Certificate Issuance Rules Engine for Multi-CA Policy Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current certificate issuance systems lack the ability for users to manage certificate issuance across multiple Certificate Authorities (CAs) and customize certificate details based on user roles, types of certificates, and request contexts, leading to inflexible and inefficient certificate management.
Innovation Solution
A certificate issuance rules engine that allows users to configure policies and rules applicable across both public and private CAs, enabling actions such as domain restrictions, key types, validity periods, and tagging, which can be applied based on user accounts, roles, and request contexts, thereby managing certificate issuance efficiently and securely.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional certificate issuance systems are used, then certificate management is simple, but flexibility and control across multiple CAs are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments certificate issuance management into distinct policy components and rules that can be independently configured and applied to different CAs, user roles, and certificate types. This allows flexible control without requiring complete system redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
The certificate issuance system implements a universal policy framework that can manage multiple CAs, user roles, and certificate types through a single integrated platform, providing adaptability across diverse scenarios while maintaining consistent control mechanisms.
2Reliability
If custom certificate policies are implemented, then control and security are enhanced, but administrative burden increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary configuration of certificate issuance policies, defining rules, restrictions, and parameters in advance. This upfront setup enables automated enforcement of security controls during actual certificate issuance, reducing ongoing administrative effort while maintaining high security standards.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms that monitor certificate issuance requests against configured policies, automatically enforcing security rules and providing visibility into compliance status. This reduces manual administrative burden by automating policy verification and enforcement.
3Productivity
If manual certificate management is used, then simplicity is maintained, but efficiency and scalability are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service certificate issuance capabilities where users can request and receive certificates automatically based on pre-configured policies and their roles. This eliminates manual intervention for routine certificate issuance, significantly improving efficiency while the policy framework manages the increased complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for enabling users of a certificate management service to create certificate issuance policies that can be applied to certificate issuance requests across both public and private certificate authorities (CAs) and other certificate-related services. According to embodiments described herein, a certificate issuance policy includes one or more certificate issuance rules to be applied to requests associated with one or more specified user accounts or roles for certificate-related resources (e.g., public certificates, private certificates, etc.). The application of a certificate issuance rule can be conditioned on a particular request context (e.g., based on a user account or role associated with a request, a type of certificate requested, a subject name identified in the request, etc.) and can specify a wide range of actions to be performed on requests matching a rule (e.g., allowing or denying a request, modifying one or more parameters of the request, etc.).