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Private Certificate Authority (CA) Signed SSL Detected

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.

Analyst Q&A

What this signal answers

The questions every analyst asks before acting on this signal.

What it detects01

What does 'Private Certificate Authority (CA) Signed SSL Detected' mean in SOC or domain analysis?

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.

Why it matters02

Is a private CA always safe?

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.

How analysts use it03

How should SOC analysts interpret private CA certificates?

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.

Evidence shape

What Private Certificate Authority (CA) Signed SSL Detected looks like in the response

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.

json
{
  "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"
  }
}
See in API reference
Siblings

Peers in SSL Behavior

14 other signals share the same subgroup. They detect related behaviors and often co-fire on the same IOC.

Critical SSL Certificate Authentication Failure

It means that the SSL/TLS certificate presented by the domain failed critical validation checks. This can occur due to m…

MaliciousCore
Invalid Hostname Validation (CN/SAN Mismatch)

It means the SSL/TLS certificate’s Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) does not match the accessed domain…

MaliciousCore
Organization-Validated (OV) SSL Certificate Detected

It means the SSL/TLS certificate of the domain includes verified organizational details that have been authenticated by …

SafeCore
Self-Signed SSL Certificate Detected

It means the domain is using an SSL/TLS certificate that was generated and signed by the same entity, without verificati…

MaliciousCore
Show 10 more in SSL Behavior

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