SSL certificates are the basis of secure communications over the Internet. Most websites and applications require a valid SSL certificate from a trusted authority. SSL certificates are essential to ensuring the security of data transmitted between the web server and browser. They are usually issued by third parties who provide them at no cost. The validity period of these certificates varies depending on the type of certificate.
Unfortunately, suppose the name of your certificate does not match your site’s domain name. In that case, you will get a warning message from browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. This can be a severe issue as it damages site ranking and visitors’ trust. This article shows you how to fix the problem with ease.
The error occurs because the hostname of your certificate does not correspond to your website’s domain name. In other words, the name of your certificate is not the same as your website name.
Reason SSL Certificate Name Error Issue
When you browse any website URL, at the box where the website link is present, it shows the secure connection in Chrome and other browsers. This is the easiest way to check whether this website has a safe URL or not. If it’s safe, it will show a secure connection after confirming the presence of a valid SSL certificate. SSL certificates contain information about a particular domain’s owner and the certificate’s validity period.
A certificate is valid if it contains the correct public key for the domain name it claims to represent. Suppose the server cannot verify the SSL certificate due to a mismatched name. In that case, users will see an error message indicating that the connection cannot be established because of security issues. This often happens when someone tries to hack your site, which is not a minor threat. Try to build security more strongly and fix this problem by following the next solution.
How to Fix Invalid SSL Certificate Name Error
First, you need to find the actual reasons for the error. You can use online tools or hire an expert to help you search for the real reasons for encountering that mismatched name error. After getting recommendations from tools, you can make an authentic purchase of an SSL certificate to avoid any problems. Do the following things to solve this mismatch error of the SSL certificate.
1. Add an Intermediate Certificate to Your Website Server
If the problem is that you don” t trust your Certificate Authority (CA), then you will need to install an intermediate certificate on your web server. An Intermediate Certificate allows browsers to verify that the website is appropriately secure. The browser will display a warning message if the website doesn’t have Certificate authority. You may also see a message that says, “This site” s identity could not be verified because the issuer of the SSL/TLS certificate is unknown.
2. Update all URLs to HTTPS
Identify the insecure elements in your website pages using any online diagnostic tools. Once you get the recommendation of mixed content, change the source code of the pages and update all URLs to HTTPS.
3. Renewal Of your SSL Certificate
If your website uses SSL, you should check if your certificate has expired. The results page shows whether your site is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks and what steps you can take to protect yourself. You can fix an error message by generating a new CSR and sending it to your CA if you see an error message. If you’d like to automate this process, you can either generate a CSR programmatically or use a commercial tool.
If you are facing such issues, try to fix them immediately by using these solutions. Otherwise, you face significant damage to your site ranking and credibility.
