letsencrypt and cert errors on my PC.

[maccas]

Hi, firstly not sure if this is the right forum so feel free to move. Anyway since yesterday I noticed a lot of websites start giving me "Your connection is not private" messages in both brave and chrome, it was pulling my hair out. So did some research and tried all the suggestions. Nothing worked. I then started looking at the certs that were giving me this and they were all letsencrypt (webmaster world also gives me this and says this site is not secure), I also came to this - [letsencrypt.org...] . I updated chrome and still the error, same with brave but a fresh install of firefox works, no cert errors on any sites using letscrypt. Any ideas of what do do? Surely I cannot be the only one?

[Kendo]

I think that LetsEncrypt need to be renewed every 3 months. Could that be the reason?

[maccas]

Update, anyone using windows 7 and brave or chrome cannot access sites using Lets Encrypt, unless you press advanced and proceed.

[lucy24]

anyone using windows 7 and brave or chrome

You mean, (operating system Windows 7) AND (browser Brave OR Chrome)? That puts me in mind of the reason I finally had to abandon the Camino browser, many years after its official demise: it could no longer update its stored certificates and was insisting everything was insecure.

Given that the End of Life for Windows 7 was officially in January 2020 (i.e. 21 months ago), that makes sense.

[NickMNS]

Given that the End of Life for Windows 7 was officially in January 2020 (i.e. 21 months ago), that makes sense.

It makes sense but it is not true. I have a windows 7 box and my sites use Let's Encrypt and I have no issues.

Use SSL labs to see what the problem is:
[ssllabs.com...]

[Dimitri]

[scotthelme.co.uk...]
[techcrunch.com...]
[letsencrypt.org...]

[edited by: Dimitri at 5:46 pm (utc) on Oct 2, 2021]

[NickMNS]

Very interesting articles Dimitri, this clarifies things.

Also, nice to see that you are still lurking!

[lucy24]

On 30th September 2021

That definitely explains it :)

For future reference: Does this kind of thing mean “30 September” according to the date in whatever computer is currently accessing a Let's Encrypt site? So people in Australia and East Asia would be affected first, then slowly creeping around the globe until it reaches the western US. Or does it mean 30 September UTC, or 30 September on Let's Encrypt's servers, wherever they might happen to be located?

[phranque]

according to the "Not After:" field in the certificate:

14:01:15 GMT

[maccas]

Seems it is only windows 7 that are missing a update - this solves it [community.letsencrypt.org...] for those running windows 7 without that particular update.

[tangor]

Happy endings are always welcome ... but if this error is limited to Win 7 that exhibits the older stuff will eventually no longer work on the net. Will this revelation promote more users to move to Win 10? Or forget that and move to Linux? Only time will tell.