Zotero seems to ignore "cert_override.txt" (WebDAV sync)

almerillat

Hello everyone. I'm trying to get Webdav File Sync with my Synology NAS working (from Zotero standalone on MacOS 11.6, M1 MacBook Air). It works with plain http, but when I try to set https up, I get the error "SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER", which is to be expected as I use a self-signed certificate.

I followed the instructions of https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/cert_override. To be sure to use a clean cert_override.txt file, I setup a new firefox profile and copied cert_override from it after visiting my NAS (both on port 443 and 5006 - WebDAV port). I put the certificate in /Users//Library/Application Support/Zotero/Profiles/xyz.default. Despite this, the error remains.

WebDAV works in other apps without any problem. The same problem appears with Zotero on my other laptop with linux mint.

Is this a bug? What could I be doing wrong?

dstillman

Did you create the file with Firefox 60 ESR or with a current version of Firefox? It's possible the format of the override file changed in recent versions. (You should create the file in Firefox 60 ESR on Linux, because Firefox 60 won't run properly on macOS 11.6. You can just download the Fx60 ESR tarball and run that with a new profile.)

almerillat

That indeed did the trick! I installed Firefox 60 ESR using your link (in my case on an old macbook with macos 10.14 Mojave) and copied the cert_override from that machine. Afterward, it worked like a charm. A few remarks for anyone in my situation:

- Firefox automatically search for updates unless the user manually changes the settings. That means that you should run your Firefox 60 ESR without active internet connection at first setup and disable automatic updates to keep version 60 ESR.
- But you might not even need this: the only difference in cert_override seems to be that in version 60 ESR, it uses the format 192.168.xxx.xxx:1234 with 1234 the port and 192.168.xxx.xxx the ip of your server. With current version, it uses the format 192.168.xxx.xxx:1234: with the final colon. Removing the final colon in a cert_override.txt from a current firefox and using that file in Zotero solved the problem in Zotero.

Not sure if I missed that, but maybe providing an example of how a cert_override.txt should look like in the KB could help people track this kind of errors?

dstillman

Great — KB page updated. Thanks!

almerillat

Hello again: I recently changed my WebDAV server and had to add a new certificate. I used the last version of FF to create cert_override.txt.

FF keeps changing the way informations are coded in cert_override.txt every few versions. I would really advise to give a preferred firefox version for creating a cert_override.txt compatible with Zotero in the KB. Otherwise, thank for the awesome documentation!