Certificate Protocols
Understand the protocols that automate certificate issuance, revocation checking, and transparency logging.
Certificate Protocols
What is Certificate Transparency (CT)Certificate Transparency requires all publicly-trusted certificates to be logged in append-only public logs. Here's how CT works, what SCTs are, and how to monitor CT logs for unauthorized certificates issued for your domains.
By Amarjeet Shukla
May 2, 2026
Certificate Protocols
What is CMP (Certificate Management Protocol)CMP (RFC 4210/9483) is the most comprehensive certificate management protocol, handling enrollment, renewal, revocation, key update, and cross-certification. Here's how it works, where it's used, and why it's complex but powerful.
By Shivam Sharma
Apr 26, 2026
Certificate Protocols
What is CRL (Certificate Revocation List)A CRL is a signed list of revoked certificate serial numbers published by a CA. Here's how CRLs work, why they don't scale, and why they're still required in enterprise PKI despite their limitations.
By Ayush Kumar Rai
Apr 30, 2026
Certificate Protocols
What is EST (Enrollment over Secure Transport)EST (RFC 7030) is the modern replacement for SCEP, using HTTPS and TLS client authentication for secure certificate enrollment. Here's how it works, what it improves over SCEP, and where to use it.
By Amarjeet Shukla
Apr 24, 2026
Certificate Protocols
What is OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol)OCSP lets clients check whether a certificate has been revoked in real-time by querying the CA's responder. Here's how it works, why browsers soft-fail, and why OCSP stapling is the only practical deployment.
By Mounith Reddy
Apr 28, 2026
Certificate Protocols
What is SCEP (Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol)SCEP enables network devices and endpoints to request certificates from a CA using simple HTTP operations. Here's how it works, why it's still everywhere despite being outdated, and where it creates security gaps.
By Shivam Sharma
Apr 22, 2026