What is Certificate Management?
Digital services stop working when certificates expire or fail. These failures can break websites, block user access, and open security risks. Many teams find out too late that a certificate is missing, expired, or wrongly configured. These issues cause unplanned outages and make systems unsafe for users and data.
Certificate management solves this problem by giving full control over how certificates are handled from start to finish. It helps prevent service disruptions, avoid security gaps, and reduce manual work. This article explains the key functions, challenges, and best practices of certificate management, along with how automation improves the process.
What is Certificate Management?
Certificate management is the process of handling digital certificates during their full lifecycle. It includes creating, storing, deploying, renewing, suspending, revoking, and replacing certificates. These certificates follow the X.509 standard and are used to secure communication between systems. Certificate management helps systems trust each other and keeps data safe during transfer.
Why Certificate Management Is Important
1. Ensure Encrypted and Trusted Communication
Digital certificates are used in encryption protocols like TLS and SSL. They make sure that the data exchanged between systems is private and not changed during transfer. They also verify that the system or website is real and not fake. This builds trust between users and systems.
2. Prevent Downtime and Security Incidents
Expired or misconfigured certificates can break services or expose systems to attacks. Without valid certificates, users may see errors, or systems may stop working. Attackers can also use these gaps to steal data. Managing certificates properly prevents these issues and keeps systems running safely.
Core Functions of Certificate Management
1. Create Certificates
Creating a certificate means generating a digital certificate that links a public key with the identity of a user or system. This process uses a certificate authority that verifies the identity and issues a certificate file in the X.509 format. The certificate includes details like the subject name, public key, expiration date, and digital signature of the authority.
2. Purchase Certificates
Purchasing certificates involves buying trusted digital certificates from a public certificate authority. These authorities are trusted by browsers and systems. You pay to get a certificate that is valid and accepted across external networks. This is often done for public-facing websites or services that require trusted encryption.
3. Store Certificates
Storing certificates means keeping private keys and certificate files in secure locations. These can be hardware security modules, certificate stores on servers, or encrypted files. Secure storage prevents unauthorized access and ensures the certificate is ready when needed for authentication or encryption.
4. Disseminate Certificates
Disseminating certificates means distributing the public part of the certificate to clients, systems, or users that need to trust or communicate with it. This helps in establishing trust between systems by allowing them to verify identities using the shared certificate.
5. Deploy Certificates
Deploying certificates is the step where you install the certificate onto a server or application. This enables the system to use the certificate for secure communication using protocols like HTTPS, TLS, or SSL. It also ensures that encryption and identity checks can happen during data exchange.
6. Renew Certificates
Renewing certificates means replacing a certificate before it expires, but keeping the same identity. This is done to avoid service disruption and maintain continuous encryption. Renewal often requires generating a new key pair or reusing the old one, followed by issuing a new certificate with an updated expiration date.
7. Suspend Certificates
Suspending certificates is a temporary action that stops the certificate from being trusted without removing it permanently. This is useful when a system is under investigation or when access should be paused for a short time. Suspended certificates can be reactivated later.
8. Revoke Certificates
Revoking certificates means permanently marking a certificate as no longer valid before its expiration date. This happens when the certificate is compromised, the private key is lost, or the system is no longer trusted. Revoked certificates are added to a certificate revocation list or checked through online status protocols.
9. Replace Certificates
Replacing certificates is needed when a certificate must be fully removed and substituted with a new one. This often includes creating a new key pair and re-issuing the certificate, especially after a compromise or significant system changes. Replacement ensures secure and updated communication.
Challenges in Manual Certificate Management
1. Missed Expiry Dates and Caused Unexpected Outages
Manual certificate management often fails to track expiry dates. If a certificate expires, systems that rely on it for secure communication stop working. This can block websites, apps, or internal tools. These outages are unplanned and can disrupt services until a new certificate is installed.
2. Lack of Centralized Visibility and Tracking
Without a central system, certificates are stored in different places and managed by different teams. It becomes hard to know how many certificates exist, where they are used, and when they will expire. This lack of visibility makes it easy to miss problems and delay response when issues occur.
3. Make Human Errors and Misconfigurations
When people manage certificates manually, mistakes can happen. Someone might install the wrong certificate, forget to update a system, or use weak settings. These errors can make encryption fail or open security gaps. Manual work increases the chance of misconfiguring certificates and weakening protection.
What Is Automated Certificate Management?
Automated certificate management is the use of software to handle all tasks in the certificate lifecycle without manual work. It includes automatic creation, installation, renewal, and revocation of certificates.
Key features include:
Real-time monitoring
Policy enforcement
Alerts
Centralized inventory
Support for multiple certificate authorities
The system tracks expiry dates, prevents gaps, and handles large numbers of certificates.
Solve Lifecycle Challenges with Automation
Automation removes common problems in the certificate lifecycle. It avoids missed renewals by tracking dates and renewing certificates on time. It solves visibility issues by keeping all certificates in one dashboard. It reduces manual tasks like updating servers or copying files. This lowers the risk of mistakes and makes the process faster and more reliable.
Improve Security and Operational Efficiency
Automated certificate management improves security by detecting weak or expired certificates before they cause harm. It enforces rules that stop users from using insecure settings. It also responds quickly to incidents by replacing or revoking certificates without delay. For operations, it saves time, reduces errors, and keeps systems running without disruption.
Best Practices for Secure Certificate Management
1. Maintain Centralized Certificate Inventory
A centralized certificate inventory is a single place where all certificates are listed and managed. It helps you know which certificates exist, where they are used, and when they expire. This prevents duplicate entries, missed renewals, and unknown certificates. A centralized system gives full control and improves planning and response.
2. Enforce Policies and Access Controls
Enforcing policies means setting rules for how certificates should be used, created, or renewed. Access controls limit who can manage or view certificates. This protects private keys and prevents unauthorized actions. It also ensures that certificates follow security standards and stay consistent across all systems.
3. Perform Regular Audits and Monitoring
Regular audits check the certificate setup to find mistakes, expired certificates, or weak settings. Monitoring tracks certificate health in real time and alerts you to problems like upcoming expiries or failures. These steps help fix issues early and keep the certificate environment secure and up to date.
Explore Secure Certificate Management with SSH
Manual certificate handling increases the risk of system outages and weakens overall security. It becomes hard to track expiry dates, prevent unauthorized access, and keep systems running without errors. SSH offers automated tools that manage every step of the certificate lifecycle with full visibility, proper control, and policy enforcement.
Solutions like PrivX, Universal SSH Key Manager, and Tectia Client/Server Quantum-Safe Edition help you move toward keyless and passwordless authentication. These tools support Zero Trust models and secure access across IT, OT, and hybrid environments. SSH also offers a full SSH Risk Assessment to help you find and fix certificate-related weaknesses in your systems.
Book a live demo today to see how SSH helps you manage certificates with security, speed, and control.
FAQ
What is certificate management?
Certificate management is the process of handling digital certificates throughout their lifecycle. It includes creating, deploying, renewing, and revoking certificates.
How does certificate management work?
It tracks and controls certificates used for secure communication. The system ensures certificates are valid, trusted, and up to date.
Why is certificate management important?
It prevents expired or misused certificates that can break services or expose systems. Proper management keeps communication secure and trusted.
What are the challenges in manual certificate management?
Manual processes can miss expiry dates, cause outages, and lead to misconfigurations. It also makes tracking certificates hard across systems.
How can automated certificate management improve security?
Automation handles renewals, tracks certificate health, and applies policies. It reduces human error and keeps systems secure without delays.
