Security, IT, and infrastructure teams are already stretched too thin. There’s little focus left for anything other than primary tasks. This, along with the scale of certificate usage and the cost of outages, has made manual certificate management unrealistic.
Without a dedicated PKI team in place, automation is necessary for both security and operational efficiency.
Certificate automation allows for:
- Certificate management without the need for constant manual intervention
- Proactive discovery of expiring certificates
- Comprehensive lifecycle management
- A unified view of all certificates across your organization
Implementing certificate automation mitigates risks, enhances security, promotes efficient digital infrastructure, and is a necessity for modern enterprises.
So, where do you begin with setting up automation?
Let’s start with a foundational understanding of what information is needed.
Laying the groundwork for certificate automation
Before you can automate certificate renewal, you need a clear understanding of your certificate landscape. Organizations use certificates for various functions, including securing communications between systems, authenticating users and devices, and digitally signing messages and applications. That means you first need to identify the following about every certificate:
- Location
- Expiration date
- Creator
- User
- Connected systems
Manually tracking certificates through a spreadsheet or homegrown tool limits certificate awareness. You need to proactively discover certificates within your organization in order to effectively manage them. Remember…what you can’t see, you can’t control.
While open-source scripts can assist with this, they may only detect TLS (SSL) certificates or overlook revoked certificates.
It’s worth noting that many Certificate Authority (CA) vendors offer certificate tracking, but typically only for certificates issued by that specific CA. Given that the average organization uses about seven different CAs, this approach leads to fragmented certificate management.
The ideal situation calls for a solution that provides a unified view of certificates across your entire enterprise. A central hub simplifies the process and ensures all certificates are accounted for.
Once you’ve established a comprehensive inventory, the next step is to address non-compliant certificates and keys through an automated discovery process.
Which certificate management tasks should you automate?
You should automate certificate management tasks that streamline operations, reduce the risk of human error, and enhance security.
Focusing on key areas for automation allows organizations to secure and optimize their digital infrastructure. Below are some tasks to consider prioritizing for automation.
Issuing and installing new certificates
Without automation, the risk of outages increases as life-cycles shrink and usage scales up. The main point here is that automation grants continuity by creating, issuing, and deploying new certificates after revoking old ones nearing expiration.
An automated system can detect an expiring certificate, initiate the issuance of a new one, and deploy it to the appropriate user or device. This process eliminates numerous points of friction (including human error) and allows critical services to remain uninterrupted.
Inspection and remediation
You can automate certificate management to identify vulnerabilities and weak configurations, providing a comprehensive picture of your certificate ecosystem.
By continuously monitoring certificate status, automation enhances security in a way that manual efforts can’t.
For example, an automated system might detect a certificate with a weak encryption algorithm and flag it for revocation. By automating inspection and remediation, organizations are set up to more promptly address vulnerabilities as they arise.
Bulk actions
Revoking compromised certificates and reissuing new ones should be simplified to a single button click. Automation consolidates bulk actions, which reduces the risk of human error and speeds up operations.
For instance, if a CA is compromised, an automated system can quickly revoke all affected certificates and issue replacements. This more rapid response further minimizes the potential impact of security breaches and outages.
Automating bulk actions is quickly becoming essential for efficient and effective certificate management, especially in response to security incidents.
How to implement certificate automation
Automating certificate management can be done through a few different approaches. Each has its own advantages and challenges. Choosing the right method depends on your organization’s specific needs and resources. Here are some recommended strategies.
REST API Integration
Developing your own scripts to perform API calls with the server allows for requesting certificates and deploying them on intended devices. This method offers flexibility but requires considerable development effort.
REST API integration provides a more customizable approach to certificate automation.
A custom script could automate the process of requesting and deploying certificates for new devices joining the network. However, this would demand substantial time and expertise to develop and maintain.
REST API integration offers an option more suitable for organizations that have the resources to create and manage bespoke automation solutions.
Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP)
SCEP is an open-source protocol that enables devices to communicate with the CA through a shared secret to obtain an enrollment certificate.
While effective, SCEP setup is complex. It requires an SCEP agent on each device along with integration with device management tools.
Moreover, Setting up SCEP involves configuring each device with the appropriate agent and integrating it with your CA and management tools.
Despite its complexity, SCEP provides a standardized method for certificate enrollment. Implementing SCEP is worthwhile for organizations seeking a protocol-based approach to automation.
Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST)
EST, an advanced add-on to SCEP, supports Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and uses TLS for authentication instead of a shared secret. This enhances security but also requires a degree of setup and integration effort.
Through TLS authentication, EST ensures certificate requests and enrollments are conducted over a secure channel, reducing the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks.
ECC further strengthens operations by providing cryptographic protection with smaller key sizes. This is particularly important for environments where computational resources may be limited, such as IoT devices.
Additionally, EST paves the way for an automated certificate management process. It simplifies the enrollment and renewal of certificates so that devices autonomously obtain the necessary credentials without manual intervention.
Reduced administrative overhead and likelihood of human error are the primary benefits.
Microsoft’s Active Directory Auto-Enrollment
Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) offers an auto-enrollment function, simplifying the process for Windows environments.
However, ADCS has limitations, including scalability issues and challenges with non-Windows devices.
Still, ADCS provides an easy path to automation within Windows ecosystems.
For example, ADCS automatically enrolls certificates for new users and devices in an Active Directory environment.
Its limitations in handling non-Windows devices and scalability might make it unsuitable for some organizations or require supplementary solutions for broader application.
Dedicated Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform
A dedicated CLM platform provides proactive discovery, logging, and comprehensive automation from day one. These platforms offer a unified view and management of all certificates, regardless of the issuing CA, and integrate seamlessly with your existing infrastructure.
To serve as an example, consider a large financial institution managing thousands of certificates across various departments and locations.
Manually tracking and managing these certificates is not only time-consuming but will also lead to numerous errors, security risks, and compliance issues. Implementing a dedicated CLM platform transforms this chaotic scenario into a much more manageable process.
Don’t leave outages up to chance
Consider implementing a dedicated PKI and CLM solution that supports both protocol-based and fully automated solutions for managing digital certificates. Both are important for an organization to support their growing ecosystem of applications.
Platforms like Keyfactor’s Command and EJBCA Enterprise provide end-to-end automation, from discovery to issuance and renewal.
These features enable you to efficiently manage your certificate lifecycle, reducing the risk of outages and maintaining compliance across your digital infrastructure.
By implementing a dedicated CLM platform, organizations can ensure efficient, scalable, and secure certificate management.
