When Digital Certificates Are Revoked: What Subscribers Need to Know
“Why is my SSL certificate revoked?”
That’s a question that no one wants to have to ask unexpectedly, but it does occasionally happen. Digital certificate revocations can severely hinder your day-to-day business operations. While the revocations may initially appear unwarranted, it is vital to understand that CAs such as SSL.com must often revoke expired certificates to comply with stringent industry standards.
Ultimately, this safeguards your business and customers against malicious actors. When a certificate extends beyond its validity period and becomes compromised, attackers can issue fake certificates for legitimate websites, exposing vulnerability to various cyber-attacks and data theft.
If your organization relies on publicly trusted certificates, learn how to protect and manage your operations if and when revocations occur. These best practices can help you avoid certificate revocations altogether.
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Why Mass Certificate Revocations Happen
Every public CA must comply with the Baseline Requirements the CA/Browser Forum sets. These rules are non-negotiable and designed to protect the trust and integrity of the internet’s encryption infrastructure. Revocation occurs under certain conditions, including:
- Private key compromise – An unauthorized individual or party gains access to or control of an organization’s private key through theft, loss, or exposure
- Improper domain validation – This typically happens when there’s a mismatch between the public key and private key registered with the parent domain; Additionally, incorrect DNS propagation, formatting, or verification codes can lead to validation problems
- Misissued certificates – Also known as rogue certificates, these can occur due to several factors, including CA breaches, human error, or security vulnerabilities in the certificate management process.
- Violations of the CA’s Certificate Policy (CP) or Certification Practice Statement (CPS) – This can happen through various factors, including failing to follow the defined processes for issuance, failing to maintain the required security measures, or using issued digital certificates for unauthorized purposes.
In many cases, the CA only has 24 hours to revoke affected certificates once an issue is confirmed. Failure to do so risks their trust status in browsers and operating systems.
Subscribers are responsible for managing their certificate ecosystems in a way that accounts for potential revocations. Even if the timing is disruptive, the issuing CA’s hands are tied once a revocation is mandated.
How to Avoid and Manage Digital Certificate Revocations
- Use Multiple Certificate Authorities – Avoid depending on a single Certificate Authority. A secondary CA provides more options and flexibility when one provider is forced to revoke.
- Automate Certificate Management – Tools like SSL.com’s ACME automatically handle issuance, renewal, and replacement, which can drastically reduce downtime during revocations.
- Monitor CA Communications and Bulletins – Stay aware of policy updates, CP/CPS changes, and potential incidents that could affect your certificates with SSL.com’s Health Check Monitoring (HCM).
- Keep Replacement Certificates Ready – Pre-issued or quickly issuable certificates should be part of your business continuity plan.
- Test Revocation Response Drills – Like disaster recovery testing, simulate a sudden certificate revocation to help assess your team’s response readiness.
- Use a Backup Certificate Authority – With a backup CA strategy, you can build agility into your certificate infrastructure to help avoid risks such as operational and service disruptions and compliance violations.
Prioritize Proactive Over Reactive Management Measures
When a CA revokes certificates, it’s not optional. Instead, it’s a matter of compliance. Preparing for this reality is the responsibility of every subscriber. While mass revocations might be rare, there are usually indicators that it is looming on the horizon and that valid certificates are reaching the end of their lifecycle. For digital certificate subscribers, there are steps that can be taken to prevent it from happening.
Properly securing your systems, keeping diligent administrators in charge of complex certificate environments, and/or renewal are the best ways to avoid digital certificate revocations. Above all, practical mindsets can help ensure a smooth recovery and drastically reduce any critical business disruptions if an unforeseen one occurs.
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