It means that the SSL/TLS certificate in use was issued by a private or internal Certificate Authority rather than a globally recognized CA. This is common in enterprise networks where custom PKI infrastructures are used for internal authentication and encryption.
Three questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.
It means that the SSL/TLS certificate in use was issued by a private or internal Certificate Authority rather than a globally recognized CA. This is common in enterprise networks where custom PKI infrastructures are used for internal authentication and encryption.
Not necessarily. While many organizations use private CAs for legitimate internal purposes, attackers sometimes create their own private or rogue CAs to generate trusted-looking certificates for malicious domains or man-in-the-middle interception.
SOC analysts should verify whether the private CA belongs to a legitimate corporate PKI or an unknown entity. If the CA is unfamiliar or seen outside internal IP ranges, it should be flagged for possible misuse or unauthorized SSL inspection activity.
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": "private_ssl",
"name": "Private Certificate Authority (CA) Signed SSL Detected",
"group": "http_crawling_history",
"subgroup": "ssl_behavior",
"direction": "safe",
"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.
It means that the SSL/TLS certificate presented by the domain failed critical validation checks. This can occur due to m…
It means the SSL/TLS certificate’s Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) does not match the accessed domain…
It means the SSL/TLS certificate of the domain includes verified organizational details that have been authenticated by …
It means the domain is using an SSL/TLS certificate that was generated and signed by the same entity, without verificati…
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