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220-1102 · Question #434

A technician receives an invalid certificate error when visiting a website. Other workstations on the same local network are unable to replicate this issue. Which of the following is most likely…

The correct answer is A. Date and time. An invalid certificate error on a single workstation, while others on the same network are unaffected, strongly suggests an issue with the local system's date and time settings. Certificates have validity periods that are checked against the system clock.

Security

Question

A technician receives an invalid certificate error when visiting a website. Other workstations on the same local network are unable to replicate this issue. Which of the following is most likely causing the issue?

Options

  • ADate and time
  • BUser access control
  • CUEFI boot mode
  • DLog-on times

How the community answered

(59 responses)
  • A
    78% (46)
  • B
    7% (4)
  • C
    3% (2)
  • D
    12% (7)

Why each option

An invalid certificate error on a single workstation, while others on the same network are unaffected, strongly suggests an issue with the local system's date and time settings. Certificates have validity periods that are checked against the system clock.

ADate and timeCorrect

Digital certificates have validity periods, and if a workstation's date and time are significantly out of sync with the actual time or fall outside the certificate's validity window, the browser will report an invalid certificate error. Since other machines work correctly, this points to a local system clock issue.

BUser access control

User Access Control (UAC) manages application permissions and elevated privileges, not certificate validation or system time synchronization.

CUEFI boot mode

UEFI boot mode is a firmware interface and does not impact how web browsers validate SSL/TLS certificates.

DLog-on times

Log-on times restrict when a user can access a system, which is unrelated to certificate validation errors encountered when visiting websites.

Concept tested: SSL/TLS certificate validation and system clock

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winauto/set-systemtime

Topics

#Certificate validation#System clock#Troubleshooting security#SSL/TLS errors

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