783757 - cert expired/not-yet-valid error page: Make current system time always visible (not just under the Advanced section)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Security: UI, enhancement)

Description

[Kai Engert (:KaiE:)]

When reporting to the user in an error message, that a site's certificate has expired (or is not yet valid), one cause could be an incorrect system time.

The proposal is to include more information on the error page.

We should show the current system (which was used for making the decision about the invalidity), and a reminder to the user to check whether the system time is correct.

(thanks to Ryan Sleevi for the suggestion)

Comment 1

[Brian Smith (:briansmith, :bsmith, use NEEDINFO?)]

Attachment: Chrome's expired certificate UI screenshot

The chrome error page does a good job of suggesting to the user that they may need to change the time on their computer/device to fix the problem. However, the chrome error message text is too long, so a user probably won't read it.

Comment 2

[Brian Smith (:briansmith, :bsmith, use NEEDINFO?)]

We can actually be smarter about knowing whether the system time is wrong; see bug 797676. So, we may be able to do more than just show the current time prominently in the error page. But, perhaps that more sophisticated processing should be done in another bug.

Comment 3

[Kai Engert (:KaiE:)]

Always showing the assumed system time cannot hurt, even if there are edge cases where you can draw conclusions about its correct setting.

Comment 5

[Brian Smith (:briansmith, :bsmith, use NEEDINFO?)]

(In reply to Kai Engert (:kaie) from comment #3)
> Always showing the assumed system time cannot hurt, even if there are edge
> cases where you can draw conclusions about its correct setting.

Agreed.

Comment 6

[:Cykesiopka]

The "Advanced" section of the relevant error page (about:certerror / aboutCertError.xhtml) has listed the current system time since Bug 436043 was fixed in 2009.

As such, I'm going to assume that this bug is actually suggesting that the current system time should be shown in the always visible main section.

If this is incorrect, please update the bug to describe exactly what is being proposed.

Comment 7

[Dana Keeler (she/her) (use needinfo) [:keeler] (on leave)]

With the recent redesign, the only way to actually add a certificate exception override is to open the advanced panel, which is where the actual error ("expired certificate") and the current time are shown.