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Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records serve as DNS-based security controls that specify which certificate authorities may issue SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. This mechanism provides an additional layer of protection against unauthorised certificate generation.
These records function as explicit permissions within your DNS configuration, ensuring only trusted certificate providers can obtain valid certificates for your web properties.
Each component plays a crucial role in maintaining certificate security and ensuring proper communication channels exist for policy violations.
Regular CAA record checks become essential during several key scenarios:
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How do CAA records enhance domain security?
CAA records create explicit authorisation requirements that certificate authorities must verify before issuing certificates, preventing unauthorised SSL certificate generation.
What happens when CAA records are absent?
Without CAA records, any legitimate certificate authority can potentially issue certificates for your domain, following their standard verification procedures.
Why might certificate issuance fail due to CAA policies?
Certificate requests fail when the requesting authority isn't explicitly authorised in your CAA records, or when DNS resolution issues prevent proper CAA validation.
Do CAA restrictions affect subdomain certificates?
Subdomain certificate policies typically inherit parent domain CAA settings unless specific CAA records exist at the subdomain level.
Where should CAA records be configured?
Configure CAA records through your authoritative DNS provider - the service managing your domain's primary nameservers.
How can multiple certificate authorities be authorised?
Create separate CAA records for each authorised provider, such as: CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" and CAA 0 issue "digicert.com"
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