A Wildcard SSL certificate allows for extremely versatile SSL deployment. One Wildcard can secure communications for any number of sub domains under a single domain.
Your company can save time and money by using a single wildcard certificate instead of several individual ones. At the conclusion of this post, we’ll discuss the rare circumstances in which using wildcard certificates is a bad idea.
Use a wild card in your CSR
When requesting an SSL certificate, you will be asked to submit a certificate signing request (CSR).
After the CSR is used by Comodo SSL to create a wildcard certificate. For us, the Wildcard pattern would consist of any and all top-level domains, like:
Just slap it together like always
There is no extra configuration required for installing a wildcard SSL certificate. The setup procedure is standard and should be followed for any certificate.
Methods for installing a wildcard certificate on several web servers
Sub domains are typically hosted on separate servers. For instance: • Your primary site is hosted by your retail platform.
- A Windows server with a sub domain dedicated to the dashboard
- The support desk-managed sub domains of the help system
Adding your private key to other servers is all that’s required to use a wildcard certificate on many devices.
A server service would have access to your private key if you generated your CSR there. You’ll have to hand over your private key throughout the certificate installation process on every other computer. Your private key may usually be copied and pasted directly from the site where you generated your CSR.
When is it OK to utilize a wildcard SSL certificate?
Wildcard certificates are a cost-effective option for businesses with multiple sub-domains. There’s no denying that using a wild card certificate is the best option here because:
- it’s cheaper than securing each sub-domain individually;
- one certificate is much easier to maintain track of than many.
Wildcards are fantastic tools that have countless applications. However, there are several situations in which you shouldn’t utilize a Wildcard.
Separate, high-security environments shouldn’t make use of a “wildcard” certificate. You increase the risk of exposure to all 13 sites by using the same certificate and private key across numerous domains, system administrators, and departments. Working in an industry that requires a high level of security means using separate certificates and keys for each network and device.
Don’t use a generic identifier for your company
Wildcards are not allowed at the Extended Validation level. The main reason for this is security; extended validation (EV) SSL certificates require the most attention during validation, so allowing anyone to host anything at the sub-domain level is a terrible idea. Sub-domains need to be encrypted with separate certificates or a Multi-Domain certificate with the sub-domains indicated as SANs in order to receive business authentication features like the green EV address bar.
