An Introduction Of Certification Authority Authorization (CAA)

Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) is a standard intended to help secure sites by keeping the issuance of unapproved SSL/TLS computerized authentications.Certificate Authorities (CAs) is the powerful entity whose job is to make sure that every single SSL certificate is authorized by using different methods of domain validation. It is normally done by linking the particular SSL certificate with particular website using a particular domain. But the CA should be listed as an authorized issuer of certificate. As CAA specify which CAs are genuine and are allowed to issue certificate for a domain, it helps in preventing or minimizing chances of hacking or misusing SSL certificate.

Why Use CAA?

A CA dependably utilizes techniques for space approval to ensure each SSL/TLS certificate ask for is approved (for the most part by ensuring it is connected somehow to a specific site utilizing that domain).Certificate Authorities (CAs) is the powerful entity whose job is to make sure that every single SSL certificate is authorized by using different methods of domain validation. It is normally done by linking the particular SSL certificate with particular website using a particular domain. But the CA should be listed as an authorized issuer of certificate. As CAA specify which CAs are genuine and are allowed to issue certificate for a domain, it helps in preventing or minimizing chances of hacking or misusing SSL certificates.

Need for CAA

As benefits of Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) are clear, next thing that hits our minds is “Do I need CAA?”. The answer is very clear…YES, we very much need CAA. As we know CAA records are used to check the authenticity of CAs i.e. which CA is authorized to issue SSL certificate as well as it provides immense amount of security from hackers. It also gives rights to the domain owner to exclude particular CA. CA can’t issue any Comodo SSL certificate without authentication. In other words, we can say that CAA can bring down the risk of issuing the SSL certificates by unauthorized Certificate Authorities (CAs).

For any domain, CA can issue certificate and with increase in HTTPS, there is an increase in SSL certificates. To put a control over this, a powerful approach was required. An approach that could not only decrease the risk but put a stop on miss-issuance of SSL certificates. CAA is designed to stop unauthorized issuance of SSL certificates.

How To Create CAA Record

In order to create a CAA record, DNS (Domain Name System) provider has to be contacted. List of CAs that you prefer should be provided so that unauthorized CAs can not issue SSL Certificates to your domain. If you did not provide with your preferred list of CAs, it automatically gives right to every single CA to issue SSL certificate to your domain, which can results in misuse of your domain by any other party.

Advantages of CAA 

One of the advantages of CAA is to supplement Certificate Transparency (CT). CT gives systems to help domain proprietors distinguish mis-issued or much of the time issued certificates for their domains after issuance, while CAA can help counteract unapproved issuance before the reality. Together they fabricate a superior arrangement of security than it is possible that one without anyone else's input.

CAA can likewise help associations who have institutionalized, or need to institutionalize or restrain the CAs they utilize. Before CAA, there was not a simple route for associations to implement this kind of strategy, however now that all CAs should check for CAA records, these approaches can really be authorized by the CAs.