Securing Web Transactions TLS Server Certificate Management

Published

June 16, 2020

Author(s)

Murugiah P. Souppaya, William A. Haag Jr., Mehwish Akram, William C. Barker, Rob Clatterbuck, Brandon Everhart, Brian Johnson, Alexandros Kapasouris, Dung Lam, Brett Pleasant, Mary Raguso, Susan Symington, Paul Turner, Clint Wilson, Donna F. Dodson

Abstract

Transport Layer Security (TLS) server certificates are critical to the security of both internet- facing and private web services. Despite the critical importance of these certificates, many organizations lack a formal TLS certificate management program and do not have the ability to centrally monitor and manage their certificates. This NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide shows large and medium enterprises how to employ a formal TLS certificate management program to address certificate-based risks and challenges. It describes the TLS certificate management challenges faced by organizations; provides recommended best practices for large-scale TLS server certificate management; describes an automated proof-of-concept implementation that demonstrates how to prevent, detect, and recover from certificate-related incidents; and provides a mapping of the demonstrated capabilities to the recommended best practices and to NIST security guidelines and frameworks.

Citation

Special Publication (NIST SP) - 1800-16

Report Number

1800-16

NIST Pub Series

Special Publication (NIST SP)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

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DOI Link

Keywords

Authentication, certificate, cryptography, identity, key, key management, PKI, private key, public key, public key infrastructure, server, signature, TLS, Transport Layer Security

Citation

Souppaya, M. , Haag, W. , Akram, M. , Barker, W. , Clatterbuck, R. , Everhart, B. , Johnson, B. , Kapasouris, A. , Lam, D. , Pleasant, B. , Raguso, M. , Symington, S. , Turner, P. , Wilson, C. and Dodson, D. (2020), Securing Web Transactions TLS Server Certificate Management, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1800-16 (Accessed July 30, 2025)