Facebook won't load in Safari, but loads fine in other browsers... ???
July 1, 2014 8:28 AM Subscribe
When I try to go to any Facebook page inside Safari 6.0.3 (running on OSX 10.8.3) I get this error message:
Safari can't open the page "https://www.facebook.com/" because Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server "www.facebook.com".
It started last night and I have no idea why. Facebook loads fine on my phone (cell connection or wi-fi) and in FF or Chrome on the same computer. So Safari seems to be the culprit - but why? I've cleared my cookies and cache, checked /etc/hosts to make sure there's nothing weird in there, poked around in Activity Monitor, but nothing's sticking out as the obvious problem.
Anyone encounter this before? It happens with JUST facebook - no other sites are affected as far as I can see. My last session to FB that I opened in Safari was at around 5pm last night, and I noticed before I went to bed that FB would no longer open. So it's been less than 24 hours. Bizarre! Any help would be super appreciated.
It started last night and I have no idea why. Facebook loads fine on my phone (cell connection or wi-fi) and in FF or Chrome on the same computer. So Safari seems to be the culprit - but why? I've cleared my cookies and cache, checked /etc/hosts to make sure there's nothing weird in there, poked around in Activity Monitor, but nothing's sticking out as the obvious problem.
Anyone encounter this before? It happens with JUST facebook - no other sites are affected as far as I can see. My last session to FB that I opened in Safari was at around 5pm last night, and I noticed before I went to bed that FB would no longer open. So it's been less than 24 hours. Bizarre! Any help would be super appreciated.
Try plain http without the s? I know it's not ideal, but it will narrow down the problem to something SSL related or not.
posted by tckma at 8:36 AM on July 1, 2014
posted by tckma at 8:36 AM on July 1, 2014
Response by poster: tckma - Using http (no s) redirects me to https and then gives me the same error message.
posted by rubadub at 8:37 AM on July 1, 2014
posted by rubadub at 8:37 AM on July 1, 2014
I'm not a Mac guy, so I'm not about to give advice, but... lots of other people seem to have this problem.
posted by alex1965 at 8:40 AM on July 1, 2014
posted by alex1965 at 8:40 AM on July 1, 2014
I'm totally guessing, but Apple does a lot of complicated things with SSL certificates and revocation. Have you updated your Mac lately? Updating may help. Or maybe an update broke it. And parts of MacOS update certificates without your control (ocspd, for revocation lists).
I'm using Safari 7.0.5 on MacOS 10.9.4 and it's working for me right now. This is the certificate I'm getting from Facebook, serial number 02 01 48 91 5D FD 5E B6 E0 02 90 A9 67 B0 E4 64. That's not enough info to solve your problem but it may help diagnose it.
posted by Nelson at 8:51 AM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm using Safari 7.0.5 on MacOS 10.9.4 and it's working for me right now. This is the certificate I'm getting from Facebook, serial number 02 01 48 91 5D FD 5E B6 E0 02 90 A9 67 B0 E4 64. That's not enough info to solve your problem but it may help diagnose it.
posted by Nelson at 8:51 AM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: alex1965 - I googled and tried anything relevant from the first 2 pages of results before posting here.
Nelson - haven't updated OS lately, have had this one for about 15 months, it was installed when I bought it. Haven't uploaded to Mavericks and don't want to do that unless it's definitely a fix for this problem (it seems so specific and weird that updating the whole OS seems like overkill somehow.)
The cert I'm showing in Chrome for Facebook matches the S/N of the one you sent me. Maybe I can clear the cert in Safari?
One more data point - an older Mac Pro (2009) we have on the network also won't load Facebook. Same "secure connection" error.
posted by rubadub at 9:01 AM on July 1, 2014
Nelson - haven't updated OS lately, have had this one for about 15 months, it was installed when I bought it. Haven't uploaded to Mavericks and don't want to do that unless it's definitely a fix for this problem (it seems so specific and weird that updating the whole OS seems like overkill somehow.)
The cert I'm showing in Chrome for Facebook matches the S/N of the one you sent me. Maybe I can clear the cert in Safari?
One more data point - an older Mac Pro (2009) we have on the network also won't load Facebook. Same "secure connection" error.
posted by rubadub at 9:01 AM on July 1, 2014
Response by poster: Also, weirdly, I can access graph.facebook.com but not facebook.com.
posted by rubadub at 9:10 AM on July 1, 2014
posted by rubadub at 9:10 AM on July 1, 2014
Best answer: 10.8.3 isn't even the most recent 10.8 release. You really should patch up to 10.8.5 and the latest Safari for that platform before spending any more time debugging this.
My guess is that it's not the SSL cert (which hasn't changed since last Sept) but the SSL ciphers Facebook is now presenting.
posted by sbutler at 9:24 AM on July 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
My guess is that it's not the SSL cert (which hasn't changed since last Sept) but the SSL ciphers Facebook is now presenting.
posted by sbutler at 9:24 AM on July 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I'll run the update to 10.8.5 if I can't find a specific solution to this, sbutler - thanks for the suggestion.
posted by rubadub at 9:45 AM on July 1, 2014
posted by rubadub at 9:45 AM on July 1, 2014
I wouldn't recommend surfing the net with a browser that's more than a year old. There's been at least eight security updates to Safari 6 since 6.0.3, including many fixes for potential remote code execution exploits.
I can access graph.facebook.com but not facebook.com
http://graph.facebook.com or https://graph.facebook.com? The former doesn't use any certificate, the second the same as facebook.com.
(facebook.com turned on https by default about a year ago, but the graph server doesn't redirect, it just tells you to get a proper access token.)
posted by effbot at 3:01 PM on July 1, 2014
I can access graph.facebook.com but not facebook.com
http://graph.facebook.com or https://graph.facebook.com? The former doesn't use any certificate, the second the same as facebook.com.
(facebook.com turned on https by default about a year ago, but the graph server doesn't redirect, it just tells you to get a proper access token.)
posted by effbot at 3:01 PM on July 1, 2014
Response by poster: sbutler, you solved my problem. Downloaded the update and installed it, and FB loads fine in Safari. Thanks!!!
posted by rubadub at 3:15 PM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by rubadub at 3:15 PM on July 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rubadub at 8:29 AM on July 1, 2014