The cybersecurity crowd loves to pitch certificate automation as some sleek, forward-thinking upgrade for the modern web. But let’s be real: we didn’t get here because everyone suddenly became proactive. We got here because the industry kept messing up. Automation isn’t a reward for good behavior; it’s an intervention. For years,we’ve seen a spectacular parade […]
Certificate automation is a solved problem. The tools exist, the CAs support them, and most IT teams understand the risk of going manual. Yet 38% of organizations still manage certificates with spreadsheets, and 70% admit they don’t have the staff to keep up. The gap between what’s available and what’s adopted isn’t a technical story. […]
The SSL industry already has one countdown on the wall. By 2029, the old annual renewal rhythm will be gone. Certificates will expire faster, automation will be mandatory, and businesses still running on calendar reminders will fall behind. That challenge, at least, is legible. The harder problem is not about time. It’s about visibility. Post-quantum […]
On May 8, 2026, Let’s Encrypt temporarily stopped issuing certificates after detecting an internal error in its certificate system. Existing certificates remained valid, but new requests and automated renewals were affected during the interruption. Service was later restored after Let’s Encrypt changed the affected issuance path. What Happened Inside Let’s Encrypt? The interruption traced back […]
If SSL certificates were only about encryption, the paid market should have collapsed by now. Basic HTTPS is everywhere. Free DV certificates protect ordinary websites. Hosting panels turn SSL into a checkbox. Browsers no longer treat encrypted pages as special; they flag unencrypted ones as broken. Yet paid SSL still exists. The market thrives because […]
Picking a code signing certificate provider is harder than it should be. Four publicly-trusted Certificate Authorities cover almost every legitimate buying scenario: Sectigo, Comodo, DigiCert, and GoGetSSL. At first glance they all look similar. They issue the same X.509 certificates, follow the same CA/Browser Forum rules, and ship hardware tokens that meet the same FIPS […]
SSL certificate validity is changing, and the shift has already started. The industry is moving away from long-lived certificates and toward much shorter lifetimes, forcing a different approach to how you manage SSL/TLS. This is not a minor update. Reduced SSL validity increases the frequency at which you issue certificates, validate domains, and handle renewals. […]
SSL certificates are often treated as a set-and-forget layer of infrastructure. Once installed, browsers stay quiet, and encryption fades into the background. From a support perspective, reality looks very different. Behind routine installations sits a steady flow of tickets where certificates are technically valid, correctly deployed, and still failing in ways that aren’t immediately visible. […]
You’ve just received your SSL certificate files and notice two extensions: .crt and .cer. Your server expects one, your certificate authority (CA) sent the other. Before you start troubleshooting, here’s the short answer: both file extensions hold the same X.509 certificate data, and the difference is mostly a naming convention. But “mostly” is doing some […]
At SSL Dragon, we work with SSL certificates across a wide range of environments, from simple single-domain sites to modern stacks where TLS is deliberately spread across multiple layers. Over time, that range makes one thing clear: TLS itself is stable, but the way it’s understood hasn’t kept pace with its evolution. Today, HTTPS commonly […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on a SonicWall firewall running SonicOS. You create the request in the web management interface under Device > Settings > Certificates, fill in the subject details, choose a 2048-bit (or larger) RSA key and the SHA-256 signature algorithm, then export the request and […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on Sophos Firewall from the web admin console. The CSR is the file your Certificate Authority needs to issue your SSL/TLS certificate, and the matching private key is created on the firewall at the same time and never leaves it.
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on Ivanti Connect Secure, the SSL VPN appliance sold for years as Pulse Secure. You create the request in the admin console under System > Configuration > Certificates > Device Certificates, fill in your organization details, and copy the encoded request into your […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) for PRTG Network Monitor on Windows. PRTG (current 2026 line: version 26.x) has no built-in CSR tool, so you build the request and matching private key on the PRTG core server (or any Windows workstation) with OpenSSL, then submit the request to your […]
This tutorial explains how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) for Pound, the lightweight reverse proxy and load balancer. Because Pound has no built-in CSR tool, you will use OpenSSL to create the CSR and private key, then submit the CSR to a Certificate Authority.
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on a pfSense firewall using the web GUI. You will create the request under System > Certificates, fill in your organization details and any SAN entries, and then export the encoded CSR to submit to your Certificate Authority. The matching private key is […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on a Palo Alto Networks firewall running PAN-OS. You create the request in the web interface under Device > Certificate Management > Certificates, set Signed By to External Authority (CSR), then export the request to send to your Certificate Authority. The private key […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on NetScaler, the load balancer and application delivery controller formerly sold as Citrix ADC. You will create an RSA private key, build the CSR with the matching Distinguished Name and Subject Alternative Name entries, copy the encoded request, and send it to your […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on Juniper through the J-Web interface on a Junos SRX device. J-Web builds the CSR and stores the matching private key on the SRX itself, so the request must be generated on the same appliance that will serve the certificate. The flow below […]
This guide shows you how to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on a Fortinet FortiGate firewall running FortiOS. You create the request in the web interface under System > Certificates > Create/Import > Generate CSR, fill in your organization details, then download the CSR file to send to your Certificate Authority. The private key […]
