As networks grow, with more users, devices, and applications being connected every day, maintaining trust among these entities is essential. Digital certificates play a key role in establishing this trust by enabling secure authentication across all network components. However, without regular and effective certificate management, the reliability of these certificates – and thus the security of your network – can degrade over time.
In this blog post, we’ll explore why robust certificate lifecycle management is crucial for sustaining trust in growing networks. Additionally, we’ll discuss how hardware security modules (HSMs) can further strengthen certificate security and authenticity, ensuring a resilient and trustworthy infrastructure.
What is a Digital Certificate?
Think of a digital certificate as a passport for your computer. Before connecting to a new website, your computer needs to prove it is legitimate. Just like a passport verifies your identity, a digital certificate confirms the authenticity of a device (showing it’s been validated by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA)). This helps protect your data from potential threats.
A digital certificate includes:
- The certificate holder’s name
- Serial number or IP address
- Expiration date
- Public key of the holder
- CA signature
Common types of certificates include x.509 for TLS/SSL, client certificates, and code-signing certificates. These certificates ensure the identity of individuals, devices, applications, and other entities in a network.
With the rise of IoT devices, applications, and constant data exchange, networks are overwhelmed with identities and certificates. And just like passports, certificates expire. When this happens, your system will alert you—like a travel warning—indicating potential risks. That's why a proper Certificate Lifecycle Management is crucial.
Outdated certificates can disrupt entire systems. For instance, SpaceX's Starlink internet service experienced hours of downtime last year due to an expired certificate in one of its systems.
What is Certificate Lifecycle Management?
Certificate lifecycle management involves monitoring and managing digital certificates through each stage of their lifecycle, from issuance to expiration or revocation. By automating the renewal and replacement of certificates before they expire or are revoked, this process helps ensure uninterrupted system operations.
A certificate lifecycle management system continuously monitors the status of all certificates in real-time. It can automatically update certificate stages, renew or revoke certificates, and issue new ones as needed, providing a seamless and secure certificate management process.
Certificate Lifecycle Stages Include:
- Generation / Enrollment
- Distribution / Issuance
- Validation
- Renewal
- Revocation + Reissuance
- Archival / Destruction
- Auditing
The Role of HSMs for Certificate Lifecyle Management
Because digital certificates are based on public key cryptography, cryptographic processes and key generation are required when creating digital certificates.
These processes can be performed in software, or through Hardware Security Modules.
Secure and reliable key generation are two basic elements that will simplify your certificate lifecycle management. While a hardware security module does not replace a certificate management system it can help in several ways, making admin’s life easier. Some examples are listed below.
Secure Cryptographic Key Generation Reduces Certificate Management Overhead
A Hardware Security Module is the most secure and reliable method for generating and storing cryptographic keys. When certificates rely on cryptographic keys generated within an HSM, the risk of key exposure is significantly reduced. Private keys are always kept in the HSM’s tamper-proof environment, and all cryptographic processes that require the private keys are executed within the HSM, safeguarding against side-channel attacks.
By adding these extra layers of security to your certificates, you reduce the need to revoke certificates due to compromised keys or credentials. This leads to less effort in certificate management and lowers your organization's overall cybersecurity risks.
Implementing Least Privilege Principles
To strengthen security, organizations should ensure that only authorized users have access to certificate management systems and private keys. By applying the principle of least privilege, access rights are limited to individuals who genuinely need them.
HSMs enable organizations to establish authorization policies, specifying which users or processes can access certain keys or perform cryptographic actions. This helps enforce least privilege by ensuring that keys are used only by authorized entities and reducing the risk of key misuse or unauthorized access.
Use HSMs for audit logs and certificate documentation
Hardware Security Modules provide comprehensive audit logs of key management activities, including key usage, access attempts, and configuration changes. Organizations can leverage these logs to monitor key operations, identify unusual activity, and ensure compliance with security standards.
Furthermore, integrating a HSM management and monitoring system significantly enhances certificate and key lifecycle management. Threshold alarms can be set to alert administrators to unusual activity—such as repeated key usage, multiple failed access attempts, or other irregularities. These alerts can automatically notify IT security teams or certificate lifecycle managers, enabling quick responses to potential security risks. Additionally, HSM monitoring systems can remind administrators of upcoming certificate expirations, ensuring timely renewals and uninterrupted security.
