Short-Lived Certificates Are Coming in 2025

Feisty Duck’s Cryptography & Security Newsletter is a periodic dispatch bringing you commentary and news surrounding cryptography, security, privacy, SSL/TLS, and PKI. It's designed to keep you informed about the latest developments in this space. Enjoyed every month by more than 50,000 subscribers. Written by Ivan Ristić.

Judging from recent events, the focus in the next couple of years will be on adopting significantly reduced certificate lifetimes. We’ve known for a while that Google wants to reduce certificate lifetimes to ninety days, but earlier this year, Apple surprised everyone by pushing for as little as forty-five days (forty-seven in the latest proposal). Unlike Apple and Google, which are forcing everyone to follow their direction, Let’s Encrypt is approaching the problem from the other end by offering us a choice.

In his end-of-year letter, Josh Aas, the founder and executive director of the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), announced plans for six-day certificates. Happy 2025: short-life certificates for everyone!

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