SSL error : “Unknown authority” on accessing a secure webpage

Issue :

Why is that when I try to access a secure web page on your server my browser shows an error message saying something about an “unknown authority”, and won’t load the page.

Fix :

When SSL is installed and if you are still getting warning messages like “Unknown authority”, then the problem could be because of some directives missing in httpd.conf.

1)Check the configuration file – httpd.conf for the missing directives
vi /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Check for the following three directives in the Virtual Host entry for the
domain(avibird.com) in httpd.conf for port 443.

SSLCertificateFile /usr/share/ssl/certs/avibird.com.crt (This is for
certificate)
SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/share/ssl/private/avibird.com.key ( This is for
key)
SSLCACertificateFile /usr/share/ssl/certs/ca_new.txt (This is the ca bundle
file)

If “SSLCACertificateFile” directive is not present then the given warning will
be shown. Add the missing entries in httpd.conf and save the configuration
file.

2) Test the configuration file – httpd.conf

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl configtest

Restart the Apache server
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd stop/startssl

IMPORTANT
=========
The above solution will work only provided the following 3 files are present
/usr/share/ssl/certs/avibird.com.crt ( for certificate)
/usr/share/ssl/private/avibird.com.key ( for key)
/usr/share/ssl/certs/ca_new.txt ( bundle file)

If the above files are not present, you need to install the SSL cert again
WHM