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Addressing Website Security Concerns – GlobalSign Updates AlphaSSL and AlphaSSL Wildcard Root Certificate Hierarchy to R6

Addressing Website Security Concerns – GlobalSign Updates AlphaSSL and AlphaSSL Wildcard Root Certificate Hierarchy to R6

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Following Mozilla’s announcement about removing website and S/MIME trust bits from root certificates, GlobalSign changed its CA certificates from R1 to R6.

This was announced on February 19, 2024.

How does this affect your website hosted on SiteGround?

The R1 to R6 root certificate change will affect your site depending on when your GlobalSign SSL certificate was issued and if your visitors (or you) use outdated software.

  • If your GlobalSign certificate was issued before January 29, 2024 – no actions are needed. Your GlobalSign AlphaSSL and AlphaSSL Wildcard certificates will continue to function normally until their expiration date.
  • If your GlobalSign certificate was issued after January 29, 2024 – your GlobalSign AlphaSSL and AlphaSSL Wildcard certificates will be R6-signed and will not work on old operating systems and browsers, such as but not limited to: MacOS X 10.9, iOS 7, Safari 7, Android 5.1.1, Win 8.1, Internet Explorer 10.

If your website visitors access from an outdated operating system and/or browser with no support for R6-signed SSL certificates, it will display an SSL error like “This Connection is Not Private.”

NOTE: On macOS, Safari is directly tied to the operating system, meaning you can’t update Safari without updating macOS. This is important because macOS supplies the SSL certificates that Safari uses for secure connections. Therefore, keeping your macOS up-to-date ensures you have the latest Safari features and current SSL certificates for a secure browsing experience.

Here is how the error you may stumble upon due to this change looks in Safari:

Screenshot showing the "This Connection is Not Private" error in Safari

Clicking on “Show details”, you’ll see additional information on what may be causing the error.

Screenshot displaying details about the error after expanding the "Screenshot showing the "show details" button

You can also click on the “view the certificate” link to see what type of SSL certificate your browser doesn’t trust.

Screenshot showing the SSL certificate details after clicking the "view the certificate details" button

How to resolve this problem?

Using a modern operating system and browsers will not cause this problem. If updating is not an option, however, you should consider removing your GlobalSign SSL certificate and replacing it with a Let’s Encrypt SSL.

IMPORTANT!: Consider This a Temporary Fix, Not a Permanent Solution! While this workaround can help you for now, it’s important to understand that Let’s Encrypt may update their root certificates, which could cause similar compatibility issues with outdated software. For a long-term solution, we strongly recommend planning upgrades for your operating system and browsers. Keeping your software up-to-date will help you avoid these problems in the future.

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