1247145 - Accidentally setting system time to the future results in hard-to-understand sec_error_ocsp_old_response error

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 712612

(Core :: Security: PSM, defect)

Description

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

STR:
  1. Set your system time 1 month into the future.
     (Assume a user running into this issue did this
     accidentally, not intentionally.)
  2. Load an HTTPS page, like https://duckduckgo.com/
     (For me, many but not all HTTPS pages trigger this issue.)

Expected results:
  The page loads successfully. Insofar as this is not possible
  due to an incorrect system time, a helpful error message that
  prompts the user to correct their system time is displayed.

Actual results:
  A hard-to-understand error message of the following form is
  printed: 

   Secure Connection Failed

   An error occurred during a connection to <site>. 
   The OCSP response contains out-of-date information. 
   (Error code: sec_error_ocsp_old_response) 

It's particularly concerning that you may not even be able to google the error message due to your inability to access HTTPS sites. (In my case, Google worked but DuckDuckGo didn't.)

Comment 1

[Richard Barnes [:rbarnes]]

Yeah, time is a challenging thing for the PKI.  Work on better UX is in Bug 712612.