The process (or the pain) of SSL certificate tracking

The process (or the pain) of SSL certificate tracking

SSL certificates are essential for any business providing online services, but they also pose a serious threat to your reputation or operations if they are not monitored and maintained.

By having the proper workflows in place or using SSL certificate tracking tools, businesses can safeguard that SSL certificates do not expire, preventing business-critical applications from going down and customers from leaving your website because of distrust.

How to track SSL certificates?

You can track or monitor your SSL certificates in two ways. Either you can use a certificate monitoring service or manually check your certificates’ expiration dates.

Manual tracking of SSL certificates

Note: If you are responsible for more than 10 SSL certificates, our advice is to skip this part and jump to the section “Tools available for SSL certificate tracking”

If you want to check the expiration date of your SSL certificates manually, go to each website, and do the following:

• Click the padlock icon in the address bar for the website
• Click on Certificate (Valid) in the pop-up
• Check the Valid from dates and the Valid to dates

The displayed information includes the intended purposes of the certificate, to whom it was issued, whom it was issued by, and the valid dates. In the case of an Extended Validation (EV) Certificate, you can see some identifying information about the organization operating the site. For non-EV Certificates, like Domain Validated (DV SSL) and Organization Validated (OV SSL), you will only see which CA (Certificate Authority) issued the certificate.

Make a note of the gathered information in, e.g., an excel spreadsheet and share the document with relevant colleagues.

If tracking and documenting your SSL certificates by browsing each site seems like a circumstantial process, another option might be helpful to you; use the Windows Certificate Manager.

To view certificates for a server that hosts one or more of your websites, open the command console and then type certlm.msc. The Certificate Manager tool for the local device appears. To view your certificates, under Certificates – Local Computer in the left pane, expand the directory for the type of certificate you want to view.

If manual tracking of your SSL certificates sounds complicated and time-consuming, you should definitely go for a tool to track your certificates.

Tools available for SSL certificate tracking

SSL certificate tracking tools are available in various forms. Some are free; some require downloads, but the best are SAAS-based and general commercial.

Most tools offer basic features such as expiration warnings via email. Some also allow you to set an alert seven, fifteen and thirty days before your certificates expire. This will give you plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements and ensure your certificates are trusted.

Read reviews to understand what others think of the SSL certificate tracking system you’re considering. Once you’ve found a few that look promising, contact each company, and ask any questions you may have. Ultimately, the right tool for your business is the one that meets your needs and gives you peace of mind knowing that your data is always safe.

However, when it comes to more advanced features, such as tracking certificate types (DV, OV, EV), distribution of CAs, certificate health and trust scores, there are very few solutions available.

Moreover, you might also want to consider an SSL monitoring solution that lets you renew your certificates. After all, these tasks are inextricably linked. By using an all-in-one SAAS-based solution like SSL360®, you’ll increase your productivity and probably also save money.

SSL360® provides total visibility and control of public-facing digital certificates across your organization: Inventory, track, analyze, and renew your certificates — all in one place!

A distinct advantage of SSL360® is that it automatically discovers all your SSL certificates, even the ones you were unaware of. In virtually all initial dialogues with our customers, we experience that we provide them with a truly aha experience – the information reveals that they have far more certificates than they have documented. In recent years, a company’s number of SSL certificates has exploded. As a result, most companies do not know where their certificates are, how many they have, who issued them or what purpose they serve. This makes certificate management and transparency almost impossible.

Are you looking for a platform to track your SSL/TLS certificates?

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform for tracking your SSL/TLS certificates, look no further than SSL360®. With SSL360®’s modern and user-friendly interface that includes clickable graphs and filtering options, you can easily track and manage your certificates. Plus, it’s scalable and cloud-based, so it’s a great choice for any business.

If you want to know how many certificates your organization uses and gain insight into whether they may be misconfigured or perhaps even directly vulnerable, sign up for a free trial on SSL360®

Paid plans start from EUR. 31,25/month when a subscription is paid annually.

Get in touch with us for a non-binding quote