TechNote (Archived)

Security Information error in Internet Explorer

Issue

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Browsing to a secure site (a site beginning with "https://") while using Internet Explorer results in a Security Information error dialog box:

This behavior was introduced with the Internet Explorer 6 SP1 browser update. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 browser update is also included with Windows XP SP1.

Reason

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The CODEBASE attribute of the OBJECT tag points to the Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX Control download on Macromedia's web site. Internet Explorer will display this dialog box only if the web site is hosted on an https:// server, and the url in the CODEBASE tag points to Macromedia's standardhttp:// server.

Note: The CODEBASE attribute of the OBJECT tag is required for displaying Macromedia Flash Player content in Internet Explorer for Windows. For more information see What effect does the version have in the codebase attribute of the OBJECT tag? (TechNote 12685).

Solution

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Clicking either Yes or No will still display the content correctly, and the content will still be secure. However, secure site developers should modify the EMBED tag to point to the secure Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX Control location (by adding "s" to the end of "http". The rest of the URL remains the same):

 codebase="https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" 

Modifying the codebase attribute will prevent end users from being confused by the Security Information dialog box.

Search Support

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