It means the SSL/TLS certificate’s Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) does not match the accessed domain. This mismatch indicates that the certificate may not have been legitimately issued for the current host, raising authenticity concerns.
Three questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.
It means the SSL/TLS certificate’s Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) does not match the accessed domain. This mismatch indicates that the certificate may not have been legitimately issued for the current host, raising authenticity concerns.
Because attackers and malicious proxies often present mismatched certificates to intercept or impersonate legitimate traffic. It can also result from expired or misconfigured certificates, but when seen in combination with malicious behaviors, it is a strong red flag.
Analysts should verify whether the mismatch is due to misconfiguration, expired certificates, or deliberate tampering. In threat contexts, this indicator is frequently associated with phishing kits, fake HTTPS sites, and man-in-the-middle interception attempts.
A realistic shape of the entry the engine appends to the risk_signals array when this signal fires. Evidence keys are subgroup-default; per-signal overrides documented in the API reference.
{
"slug": "ssl_host_validation_failed",
"name": "Invalid Hostname Validation (CN/SAN Mismatch)",
"group": "http_crawling_history",
"subgroup": "ssl_behavior",
"direction": "malicious",
"evidence": {
"cert_issued_days_ago": 9,
"issuer": "letsencrypt",
"valid_for_days": 90,
"rotation_count_90d": 3,
"cert_type": "DV"
}
}15 other signals share the same subgroup. They detect related behaviors and often co-fire on the same IOC.
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It means the domain is using an SSL/TLS certificate that was generated and signed by the same entity, without verificati…
It means that the SSL/TLS certificate presented by the domain was issued or signed by a Certificate Authority that is no…
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