNQlu6EOGRTlsK2lX1GRamSzKQnLPB0u2MdrlMGPyYJQuGcSdur4jLU2XmwUBeqsLFmmjoDMfOumOtNVZiDbBVad9OAGSQA3iJSQ3gHzp6A_hbwxxHd_D93IuwOReV5ixa6lpwyaBByuPY887xs6jut6dliQ0l8HsYK2S1GXITh95DixDPXxOssuptFY8LGYlfJQP60-yHRPN-1WqdvUx7UpjWCjQLotghyYW9Ur8-anvkM53jtYC-zKRBERFGLfJavv3G4sEnu7oreiBvuT6p-sC7QBl_WnSbsIElZuLcpRqentfvb8W7ibQ_xTDnHsyuYPFM9RMKKCEYWLyz-Rx2I-wF0IKFgHiZhtXCZ7K

MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 13" (Early 2014)

1.4 GHz Core i5 (I5-4260U)

Intro. April 29, 2014 Disc. March 9, 2015 Order MD760LL/B* Model A1466 (EMC 2632) Family Early 2014 ID MacBookAir6,2 RAM 4 GB VRAM 1.5 GB Storage 128, 256 GB SSD Optical None* Complete MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 13" (Early 2014) Specs

 

[kristell]

@1PW thank you.