Apparently this occurs when Firefox has problems with security certificates. There have been a few questions about this. I will try to get advice about this.

Apparently you are using Internet Explorer 9 (From your system details). Do you have Google Updater plugin installed on Firefox ? (That been implicated in this sort of problem by one poster, and some users with the problem do have Google Updater, but some do not)

HI JOHN: TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, YES, I DO HAVE GOOGLE UPDATER. SHOULD I DISABLE IT, DO YOU THINK? I'M ONLY CONCERNED WITH ANY POTENTIAL SECURITY ISSUES WITH FIREFOX--I DON'T CARE ABOUT GOOGLE UPDATER, AND WASN'T EVEN REALLY AWARE THAT I HAD THAT (I DO USE GMAIL--SO, I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S HOW AND/OR WHY GOOGLE UPDATER IS A PLUGIN.

Hi agseeker,

This message you see is indicating a potential security problem. Also if Firefox is not updating

• something already has gone wrong
• future security upgrades are going to be missed

I can not be certain Google Updater is involved with this problem. I did a quick and simple test myself and was able to upgrade a copy of Firefox4 to Firefox 4.0.1 with google updater plugins installed. Note Firefox 4.0 is not the latest version; I am using a 5.0a2 myself at the moment, but the standard release is 4.0.1.

Apparently the Google Updater installs when you install certain packs of software from Google.

Are you trying to upgrade Firefox from firefox's own menu or from GoogleUpdater ?

Are you able to do any procedure that you know will produce the error message, eg by attempting to upgrade firefox

Hi John: Thank you very much for informing me about the latest Firefox update. I thought I already had the latest version, because when I had previously checked in the "About" tab in the Firefox menu (each time I had gotten the Firefox "Update Failed" error message), even though it said in the "About" tab that I had version 4.0, "it also" stated that my Firefox version was up to date. That's why I had thought my Firefox 4.0 version was the most up-to-date version. So now I'm wondering why Firefox was saying 4.0 was up to date in the "About" tab, when it wasn't. Do you know why?? But at least that makes partial sense why I was getting the error message that the Firefox update failed, which message was popping up on my screen during the automatic update attempts. I just went onto the Mozilla Web site and manually updated to version 4.0.1. So, I'm fine now in that respect. I didn't get any error message when I manually updated Firefox by going to the Mozilla Web site. But, if possible, I should try and find out why the "automatic" updates had previously failed, and how I can correct that--which will be important, since the Firefox "About" tab was telling me that 4.0 was up to date. As a side note, in my plugins, I disabled the Microsoft.NET Framework Assistant plugin. I read in a forum how that plugin (which installs itself without permission) presents a security risk in Firefox; so I went ahead and disabled it. There wasn't an option to "Remove" it in my plugins--only to "Disable" it. I hope "disabling" it is the same thing as "removing" it. Is it the same thing, John? And do you think that plugin was perhaps causing the automatic Firefox updates to fail, and/or if it was somehow causing the error message I originally posted: "Something is trying to trick Firefox into accepting an insecure update." Well, I'll monitor things from this point on to see if I continue to get that error message again. When I got that error message before, as I recall I was just typing in a "Works" document, and not trying to update Firefox, since I'm set up to get the automatic updates. (Thank you very much, John, for replying to my posts; I appreciate your help.)

Did you normally try using the Google updater directly to update Firefox ?

I did install firefox 4.0 myself and with google Updater installed that would still upgrade to firefox 4.0.1 but I will have to reinstall fx4.0 again to try out Google updater direct.

The firefox NET framework assistant is probably an indication that you have The MS Net Framework software installed on your computer, check from your Vista OS what you have installed. The Net framework software, which comes in several versions, may well be required by other programs on your computer. The .Net Framework assistant extension has previously caused problems in firefox. It is certainly seem worth testing trying to reproduce the problem with NET framework enabled and disabled.

Hi John: In answer to your question; "Did you normally try using the Google Updater directly to update Firefox?" No, I have never normally tried to use Google Updater directly to update Firefox. Because within Firefox, under the "Advanced" tab, I have the option selected that says, "Automatically download and install the update." So previously, I had been getting "automatic" alerts on my screen from Firefox, that said Firefox had an update, and then the update was automatically downloaded and installed--and I just had to restart Firefox to complete the process. And that had always worked perfectly for me in the past, ever since I have had Firefox---except for this last update from 4.0 to 4.0.1, which is the first time on three attempts from Firefox trying to automatically update, that I got error messages saying that the update failed. And then after that, on another attempt from Firefox to update, I got that one error message from Firefox that said, "Something is trying to trick Firefox into accepting an insecure update. Please contact your network provider and seek help." So, after that, to update Firefox from 4.0 to 4.0.1, I went to the Mozilla Web site and downloaded 4.0.1. myself from that site.

I think we will have to hope that the problem is fixed at present. If you see the error message again post back in this thread. Also it would be unusual to get that message whilst not trying to update but if you do get it if you try to copy and paste the error console details they may come in useful.

Use

• keyboard Ctrl + Shif + J
• or Firefox button -> Web Developer -> Error Console

This sort of message apparently is only normally expected when you are trying to update Firefox. It would seem odd that you get the message whilst using a 'Works' document but some others have reported apparently random occurrences of this message. (So normally you would clear the error console, then try to update knowing any error messages were the result of that update attempt)

If I had this problem my concern would be that some sort of malware may be involved, but the message may then indicate any such malware is being thwarted.

