Error: 403.7 Forbidden: Client Certificate Required

ID: Q186812

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Information Server versions 3.0, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to establish communication with a Web site that requires Client Authentication, the following error appears:

HTTP Error 403
403.7 Forbidden: Client certificate required

This error occurs when the resource you are trying to access requires that your browser has a client Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate that the server recognizes. This is used for authenticating you as a valid user of the resource.

Please contact the Web server's administrator to obtain a valid client certificate.

CAUSE

There are several possible causes of this error:

The Root Certificate of the server is not installed on the computer running Microsoft Internet Information Server.

-or-

The Client Certificate has expired or the effective time has not been reached.

-or-

The Client Certificate has been revoked.

RESOLUTION

Depending on the cause of your problem, try one of the following resolutions:

Download the Root Server Certificate into a browser on the server computer. Run the Iisca.exe command line utility located in the Inetsrv directory.

Check the Effective Date on the client certificate and ensure that the time has arrived. Check the Expiration Date and ensure that the certificate has not expired.

Check with your Certificate Authority to see if your certificate has expired.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 store their root certificates in different locations of the registry. The Iisca.exe utility synchronizes the two Root Certificate stores.

Additional query words: 403.7 IE Client SSL


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINNT:1.0,3.0,4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: April 30, 1999