Comments on: firefox — can't connect securely … security protocol not enabled

By: pink_life

pink_life — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:02:12 +0000

hi! thanks for the help! =) i did what you told me and now my thunderbird is ok. i only enabled the security.ssl3.rsa_rc4_40_md5. i don't really know what caused it to be disabled but im glad its working now! thanks again!

By: Kamil

Kamil — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:12:52 +0000

hi there! the same solution applies also to thunderbird! to access the config editor go to:

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor…

from there type in ssl into the filter and enable the security protocol you need. now, I know that unfortunately the error message is not very descriptive and it does not tell you exactly which protocol isn't enabled… so you will have to try enabling different ones to see which one works for you. as a starting point enable security.ssl3.rsa_rc4_40_md5 and if that does not work then try other ones untill you find the one your mail server uses.

ohh and please post back what worked for you, cheers

By: pink_life

pink_life — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:33:46 +0000

hi! i've got the "thunderbird can't connect securely to …because the site uses a security protocol which isn't enabled." error. can i apply the same solutions? pls help…thanks! =)

By: UNIX Guru

UNIX Guru — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:54:09 +0000

Thanks much for this entry. I was going nuts trying to connect to an IBM AIX server's HCM port. Enabling rsa_null_md5 did the trick.

It sure would be nice if Firefox told you WHICH protocol it was trying to speak. I had to trial-and-error each disabled protocol until I found one that it accepted and worked properly.

By: Kamil

Kamil — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:02:27 +0000

Great, thanks for that!

By: cokex

cokex — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:36:58 +0000

Since everyone shows how to fix the client, I thought I'd show how to fix the server ..

Here is the server fix .. the issue is with the cipher string in httpd.conf not allowing enough protocols..

:: SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
:: #SSLCipherSuite "RSA:-HIGH:-MEDIUM:-LOW:+EXP"

The commented out line is the default that was in the .conf file, the new line adds a few more cipher strings and allows the client to communicate with the server correctly.

This works for me, and I didn't really dig into the security of it, so have fun ..