Use an ssl wildcard certificate to sign other certificates

Can I use a wildcard SSL certificate to sign other certificates?

i.e. I bought a wildcard root certificate for * .example.com

I want to allow a third party to provide me a service, on a third party .example.com.

Is it possible to create a certificate for thirdparty.example.com and sign it with my * .example.com certificate? Or I need to buy a separate certificate for a third party.

If this is not possible, can I buy a domain signing certificate? To be clear, I only want to sign certificates on .example.com and not on a root level (.com) certificate.

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No, you cannot (although it is technically possible, it will not work). Since the certificate signing certificate must have two extensions with the following values:

  • Major limits should be set to CA = True and marked as important
  • The KeyUsages extension must contain the keyCertSign and cRLSign bits .

Can I buy a domain signing certificate?



yes it is possible, but it would be very expensive for you (unless you plan on issuing a large number of certificates). As you will have to pay a hefty price for this service, buy the necessary hardware (HSM is a must), write documentation (CPS per minute), and process external audits to verify that you are complying with the supplier's CPS (certificate of practice). Several times ago I wrote an article on Root Certificate Signing: Certificate Authority Root Signing .

NTN

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