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Old Sep 24, 2011 | 10:34 pm
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Firefox Breakdown Due to Security Certificate

All of a sudden, I'm having a problem with my browser of choice, Firefox. This doesn't affect Safari or the computer's hard drive. Some security certificate has just expired (sec_error_expired_certificate), causing a drop-down box to appear that I can't rid of, even when rebooting the computer. Not only that, but I can't move around the page and the top level navigation choices (File, Edit, etc.) have disappeared. Help!
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 7:40 am
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This sounds more like a malware issue than a Firefox one. Firefox wouldn't spontaneously make menu bars disappear, for example. It would just show the certificate error in place of the web page you requested.
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 8:39 am
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
This sounds more like a malware issue than a Firefox one. Firefox wouldn't spontaneously make menu bars disappear, for example. It would just show the certificate error in place of the web page you requested.
That's what I figured. Since only Firefox seems to be infected, would de-installing and re-installing Firefox on the same computer possibly solve the problem?
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 8:45 am
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I don't think this is something that can be diagnosed remotely, without even seeing a screenshot.

My advice to the OP would be to get an IT specialist to look at their machine - rather than rely on wild guesses posted to an online travel forum.
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 8:51 am
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This could be related to the recent certificate expiration of 'freecause' which is the search engine many air lines use in their 'tool bars' I received a similar warning and had to disable the tool bar for a few hours while freecause updated their cert.
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 10:26 am
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Originally Posted by Aviatrix
I don't think this is something that can be diagnosed remotely, without even seeing a screenshot.

My advice to the OP would be to get an IT specialist to look at their machine - rather than rely on wild guesses posted to an online travel forum.
Believe it or not, there are in fact quite a few "IT specialist's" in this very forum...

Regards
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 10:29 am
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Originally Posted by scubadu
Believe it or not, there are in fact quite a few "IT specialist's" in this very forum...

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I have no doubt about that... but I doubt that a real IT specialist would try to analyse a problem remotely, with just a vague description and not even as much as a screenshot.
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 12:02 pm
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Originally Posted by scubadu
Believe it or not, there are in fact quite a few "IT specialist's" in this very forum...

Regards
Yeah, but we aren't going to get very far with such a vague description. Post a screenshot!
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Old Sep 25, 2011 | 10:45 pm
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Someone PM'd me with the correct diagnosis:

<Your Firefox problem is caused by a Freecause toolbar. First, change your system's date to September 22nd. Then open Firefox, uninstall the toolbar, and change the date back.>

The problem toolbar was probably the U.S. Airways Dividend Miles number that I downloaded to get a hit in their Grand Slam. Thanks a lot, US!
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 1:22 am
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Originally Posted by Explore
Someone PM'd me with the correct diagnosis:

<Your Firefox problem is caused by a Freecause toolbar. First, change your system's date to September 22nd. Then open Firefox, uninstall the toolbar, and change the date back.>

The problem toolbar was probably the U.S. Airways Dividend Miles number that I downloaded to get a hit in their Grand Slam. Thanks a lot, US!
Yeah, I have a problem on Firefox and it's won't working too well. I have been trying to get on firefox a several times. I need your help try to fixes the firefox for me. I am not sure to whether that is something gone wrong the Firefox.
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 10:44 am
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Originally Posted by Aviatrix
I have no doubt about that... but I doubt that a real IT specialist would try to analyse a problem remotely, with just a vague description and not even as much as a screenshot.
Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
Yeah, but we aren't going to get very far with such a vague description. Post a screenshot!
Actually, it appears we got quite far indeed. These are not rocket science problems...

Regards

Originally Posted by Explore
Someone PM'd me with the correct diagnosis:

<Your Firefox problem is caused by a Freecause toolbar. First, change your system's date to September 22nd. Then open Firefox, uninstall the toolbar, and change the date back.>

The problem toolbar was probably the U.S. Airways Dividend Miles number that I downloaded to get a hit in their Grand Slam. Thanks a lot, US!
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 10:52 am
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Originally Posted by scubadu
Actually, it appears we got quite far indeed. These are not rocket science problems...

Regards
Only because it was recognized to match a known issue.
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 12:25 pm
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Download Malwarebytes and run it immediately. If it is not malware, it won't hurt anything. If it is, it may catch it before more malware infects other programs.

Do a full scan, and if it finds anything, run it a second time. If Malwarebytes won't install for you, you probably already have an infection. I ran into that on one machine, where the malware is smart enough to disable malwarebytes. Changing the filename to a .bat from .exe in turn fooled the infecting program.
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 3:41 pm
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Originally Posted by Loren Pechtel
Only because it was recognized to match a known issue.
So, of course, fixing it doesn't count.....
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Old Sep 26, 2011 | 8:27 pm
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Originally Posted by CPRich
So, of course, fixing it doesn't count.....
The information provided wasn't anything like enough to actually solve the problem. That's very different than being able to recognize that the problem is likely the same as one that others solved with far more information.
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