Hi John: Regarding your statement, " . . . but the message may then indicate any such malware is being thwarted." Yes, I hope this is the case. I use Avast and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, and I regularly perform full scans; and nothing has been detected by either thus far. (Thank you very much for replying to my post, and thank you for all your help.) Should that last error message occur again, I will follow your suggestion to copy and paste the error console details.

Ok thanks, hope you do not have further problems.

For anyone still with this problem an open thread is /questions/815130

John: One more question: Is there anything I can do "to ensure" that I will get future Firefox "automatic" updates? I just checked, and I am still set up to receive automatic updates. But since that didn't happen for the last 4.0.1 update, what should I do?

The releases are now getting a lot more frequent. There should be no reason you should now miss them, assuming you have set it for automatic. if you run into the problem with the error messages again that should also alert you to a problem.

The releases are probably listed in several places. Subscribing to the MozDev news feed should ensure you are kept up to date https://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/feed/atom/

Thanks a lot, John, I just subscribed to MozDev news.

Hi John: I just got an error message that said, "Something is preventing Firefox from updating securely." At the time I received this error message, my computer was idle (and I was not trying to update Firefox, since I already have 4.0.1. installed.) The bottom of the error message had the Firefox Web address to go to in order to update. So, just to see what would happen, I clicked on download the update. And Firefox went through all the update and installation steps--just as if I didn't have 4.0.1. (yet I did have 4.0.1. installed). What do you make of that?? I pressed ctrl +shift+J to copy the error console details, but nothing happened. What am I supposed to do after pressing ctrl +shift+J ?

Right clicking the error messages gives the option to copy them, but that only really works when the error has occured recently, otherwise there are likely to be a lot of unrelated messages.

I note you said The bottom of the error message had the Firefox Web address to go to in order to update. did you happen to make a note of that ?

It may be worth trying to check if any unexpected changes have been made to the Firefox setup.

• use Firefox button -> Help -> troubleshooting Information
• then use the mouse to select all of the Modified Preferences folowed by Ctrl+C, to copy then Ctrl +P to paste.

Hi John: In answer to your question: "I note you said, The bottom of the error message had the Firefox Web address to go to in order to update. Did you happen to make a note of that?" Yes, I did; it was www.firefox.com

Hi agseeker, I seem to recall someone else being directed to that site and having a problem, apparently at least it is a genuine firefox site. This problem is beyond me at the moment, but I am watching other threads and a bug about it, if I notice any solution I will post back.

Did you try looking at your modified preferences listing ?

Yes, I just looked at the Modified Preferences listing. Did you want me to paste them all into this reply? There are a lot of them.

If you have a lot of print.* preferences then you can paste them first in an editor to remove the the print.* pref lines.

Curiosity more than anything else, just wondered if any could affect this. For instance may expect the app.update.cert... series of prefs to remain at the default settings.

I have the problem too, however there is no web address at the bottom of the pop-up error notification nor do I have Google Updater installed as an add-on -- although I do have the extension "Optimize Google". Under "Help", I see nothing for a button to update Firefox, but it shows I'm using 4.0. My modified preferences:

accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar 0 browser.history_expire_days.mirror 180 browser.history_expire_days_min 10 browser.places.importBookmarksHTML false browser.places.importDefaults false browser.places.leftPaneFolderId -1 browser.places.migratePostDataAnnotations false browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion 2 browser.places.updateRecentTagsUri false browser.startup.homepage http://www.cocorahs.org/Login.aspx browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20110318052756 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone rv:2.0 browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab false dom.disable_window_flip false dom.event.contextmenu.enabled false dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npcoolirisplugin.dll false dom.max_script_run_time 1800 extensions.lastAppVersion 4.0 font.minimum-size.x-western 12 font.size.fixed.x-western 14 font.size.variable.x-western 14 general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C) network.cookie.cookieBehavior 1 network.cookie.lifetimePolicy 2 network.cookie.prefsMigrated true network.http.keep-alive.timeout 30 network.http.max-connections 48 network.http.max-connections-per-server 16 network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy 16 network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 8 network.http.pipelining true network.http.pipelining.firstrequest true network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 8 network.http.proxy.pipelining true network.http.request.max-start-delay 0 network.protocol-handler.app.http C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe network.protocol-handler.app.https C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/firefox.exe network.protocol-handler.warn-external.itpc false places.database.lastMaintenance 1305162681 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages 127811 places.last_vacuum 1295835098 privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies false privacy.cpd.cookies false privacy.cpd.extensions-sessionmanager false privacy.cpd.extensions-tabmix false privacy.item.cache true privacy.item.downloads false privacy.item.formdata false privacy.item.history false privacy.item.passwords false privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage false privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs true privacy.sanitize.promptOnSanitize false privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown true security.disable_button.openCertManager false security.disable_button.openDeviceManager false security.warn_viewing_mixed false

Just in case this might be relevant, I don't *think* I ever saw this before getting dragged into some FaceBook games and that sort of makes me wonder....