Unable to Login to Tableau Cloud Due to Malformed Certificate Error

Issue

When signing into Tableau Cloud configured with Google SAML authentication, the following error occurs:

400. That's an error.

Error: Malformed_certificate

Error while signing data with certificate

User-added image

Environment

Tableau Cloud
SAML (google.com)

Resolution

1. Sign in to the Google Admin console. In the Admin console, go to Menu > Apps > Web and mobile apps.

2. Click Tableau App to open the Settings page.

3. Click Service provider details to verify that the current certificate used by Tableau has not expired.

4. On the Google Identity Provider details page, download the IDP metadata.

5. In the Tableau Cloud Authentication page, import the metadata file that you downloaded from the IdP and Test Connection.

6. You should see "Successfully connected to server". If it doesn’t, use the information in the resulting SAML error messages to update your IdP and SP settings as needed, then retest the connection.

Cause

This error occurs when:

1. The certificate of the Google Tableau App expires.

2. The IdP metadata uploaded to Tableau Cloud is out of date.

3. The IdP metadata is missing under 'Import metadata file into Tableau Cloud' settings in the Tableau Cloud Authentication Page.