Certificates

Certificate resources provide SSL/TLS certificate generation and management capabilities for lab environments. These resources enable secure communications, HTTPS services, and realistic security scenarios in your labs.

Available Resources

Certificate CA

Create and manage certificate authorities for issuing trusted certificates within lab environments.

Certificate Leaf

Generate SSL/TLS certificates signed by certificate authorities for securing web services and applications.

Use Cases

HTTPS Services

Generate certificates for web applications and APIs to demonstrate secure communication practices.

Security Training

Create realistic PKI scenarios for security training, including certificate validation and trust chains.

Microservices Communication

Secure inter-service communication in microservices architectures with mutual TLS authentication.

Development Environments

Provide realistic HTTPS environments that mirror production security configurations.

Certificate Hierarchy

Certificate Authority (CA)
├── Intermediate CA (optional)
└── Leaf Certificates
    ├── Web Server Certificates
    ├── Client Certificates
    └── Service-to-Service Certificates

Common Patterns

Simple HTTPS Setup

Create a CA and generate leaf certificates for web services to enable HTTPS access.

Multi-Service PKI

Establish a complete PKI hierarchy with intermediate CAs for complex security scenarios.

Certificate Rotation

Demonstrate certificate lifecycle management including renewal and rotation procedures.

Best Practices

1. CA Security: Protect CA private keys and limit CA certificate distribution
2. Certificate Scope: Use appropriate subject alternative names (SANs) for service certificates
3. Expiration Management: Set appropriate certificate lifetimes for lab duration
4. Trust Chains: Properly configure certificate trust chains in applications and clients
5. Key Sizes: Use appropriate key sizes for security level and performance requirements