This started occurring on my home PC (Windows10) on Friday 8 June 2018. When I fired up FirefoxPortable from my USB drive platform, and it opened my home tabs (office.com, google.com, wikipedia.org, and wiktionary.org), I saw the same result on each tab: "The owner of X has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website. The site uses HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to specify that Firefox may only connect to it securely. As a result, it is not possible to add an exception for this certificate."
Well, that would seem to be a total bullshit message. Microsoft, Google, and Wikipedia/Wiktionary have all configured their sites improperly? I don't think so. I tried going to Mozilla.org to see what information I could find on the error, but I got the same result there, too! So, here's what I've tried:
I deleted my profile folder under the Data folder and restored it from a backup taken a few days prior to this error. No change in behavior.
I uninstalled FirefoxPortable, downloaded the latest from PortableApps.com, and installed it anew. I.e. I had a nice, fresh, empty profile. Started FirefoxPortable. No change in behavior; still getting error.
I uninstalled FirefoxPortable again, downloaded again, installed again, and ran again. No change in behavior.
Now, this is where it gets super annoying. I have an install of PortableApps on my home PC's C: drive with several useful utility style apps installed underneath. I added FirefoxPortable to this install. Ran this Firefox. and no problem whatsoever.
It gets more annoying. I plugged in my USB at work, ran PortableApps, and ran FirefoxPortable. No problem, pages opened just fine.
So, this is only happening when I run FirefoxPortable from my USB drive when it is plugged into my home PC running Windows 10. But, if my home PC or its OS was the problem, then why would an install on the C: drive on that machine work without a hitch. If someone can help me resolve this, it would be greatly appreciated.
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This can occur when Firefox is unable to access part of its security components. It is generally due to either drive corruption or permissions issues on the removable drive. Ensure that the entire drive has 'Everyone' set for 'Full Access' and that you never run PAF installers as admin.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'm pretty sure I hadn't run the installer as admin; I'm not even sure I knew that was possible for a portable app, as I always use the Install a New App option; but, to make sure, I uninstalled and installed again via the PA platform. No luck with that. I also checked the permissions on the drive, and Everyone has Full control.
How would I rule out drive corruption? Is there any testing app that would read the entire drive and check for such corruption? I'm not very savvy when it comes to flash drives; does Windows mark sectors (if that word even applies) as bad, so as not to reuse them?
I saw something online the other day that suggested it might be due to an anti-virus program's placement of a certificate into Firefox's certificate store; but, that doesn't seem to make much sense to me, though perhaps it's relevant. I haven't had time yet to work with the suggestions in that post (here at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSU...). Do anti-virus apps store certificates in some sort of Firefox store? What file would that be?
Thanks for your help with this.
Not sure if this will resolve your issue or not, but from within the PortableApps platform, select HELP, and inside there is an option to "Check Drive for Errors". I've never used it myself, so I can't say how effective it is at finding them. Good luck!
Install a copy of Firefox Portable to your Desktop directory and run it from there. If it works, it's the drive. If it doesn't, something on the PC is interfering.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!