Installing a Root Certificate Authority in Firefox

Firefox, unlike many other applications, keeps a store of its own trusted root certificate authorities. This means that adding a new root certificate to the operating system will not work. This post runs through how to add a new root certificate to Firefox.

Why we need to add a Root Certificate to Firefox manually

Firefox has taken steps so that instead of relying on the operating systems root certificate store it will maintain a separate one. This has some advantages as Firefox is able to keep the certificates up to date and won’t affect the operating system when it needs to update them.

In addition to this Firefox is able to block certain untrusted root certificates as problems occur. As Firefox is an evergreen browser (It automatically updates itself) revoking or adding certificates is a transparent process.

Overall Firefox managing its own certificates makes it easier to keep track of what is safe for the user.

However this means that if you purposely install a new certificate for your operating system Firefox will not load this up.

Installing a new Root Certificate in Firefox

To access the certificate management page I need to go to Options from the Firefox Menu bar on the right.

Once the options panel has been opened I select Advanced and then Certificates to allow me to add certificates. The full list of certificates is available by then pressing “View Certificates”.

Once the full list of certificates is displayed the new certificate can be imported with “Import Certificate”

Once you have pressed import the modal will run you through the process of setting up a certificate. Once you have finished the certificate will be installed and ready to use.

Firefox will treat these as a Root Certificate authority and any websites signed with this new certificate will be trusted.