Why is there no 'Proceed to site' link like on other certificate errors?

Because Chrome classifies this one differently. The Chromium source marks ERR_CERT_INVALID (error -207) as 'not recoverable' — the same bucket as ERR_CERT_CONTAINS_ERRORS. Overridable errors like ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID (-202) and ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID (-201) show a proceed link because the certificate is structurally fine and only fails a trust or time check. ERR_CERT_INVALID means the certificate itself is broken or unparseable, so there's nothing safe to proceed to. Typing thisisunsafe on the warning page is a known Chrome bypass, but it's a way to look past the wall, not a fix — the cert is still invalid for every other visitor.

How is this different from ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID?

AUTHORITY_INVALID (-202) means Chrome parsed a perfectly valid certificate but doesn't trust who signed it — a missing intermediate, a self-signed cert, or a private CA. ERR_CERT_INVALID (-207) means Chrome couldn't validate the certificate as a well-formed certificate at all: corrupt encoding, a truncated file, malformed fields, or a broken cert injected by something between you and the server. AUTHORITY_INVALID is a trust problem; CERT_INVALID is a structure problem.

It happens on every HTTPS site, not just one. What does that mean?

That pattern almost always points away from the server. When every HTTPS site throws ERR_CERT_INVALID, something local is rewriting your TLS connections and handing Chrome a broken certificate — usually antivirus HTTPS/SSL scanning (ESET, Kaspersky, Avast, Bitdefender), a corporate proxy, or adware that installed its own root. A single site failing while others work is the opposite: that server is serving a malformed certificate and the fix is on its end.

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NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID Fix (No Proceed Link)

NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID blocks a malformed cert, no bypass. 3 checks find it: all sites vs one, middlebox, or broken cert. Free instant check, no sign-up.

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Problem

Chrome shows NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID and blocks the page with “Your connection is not private” — but unlike the certificate errors you’ve seen before, there’s no “Proceed to site (unsafe)” link to click. The wall is solid. That missing link is the whole story: Chrome isn’t saying it distrusts the certificate, it’s saying it couldn’t make sense of the certificate at all.

Symptoms

Chrome reports NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID with no override option on the warning page.
The error appears on every HTTPS site, or on one specific site — those two cases have opposite causes.
Firefox shows SEC_ERROR_BAD_DER or a generic “problem occurred” on the same site.
openssl s_client -connect host:443 returns a parse error or a certificate that other tools also reject.
Turning off antivirus “HTTPS scanning” or “SSL/TLS filtering” makes it disappear.

What NET::ERR_CERT_INVALID Actually Means

Chrome’s certificate errors aren’t interchangeable, and the numeric code tells you which kind you have. In Chromium’s net_error_list.h, ERR_CERT_INVALID is -207, and its comment is exactly one sentence: “The server responded with a certificate that is invalid. This error is not recoverable.”

That last part matters. Compare the neighbors:

-200 ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID — the cert is valid, the hostname doesn’t match.
-201 ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID — the cert is valid, it’s expired or not yet valid.
-202 ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID — the cert is valid, Chrome doesn’t trust the issuer.
-207 ERR_CERT_INVALID — the cert is not valid, full stop.

The first three are recoverable: the certificate parsed fine, it just failed a check about trust, time, or name, and Chrome lets you override at your own risk. -207 is not recoverable because there’s no coherent certificate on the other end to override to — it’s corrupt, malformed, or unparseable. That’s why the proceed link is gone. Chrome removed it on purpose; there’s nothing safe to proceed to.

So the diagnostic question isn’t “is my certificate trusted.” It’s “why can’t Chrome parse a valid certificate here.” And the fastest way to split that is: all sites, or one site?

Top 3 Causes

A TLS-intercepting middlebox is handing Chrome a broken cert (all sites fail). Antivirus HTTPS scanning, a corporate MITM proxy, or adware installs its own root and re-signs every HTTPS connection on the fly. When that re-signing engine is buggy, its root isn’t properly installed, or malware injects a malformed cert, Chrome receives an invalid certificate on every site at once. This is the most common cause of ERR_CERT_INVALID on a single machine. The tell: every HTTPS site breaks, and disabling the scanner fixes all of them.
The server is serving a malformed or corrupt certificate (one site fails). The deployed certificate file isn’t a well-formed X.509 — a truncated PEM, the wrong file uploaded, mismatched key and cert, invalid DER encoding, or a cert built with fields Chrome refuses to parse. Other clients and openssl reject it too. The tell: one site fails for everyone, everywhere, while the rest of the web is fine.
A private or appliance CA emitted a structurally invalid certificate. Internal CAs, load balancers, and embedded devices sometimes generate certs with negative serial numbers, malformed extensions, or bad encoding that older tooling tolerated and modern Chrome rejects outright. The tell: it’s an internal or device URL, and the cert came from something other than a public CA.

Diagnose with DechoNet

SSL Check fetches the certificate the server actually serves and reports whether it parses and chains correctly — if SSL Check reads a clean, valid certificate but your browser still shows ERR_CERT_INVALID, the problem is on your machine, not the server.
HTTP Check confirms the final HTTPS response once a malformed certificate is replaced with a valid one.

Resolution Checklist

Decide the split first: does ERR_CERT_INVALID hit every HTTPS site or just one? This single question routes you to the right half of the fixes.
All sites → disable your antivirus’s “HTTPS scanning” / “SSL/TLS filtering” and test. If it clears, that engine is the culprit — update or reinstall it, or leave the feature off.
All sites, no antivirus → check for a rogue root: scan for adware/malware and review installed root certificates for anything you didn’t add.
One site → run SSL Check from outside your network. If it also reports an invalid certificate, the server is serving a broken cert; if it reports a clean one, the fault is local.
Server side: re-deploy the certificate from the CA’s original files, confirm the private key matches, and verify with openssl x509 -in cert.pem -noout -text that it parses.
Don’t rely on thisisunsafe — it hides the wall for you but leaves the certificate invalid for every real visitor.

When to Escalate

If SSL Check reads a valid certificate but a managed corporate device still shows ERR_CERT_INVALID, this is a device-policy or proxy issue — escalate to whoever manages the TLS-inspection appliance, not the site.
If the invalid certificate is served by a CDN or managed platform you don’t control, open a ticket with that provider and include the SSL Check output showing the malformed certificate.