In modern organisations, Public Key Infrastructure involves the use of several certificates. This has introduced a pressing need for PKI digital certificates to identify and control access to organisational networks. Today, organisations have deployed wireless electronic access points to restrict access to their digital architecture and allow only authenticated users, whether individuals or devices, to gain access to their network.
Digital certificates are the key element for identifying and authenticating people and devices. With the rampant increase in the number of entities in an organisation, the difficulty of protecting and managing these certificates also grows. It is here that PKI certificate management gains momentum. Efficient PKI certificate management is crucial for establishing and safeguarding business identities. This blog highlights the critical aspects of certificate management, along with some real-world examples. Let’s go ahead!
Also known as the CA, the Certificate Authority attests to the user's identity. It issues a digitally signed certificate to authenticate an entity. It also manages, revokes, and renews certificates.
A CA can refer to any of the following:
A private Certificate Authority
An enterprise that validates the end-users identity
A server used by an organisation for issuing and managing certificates
Most individuals and enterprises depend on third-party Certificate Authorities for certificate management.
Installing a CA can configure your server to act as a Certificate Authority. Before the installation of a CA locally, you must opt for thorough planning of a PKI that is well-suited for your business.
Some of the generic uses of private CA’s are:
VPN certificate
Intranet sites
IoT projects
Device identification
Here are the two most popular strategies for obtaining certificates!
You can create one by yourself.
You can send a Certificate Signing Request, also known as CSR, to a reliable CA, and they will produce and sign a certificate for you.
Before producing a CSR, the applicant has to create a key pair and keep the private key confidential. You must also provide proof of your legal identity to the CA.
Getting a certificate from a CA is quite an easy process. Be sure to include your public key and some of your personal information when requesting a certificate for a CA. Opt to use a tool that facilitates CSR generation. However, it must be noted that most advanced PKI certificate management platforms have simplified this entire process.
Next, the CA creates the certificate and returns it. If you are creating your certificate, you must use the same information and add a few more details, such as the serial number and the certificate's validity period, and then generate the certificate with relevant tools. Not everyone is going to accept self-signed PKI certificates. One value Certificate Authority offers is to act as a trustworthy and neutral introductory service based on the authentication criteria.
Before creating the CSR, the applicant has to create a key pair and keep the private key confidential. You have to provide your legal identity proof to the CA. Sign these details online and send them to the CA, which will produce and return the certificate.
PKI certificate management consists of discovering, monitoring, analyzing and managing all electronic certificates implemented by the CA. Your enterprise’s data security strategy must prioritize accurate certificate management.
Let us get a clear picture of the broad scope of PKI certificate management and its relation to public key infrastructure.
PKI comprises individuals, roles, procedures, policies, software, hardware, and firmware systems that facilitate secure communications throughout wide private and public networks. During the exchange of critical data, it is mandated that network participants trust each other’s identities by exchanging digital certificates.
The most popular PKI-SSL uses a hybrid cryptosystem that utilizes both symmetric and asymmetric types of encryption. Each party has to sign a message using their public key and send it to the other party that decrypts the message using their private keys. This procedure generates a shared secret key.
Let us know the main entities that are crucial in PKI certificate management!
As already discussed, the Certificate Authority or CA is a reliable third party that issues end-user certificates and keys and manages them throughout their life cycle, which comprises generation, updating, expiry, and revocation.
Root C - This is the highest level of hierarchy that functions as the trust anchor. The Root CA, chained with an end-entity certificate, must be embedded within the operating system, device, browser, or anything that validates the certificate. Root CAs are usually kept offline and are heavily secured.
Subordinate CA- These prevail between the end-entity and root certificates. Their main purpose is to determine and authorize the kinds of digital certificates that can be requested from the Root CA. e.g., S/MIME and SSL Subordinate CAs must be separated.
End entity certificates- These certificates are installed on devices, servers, cryptographic hardware, and machines.
This end-user software helps request, receive, and use PKI certificates to facilitate secure e-commerce transactions. A well-managed PKI requires additional services to inter-operate with the other three components. These offer various services that foster various applications of e-commerce. Key services include the following:
IoT
Code signing
Timestamping
Bring Your Device
Automated registration
Access management
Internal root certificate
S/MIME email servers
Legally binding e-signatures
This offers a scalable technique for the storage and distribution of certificates, cross-certificates, and certificate revocation lists to PKI end-users. As they hold the central position in the Public Key Infrastructure, all these components must be interoperable and responsive.
