Help Desk > Network

When trying to access a secure web document(https://), I recieve a 'Certificate Name Check' error.

In addition to regular web services(http://), the IT Center provides secure web services(https://) that send/receive data over an encrypted connection to secure and protect users' data in transit. When accessing these services, your web browser may return a "Certificate Name Check" error, stating that there is an inconsistency in the site name of the web server's security certificate.

The IT Center purchases a security certificate from Thawte Consulting every year to allow customers' browsers to safely identify the IT Center web server before initiating a secure connection. This helps prevent "man-in-the-middle" attacks, where an attacker positions himself between the customer and the web server and plays "man-in-the-middle" -- masquerading himself as the web server to the customer and the customer to the web server.

When this security certificate is purchased, it has a site name associated with it. We use our most general site name, www.health.ufl.edu. However, the web server that provides services for www.health.ufl.edu also provides web services for many other websites(e.g. www.med.ufl.edu, www.nursing.ufl.edu). If you request a secure connection to one of these other sites, your browser will recognize the site certificate as valid, but stop to warn you that it is for a different site. (Otherwise, anybody willing to pay for a security certificate could go around launching man-in-the-middle attacks!) Along with the warning, your browser should display the details of the certificate presented. They should look something like this:

This Certificate belongs to:
  www.health.ufl.edu
  Health Science Center
  University of Florida
  Gainesville, FL, US

As long as the certificate is from Thawte Consulting and registered to www.health.ufl.edu, everything is normal and you should continue with your secure connnection. If the certificate is not from Thawte and/or not registered to www.health.ufl.edu, any data you submit/receive could be insecure. Please contact IT Center Customer Support. Be sure to include the URL of the web page you were trying to visit and the details of the Site Certificate you received.

Document http:// www.health.ufl.edu/itcenter/helpdesk/network/net_6.shtml