SSL certificate lifespans and validation windows slashed – Automation is now a necessity

The digital certificate landscape is undergoing one of its biggest changes in years.

The CA/Browser Forum—comprising major players like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla—has voted to dramatically reduce how long public SSL/TLS certificates can remain valid. The maximum certificate lifespan will shrink from today’s 398 days to just 47 days by March 2029.

The new certificate validity timeline:

Domain validation reuse is changing too:

Just as critical: the Domain Control Validation (DCV) reuse period will also shrink drastically.

• Currently: Up to 398 days
• By 2029: Only 10 days

This means domain ownership must be revalidated more frequently—especially for SAN certificates.

What it means for you:

These changes enhance security but create a new operational burden:

• More frequent renewals
• Tighter domain validation windows
• Higher risk of outages due to human error

If your organization relies on manual certificate tracking and renewals, the time to modernize is now.

Dotkeeper Recommends: Sectigo Certificate Manager:

At Dotkeeper, we partner with Sectigo to help businesses stay ahead with Sectigo Certificate Manager (SCM) — an enterprise-grade solution for fully automated public (and private) certificate lifecycle management.

With SCM, you can:

• Automatically renew and validate certificates
• Eliminate human error and downtime
• Centralize certificate monitoring and compliance
• Be ready for every change coming in 2026, 2027, and 2029

Need help preparing for this change? Contact us!