NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

The browser doesn’t trust the certificate’s issuer — either the chain is incomplete, the CA is private, or the certificate is self-signed.

Common causes

  • A missing intermediate certificate breaks the path to a trusted root.
  • The certificate is issued by a private/internal CA not in the trust store.
  • The certificate is self-signed.

How to fix it

  1. 1

    Check what chain the server actually sends:

    openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -servername example.com -showcerts </dev/null
  2. 2

    If an intermediate is missing, serve the full chain (see UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE).

  3. 3

    If it’s a private CA used intentionally, distribute that CA’s root to clients.

Catch these before your users do

SSLNudge detects NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID and expiry issues daily and alerts you.

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