TLS Certificate Audit

TLS Certificate Audit Intelligence

The following page provides information on the TLS Certificate Audit indicator drivers included in Netify's Intelligence engine.

Overview

Our suite of TLS certificate drivers provides a comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy by rigorously auditing the technical integrity of every encrypted connection on the network. By simultaneously detecting expired certificates, hostname mismatches, self-signed signatures, and excessive validity periods, these drivers eliminate the primary blind spots associated with outdated or fraudulent encryption.

Other Intelligence Info

The TLS Expired Certificate indicator driver identifies connections where a certificate has passed its pre-defined expiration date, rendering it technically and legally invalid. This lapse indicates that the server's identity has not been recently re-verified by a trusted Certificate Authority, often a sign of neglected infrastructure or outdated security standards.

The TLS Certificate Mismatch indicator driver identifies instances where the domain name requested by the client does not align with the identities listed in the certificate's Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field. This discrepancy serves as a critical indicator of a man-in-the-middle attack, signaling that a valid certificate issued by one entity may be repurposed to impersonate a completely different site.

The TLS Self-Signed Certificate indicator driver detects certificates that lack independent validation from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). Because these certificates are signed by the server itself rather than a verified third party, clients cannot cryptographically confirm the server’s true identity. This lack of verification creates a critical vulnerability, as an attacker can easily present their own self-signed certificate during a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack

The TLS Lifespan Validity indicator driver monitors for certificates that exceed the maximum lifespan mandated by modern security standards. By identifying these evergreen certificates, the driver highlights relics of poor security practices that are susceptible to long-term compromise and slower to adopt modern encryption.