How to Fix “sec_error_ocsp_invalid_signing_cert” Error in Hotmail?

One of the most annoying issues that you may experience in your Hotmail account is the error that reads “Sec_Error_Ocsp_Invalid_Signing_Cert”. You will generally see this error when trying to access your Hotmail account. While some suggest it to be a temporary error that occurs with Hotmail and Bing, it is also considered by some to be a misconfiguration of a security feature by Microsoft that mainly affects users who use Mozilla Firefox to access their Hotmail account. If you are facing this issue with your Hotmail account, you can consider fixing it by following the information provided below.

Guide to Fix “Sec_Error_Ocsp_Invalid_Signing_Cert in Hotmail

When you need to access Hotmail (now Outlook), OneDrive, or any other Microsoft online services, you are asked to login to live.com. While the users who use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer are most likely to get directed to the login page to access the desired Microsoft service, however, if you are using Mozilla Firefox, you may see the following error page when entering the URL live.com in the address bar of your Firefox browser.

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to outlook.live.com. Invalid OCSP signing certificate in OCSP response. Error code: SEC_ERROR_OCSP_INVALID_SIGNING_CERT

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.

Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

Misconfigure Security Feature (OCSP Stapling)

If you are seeing this error in your Firefox browser when trying to access your Hotmail account, the reason for it is most likely to be the misconfiguration of security features at the Microsoft’s end. The Microsoft has unintentionally misconfigured a security feature (OCSP stapling) on their servers, which is makes the Mozilla Firefox browser to send you an expired assurance about the validity of their certificate.

If this could be the reason in your case, you can consider following the instructions provided below.

1. Open Firefox web browser on your computer and enter about:config into the address bar. If prompted, you may need to configure the info message. Doing so will open a page on your browser’s window.
2. Once the page gets opened on your browser’s window, you will need to search for the preference named ssl.enable_ocsp_stapling.
3. Next, you will need to double-click on it and the value of it to
4. Changing the value to falsewill degrade a security feature in Firefox.
5. Make sure to revisit here when Microsoft fixes the cause at their end to undo the change you made.

Use Any Other Web Browser

In case even after following the above-mentioned instructions,you are still seeing the “Error code: SEC_ERROR_OCSP_INVALID_SIGNING_CERT” when accessing your Hotmail account, it is recommended to consider changing your web browser. Instead of using Mozilla Firefox to access your Hotmail account, you can choose browsers like Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari. As the Firefox browser users face this error, switching to some other browser should help you overcome the problem.

NOTE: Google Chrome can be a good option to use instead of Mozilla Firefox to access your Hotmail account as Chrome discontinued OSCP (not Stapling) sometimes back. So, you are most likely to not face the error in your Chrome browser.

Though it is not an actual cause of the error, however, not to leave any chances, it would be best to also keep your browser up to date. Also, it is suggested to clear the cache and cookies from your browser if by any chance you face the error in your browser (including Firefox). Below are the steps to clear cache for popular browsers like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

For Mozilla Firefox

• Click on the Menu button in your Firefox browser.
• Next, select the “Options…” option and click on the “Privacy & Security” panel.
• Then, selectthe Clear Data option from the Cookies and Site Data
• After that, select the checkbox next to the Cached Web Content
• Then, press the Clear button and close the about:preferences

Clearing Cache from Apple Safari

• In theHistorysection of your Apple Safari web browser, click on the Clear History
• Next, select the particular time range for which you wish to clear your browsing history.
• Then, simply remove the cache for your Safari browser.

Clearing Cache from Google Chrome

• Click on theMore icon (three vertical dots) located on the top-right corner of your chrome browser window.
• Next, select theMoretools option and click on the Clear browsing data
• Then, choose the preferredtime range from the top to clearthe cache for a particular duration. If you wish to delete everything,select theAll-time
• After that, select the checkbox next to “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files” option.
• Then,click onthe Clear data option to remove the cache and cookies.

For Microsoft Edge

• Open the Microsoft Edge browser and click on thethree dots icon located on the top-right corner.
• Next, you will need to select the History option from the menu and select the Clear history
• Then, select the checkbox next to Cached data and files and Cookies and saved website data
• Then, simply click on the Clear button to remove the cache for your Edge browser.

After that, simply follow the on-screen prompts to remove the caches from your Safari web browser.