ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR in chrome 39 and 40 but works in chrome 36.Help fix in chrome 39

Question

I am able to access a URL in Chrome 36 and IE8 but in Chrome 39 or 40 or Firefox 35 it throws the error:

Unable to make a secure connection to the server. This may be a problem with the server, or it may be requiring a client authentication certificate that you don't have.

Error code: ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR}.

It seems that it is an issue related to the SSL certificate. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

Google announced that they would begin removing support for SHA-1 cryptographic hash algorithm beginning with Chrome 39. According to Google:

HTTPS sites whose certificate chains use SHA-1 and are valid past 1 January 2017 will no longer appear to be fully trustworthy in Chrome’s user interface.

There are several sites which can provide detailed analysis of your SSL certificate chain, such as Qualys SSL Labs' SSL Test.

Google Chrome does have a highly risky command-line option --ignore-certificate-errors which might bypass certain certificate errors. Be aware that ignoring certificate errors puts all of your SSL traffic at risk of being eavesdropped on.

It's also possible that this is a new bug. Google switched from using OpenSSL library to it's own "BoringSSL" library in Chrome 38. To report a bug in Chrome visit chrome://help/ and click "Report an issue".

Answer 2

Try this. In Chrome, enter "chrome://flags/#enable-quic" without the quotes as a URL. CTRL + F to search for "quic", at which point you'll find...

Experimental QUIC protocol. Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android Enable experimental QUIC protocol support. #enable-quic

Turn that to disabled, and let it restart your browser when prompted below.