Troubleshooting SSL Certificate Errors

Problem

The crawler fails to inspect your site, reporting SSL handshake blocks or certificate validation errors.

Symptoms

• Audit logs display: UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE or ERR_TLS_CERT_ALTNAME_INVALID.

Possible Causes

• Your SSL certificate has expired.
• Missing intermediate certificate authority (CA) chain certificates on your hosting server.

Resolution

1. Test your certificate chain using SSL audit tools (like Qualys SSL Labs).
2. Reinstall your certificate, making sure to append the complete CA Bundle (CABUNDLE) provided by your issuer.
3. If using Let's Encrypt, verify that the auto-renewal cron script on your server is running.