COMODO SSL Intermediate Certificates

Good Afternoon,

I’m trying to install a COMODO Positive SSL certificate I have for my domain, everything went well but when I connect to my site I get an unknown authority error. A little bit of research seems to suggest that this is due to missing intermediate certificates usually found in the .ca-bundle file, which I have but can’t figure out how I’m supposed to upload! The cPanel interface will only accept the text version I got in the email, not any of the certificates in the bundle.

In the “certificate” box you should not just enter your certificate, you should also include the intermediary and CA certificates you received from Comodo. When your SSL certificate was issued, you should have received an e-mail with a zip file attached which contains the certificates.

You’ll want to create a single text file containing all the certificates in the order:

  1. Your domain certificate.
  2. COMODORSADomainValidationSecureServerCA.crt
  3. COMODORSAAddTrustCA.crt
  4. AddTrustExternalCARoot.crt

Each of these files should be copied in exactly as is (including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE lines). So the file should look like

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
first certificate
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
second certificate certificate
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 

Then, paste result of combining all these certificates into the Certificate box.

Thank you for your speedy reply! I just tried as you suggested however I got a error message when I tried. I’ll just run you through the steps I took just in case I did something wrong or you need to reproduce it.

I received two different zip files, one from my registrar, one directly from Comodo. The contents was as follows: In the Comodo one I had two files, MYDOMAIN.ca-bundle & MYDOMAIN.cert. In the one from my registrar, I had three files MYDOMAIN.ca-bundle, MYDOMAIN.cert, & MYDOMAIN.p7b. I also received a email from Comodo with the domain cert in plain text.

To combine them, I tried adding that plain text cert to the plain text of the MYDOMAIN.ca-bundle and inserted it into the cPanel. I received an error message saying:

It appears this certificate is in pem format / requires intermediates to function, this is not supported on free hosting.

I plan to investigate the pem format thing when I have a spot of free time (after dinner most likely, so in a few hours) but I thought I would post this anyway in case you can shed some light on the second part and save me some potential bother!

Thank you!

OK, in that case, you’ll want to use the MYDOMAIN.cert and the MYDOMAIN.ca-bundle (in that order). Again, you need to combine them as described above.

I get the same error message as last time.

I hate to double-post, but I’ve tried several more times over the last few days using every combination of the certificates I could think of and converting it to every certificate format under the sun but I still can’t get it to work.

Can I ask for confirmation that we defiantly can use intermediate certificates required by Comodo on the host or is the error message right in that they are blocked?

Can I ask for confirmation that we defiantly can use intermediate certificates required by Comodo on the host or is the error message right in that they are blocked?

That would be absolutely ridiculous, of course we wouldn’t purposely block valid SSL certificates. As long as the certificate is valid for the domain name you’re trying to install it to and the combined certificate and chain file is built correctly, you should be able to use it without any problems.

However, I can’t check why your certificate is not accepted if I don’t have the certificate files.

I’m very glad to hear that! It would, of course, be rediculous to do so but… You never can tell these days.

I would be more than happy to provide you with any files you need, particularly seeing as it will help me! Is there an email address or some other private way I can send them to you - I would prefer to avoid posting them onto a public forum for obvious reasons.

Thank you very much!

I’m very glad to hear that! It would, of course, be rediculous to do so but… You never can tell these days.
I would be more than happy to provide you with any files you need, particularly seeing as it will help me! Is there an email address or some other private way I can send them to you - I would prefer to avoid posting them onto a public forum for obvious reasons.
Thank you very much!

You can send them to [REMOVED]. Be sure to clearly state the reason you’re sending the message, include the certificate files (and the private key, if you didn’t generate it through our control panel), the domain name and your account username.

Sorry to bump again, but I have emailed support (quite a while back now) and have yet to have any response? I just want to make sure that the email did actually send!

I just checked, and it looks like your e-mail was sent. However, it was also marked as spam so it never got imported into the ticket system properly. I was able to find your request for update e-mail, but it didn’t have the attachments. I have added a reply to the message too.

Hi sir,
I am too facing the same problem. Please post the solution here or contact me at [email protected] Thanks in advance.

@ISapphire said:
Hi sir,
I am too facing the same problem. Please post the solution here or contact me at [email protected] Thanks in advance.

Did the same solutions work for you?

@Admin said:
Did the same solutions work for you?

No, I get the following error- “It appears this certificate is in pem format / requires intermediates to function, this is not supported on free hosting.”

@ISapphire said:

@Admin said:
Did the same solutions work for you?

No, I get the following error- “It appears this certificate is in pem format / requires intermediates to function, this is not supported on free hosting.”

Then why are you posting it on this topic instead of creating a new topic about it?

I have tried the steps with the same errors above uploading the PositiveSSL cert. The crt uploaded initially without errors but seemed to have issues with the immediary. When I combine and try to upload I eeceive the same PEM error. Possible to email support if that is the only way to load it?

“It appears this certificate is in pem format / requires intermediates to function”

@imjhoskins said:
I have tried the steps with the same errors above uploading the PositiveSSL cert. The crt uploaded initially without errors but seemed to have issues with the immediary. When I combine and try to upload I eeceive the same PEM error. Possible to email support if that is the only way to load it?

“It appears this certificate is in pem format / requires intermediates to function”

We don’t do custom configuration for users. Either we give you a button to do it yourself or we don’t do it at all.

Short answer: you can’t upload the intermediary certificates and you don’t have to.