Digital certificates come with a definite lifespan. They lose their recognition after their expiration. PKI certificates have varied ranges of lifespans and are usually destined to expire between one and three years. Their validity period is usually dependent on their cost considerations and company policies. As a common practice, certificates must be replaced at the end of their lifecycle to prevent service outages and compromised security. However, in many cases, certificates are replaced before their expiration, such as when there is a change in company policy or case of the Heartbleed bug.
Although certificates are widely used, most organisations lack proper oversight of certificates. This can prove to be disastrous for the company. If a certificate is inadequate in functioning correctly, its vulnerability can be a chance for cyber criminals to exploit it, launch cyber attacks and hack the system. Such malicious actors can easily intercept critical data, leading to unimaginable damage to the business with respect to sales and loss of customer trust. Moreover, the organisation can suffer heavy fines for non-compliance with many legislative regulations.
Consequently, it is necessary for all organisations to manage PKI certificates throughout complex networks to protect data and avoid unforeseen failures. Establishing a robust PKI certificate management system is much needed for a consistent approach and paves the way for automation, which improves the effectiveness and efficiency of certificate management.
PKI certificate management is of great importance in the e-signing practice. Here’s how!
Streamlined workflow- Integrated PKI certificate management eases the entire process of issuing, managing, distributing, tracking, and revoking digital certificates. This helps to ensure that only authorized users can sign documents, thus enabling an efficient, secure and fully -automated process.
Improved security - Digital certificates allow e-signing platforms to accelerate extreme security measures. Each document that is signed with a digital certificate can be traced back to its signer, offering an additional layer of security and trust and preventing unauthorized access.
Legal compliance - Most industries and regulatory guidelines require using digital certificates for e-signatures to ensure that the documents hold legal validity. PKI certificate management allows organisations to comply with such strict legal protocols, diminishing risks linked with regulatory breaches.
Here are some critical real-world examples of PKI certificate management!
Financial services - Financial institutions, including banks, use digital certificates for client and staff members’ identity verification to secure transactions and critical communications. This helps prevent fraudulent activities and ensures that all electronic transactions are verified and authentic.
Healthcare - In the health industry, healthcare providers manage digital certificates to safeguard patient information and also comply with regulations like HIPAA. Electronic signatures secured with digital certificates allow healthcare systems to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of patient records and data.
Legal sector - Law firms use PKI certificate management to validate legal contracts and documents. This helps ensure that all concerned parties involved in the signing process are authorized and identified, thus mitigating any risk of tampering or data exploitation.
Let us discuss PKI certificate management best practices!
If your organisation is not technically sophisticated or high on security maturity, you must always opt for a cloud-based PKI certificate management system that provides full control and visibility in a single dashboard.
It is recommended to scan your network at least weekly to identify unknown certificates. Shadow certificates which are digital certificates obtained outside of your standard methods can lead to unforeseen expirations and hefty fines. Therefore, to prevent such occurrences:
Run weekly discovery scans.
Use API or email notifications to evaluate CT logs for your domain.
Educate your requester about prevention and care whenever you locate a shadow certificate.
Establish granular permission protocol by applying the principle of least privilege for certificate lifecycle management. Assign high granular permissions by role, user, company, branch, department, etc., from within your certificate management system. Assign permissions for certificate requests, approvals, revocation, etc., by giving exactly what the user needs and nothing more than that.
As you are limiting permissions, several requests for issuance, revocation, and renewal must be directed to authorized entities. Bottlenecking means that when an employee is unavailable, an escalation path must be set. This is useful for renewals leaving no gaps for downtime as a result of an expired digital certificate.
Once the entire certificate management system is automated, there should be a standard for sending notifications about certificate expiration to concerned parties at least 30 to 60 days prior. This helps in addressing the issue in advance. There should also be a possibility for sending alerts for pending requests, revocations, reissuances, etc.
While it is necessary to comply with certificate management protocols, it is equally important to generate and review in-depth reports, such as the following:
Revoked certificates
Upcoming expirations
Pending requests
Vulnerabilities
Newly discovered certificates
Summary of all active certificates
The crux of an effective PKI certificate management system is a well-planned management program for your business. If you want successful consolidation of all your certificates into a single platform then opt for eMudhra’s comprehensive certificate management system. Our dynamic certificate management solutions help administrators perform continuous evaluation of certificates and systems and generate audit reports for compliance reasons.
If you are looking for the best and most effective PKI certificate management systems for the US and European markets, opt for eMudhra’s advanced certificate management solutions to handle the complexities of certificate management with ease. Our premium services help enhance your digital security and restrict outages. For more details on our comprehensive range of services, contact our expert team today!