16-Bit Internet Explorer 3.03 Cannot View Security Certificates
Article ID: 187791
Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.03 for Windows NT 3.51
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.1
This article was previously published under Q187791
SYMPTOMS
When you are running the 16-bit version of Internet Explorer 3.03, you may
not be able to connect to a secure (HTTPS) Web site. In particular, this
problem may occur if you are connecting to a Server Gated Crypto (SGC) Web
server using a newly installed security certificate. You may receive the
following error message:
The Internet site you are trying to view uses a security certificate
that was signed by an unknown authority. This page cannot be viewed.
CAUSE
This problem occurs because the Web server is sending a chain of
certificates but the 16-bit Internet Explorer 3.03 secure connection file
does not support certificate chaining. Internet Explorer tries to validate
the leaf certificate (which is not a root certificate) and finds that the
certificate issuer is not trusted. This validation returns an "unknown
issuer" message to Internet Explorer 3.03, which then terminates the
connection.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Internet
Explorer version 3.03 for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51.
The 16-bit version Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.03 Service Pack 1 now has
an option to recover when you receive the invalid site certificate error
message. To obtain this additional functionality, download this Service
Pack from the following Microsoft Web site:
Keywords: kbenv kbprb KB187791