Apple OS X users who attempted to install software updates through the app store over the weekend received error messages about an invalid certificate because Apple apparently forgot to renew an SSL certificate.
9to5Mac reported that the certificate was valid from May 22, 2012 up to May 24, 2014. Just as the issue started getting a lot of attention, the company extended the validity for up to two years, ending May 24, 2016.
Apple’s failure to renew the SSL certificate of swscan.apple.com, one of the servers used to receive communications from users who want to update OS X software, resulted in a temporary breakdown of the services.
Several users, whose requests to update their software were routed through the swscan.apple.com server, ended up with the error message –
An Error has occurred.
The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “swscan.apple.com” which could put you confidential information at risk.
Some users reported an “NSURLErrorDomain error -1012” alert instead, speculated to be an invalid certificate which caused this error.
While third-party app updates had no problems when the error was dismissed, updates from Apple’s Mac app store remained unavailable.
Rumours have it that the actual problem could be due to something else. However, Apple has successfully fixed the certificate now and users can start updating their software on Mac app store.
