"SSL Protocol Error" in Chromium for several Google web sites after installing Ubuntu Security Updates for libnss3

Question

Scenario: Laptop computer running Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS (64-bit) ("Precise Pangolin")

Issue: In the Chromium web browser - "Version 37.0.2062.120 Ubuntu 12.04 (281580) (64-bit)" - after having installed the Ubuntu security Updates that were available on Feb 18, 2016, I get the following error while trying to access some Google Web sites (e.g. https://www.google.com ; https://plus.google.com/ ; https://hangouts.google.com/ ):

SSL connection error

Unable to make a secure connection to the server. This may be a problem with the server, or it may be requiring a client authentication certificate that you don't have.
Error code: ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Those web sites still appear correctly in the same computer, using other web browsers, namely Google Chrome - "Version 48.0.2564.109 (64-bit)" - or Mozilla Firefox - version "44.0.2"

The updates installed on Feb 18, 2016 were the following:

• libnss3:amd64 (3.19.2.1-0ubuntu0.12.04.2, 3.21-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
• libnss3:i386 (3.19.2.1-0ubuntu0.12.04.2, 3.21-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)
• libnss3-1d:amd64 (3.19.2.1-0ubuntu0.12.04.2, 3.21-0ubuntu0.12.04.1)

"libnss3" is listed at http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=libnss3 as being the "Network Security Service libraries", so I believe it's possible that update may be related to this issue that I'm facing.

Does anyone have any information about this issue and/or tips for doing additional troubleshooting?

Solution

Following @muru's good suggestion, in a comment to my question, I have filed a bug report in Launchpad, regarding this issue:

Bug #1547762 “SSL Protocol Error” in Chromium for several Google web sites after installing Ubuntu Security Updates for libnss3 : Bugs : chromium-browser package : Ubuntu
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1547762

That bug report has now the information that "This bug affects you and 12 other people". The Status of the bug was changed from 'New' "to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users".

So, it seems this is indeed a bug. I'll keep updating this answer according to the progress of that Bug Report.

NEWS FLASH (Feb 25, 2016): This issue was apparently fixed by a Software Update to Chromium that was made available today! For more detail, read "Update #3 (Feb 25, 2016)" further down:

---

Update #1 (Feb 22, 2016):

• The bug web page is now listed as affecting 38 people. It is still listed as "Unassigned"

• In "Comment #13" - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1547762/comments/13 - in that "Bug" web page, the user "beljoost (tempample)" has noted that a Bug had been reported in the "Chromium" issue tracker (on Feb 19, 2016): "Issue 588146 - chromium - SSL connection error after security update" -https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=588146 - which was closed as "Wontfix" with the following reason:

Based on the bug template, you've indicated you're running version "37.0.2062.120", which is no longer supported, and has a number of critical security bugs. You should upgrade to the latest version of Chrome, which is Chrome 48.

If you're running a version provided by another party, such as your distro, please inform them that they're distributing an insecure version.

You can download the latest stable version of Chrome at https://www.google.com/chrome/

• In "Comment #17" - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1547762/comments/17 - the same user "beljoost (tempample)" has noted that a related bug exists in the Ubuntu issue tracker (reported on June 26, 2015) "complaining" that (at that time) "The latest version for 12.04 is 37.0.2062.120 " while "The latest version for 14.04 is 43.0.2357.81 ". That bug still appears as "Unassigned":

Bug #1468666 “Chromium VERSION on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS” : Bugs : chromium-browser package : Ubuntu
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1468666

---

Update #2 (Feb 23, 2016):

The bug that I had opened ("Bug #1547762 "SSL Protocol Error" in Chromium for several Google web sites after installing Ubuntu Security Updates for libnss3") was marked as being a duplicate of the following bug, reported on November 27, 2015 (affecting now 53 people, still marked as "Unassigned "):

Bug #1520568 "All queries fails when 'google' is used: ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR" : Bugs : chromium-browser package : Ubuntu
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1520568

---

Update #3 (Feb 25, 2016):

This issue seems to be fixed by Software Updates to Chromium that were made available today! :-) For the Bug 1520568 "All queries fails when 'google' is used: ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR", the user "Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)" and the bot "Launchpad Janitor (janitor)" added information regarding a patch made available today and reported that "This bug was fixed in the package chromium-browser - 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.2". The Status of that Bug got consequently changed from "Confirmed" to "Fix Released".

So, in "Comment #47" of that page, the following info appears:

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote 21 hours ago: #47

This bug was fixed in the package chromium-browser - 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.2

---

chromium-browser (37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.2) precise-security; >urgency=medium

• debian/patches/nss-321-fix.patch: fix compatibility with nss 3.21. (LP: #1520568)

-- Marc Deslauriers Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:42:57 -0500

And, in fact, the "Update Manager" was "filled" with several available updates, including the 3 patches below for Chromium. I tested closing "Chromium" and then selecting only those 3 patches, installed them and then started Chromium again, to see if those patches were enough to solve the problem... and they were enough! :-)

So now, Chromium is now again able to open Google web sites. Obviously, I suggest that you also install the other available patches/Security updates. For now, I installed only the 3 available patches for chromium, because I wanted to see if those were enough to solve the issue.

Under these circumstances, I believe that I can now mark this question as answered :-)

Update information for Chromium packages:

Chromium browser
chromium-browser (Size: 45,4 MB)

Changes for the versions: Installed version: 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.1~pkg917 Available version: 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.2

Version 37.0.2062.120-0ubuntu0.12.04.2:

• debian/patches/nss-321-fix.patch: fix compatibility with nss 3.21. (LP: #1520568)

chromium-browser language packages
chromium-browser-l10n (Size: 2,9 MB)

Extra ffmpeg codecs for the Chromium Browser
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra (Size: 831 kB)

Comments

[muru]

You should really file a bug report.

[ricmarques]

@muru: Thanks for the comment :-) Based on your suggestion, I posted a Question in Launchpad, a few minutes ago - answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/286379 - and someone already asked for additional information (which I just provided there) . I'll update this "Ask Ubuntu" Question with the results / conclusions of that Launchpad Question.

[ricmarques]

... and opened a Bug Report, as suggested here and also in the feedback that I got from the Question that I asked in Launchpad. Link to Bug Report: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1547‌​762

[muru]

it's possible to convert a question to a bug report. You needn't have reported a bug separately.

[ricmarques]

@muru: Thanks for the information :-) I didn't know that it was possible to convert a Launchpad question to a bug report. Meanwhile, my Bug report has the information that 12 other users have the same issue. So, I'll post an answer here and update it according to the progress.

[Pilot6]

I do not think this will be ever fixed. Chromium is not updated in 12.04 for a long time. The best that can be done is just completely remove it from Ubuntu repositories.