What is a Wildcard SSL Certificate?
A certificate that covers a domain and all its subdomain.
A wildcard SSL certificate is a public key certificate which is basically used with multiple subdomains of a domain a principle which is used for web security for sites using HTTPS.Therefore a wildcard SSL certificate enables SSL encryption on multiple domains using a single certificate. Sub-domains that are contained the single certificate must share the same primary domain.
Securing a domain plus its sub-domain a user needs to apply SSL on *.domain-name.com; Here* that carries unlimited sub-domain security aspect which is known as ‘First level wildcard domain security’. The wildcard SSL can be availed with the domain validated certificates and the organization validated certificates. It secures the www and non-www domains.
The wildcard SSL certificates with organization validation validate the business along the names of the domain and the sub-domains. On the other hand, the wildcard SSl with domain validation can only validate and secure domain name and an unlimited number of sub-domains.
In the case of the domain validated wildcard SSL certificates, no business document are required of which it can be issued quickly in a short period of time but in the case of organization validated wildcard SSL certificated there is necessity of business documents and the verification process takes a period of about 1-3 days.
Procedure in securing a website with wildcard SSL
Requirements.
- Legal documents that voucher for your organization’s legitimacy
- A Certificate Signing Request. (CSR).
- Correct information in WHOIS database.
- A very unique IP address.
Steps involved.
- Generate a CSR for the Wildcard SSL certificate.
A CSR (Certificate Signing Request) is much like a simple application form to get the wildcard SSL certificate. Here you need to fill in all your information that all needs to be correct since the certificate authority needs to verify your details then issue the SSL certificate promptly. The CSR generation process may in some cases differ from one server to another.
- Finish the order process.
Since you already have the CSR now you can proceed to finish the order process. Your certificate authority will send you an order confirmation email once the event of completion is fully done. It will consist of a configuration link of which you should click on it and send your CSR there.
- Complete the Vetting process.
When the Certificate authority has received the order it makes comprehensive review on your certificate and conducts a vetting process of which the type of certificate you purchase determines the intensity of validation done for you by the certificate.
After going through the validation and authentication process successfully then the certificate authority will send you certificate files via e-mail. Then download the files. After that follow the steps below to install the certificate successfully:
- Make sure you have the following files saved:
- Your server certificate which should be valid.
- Intermediate certificates.
- Your Private Key.
- Locate the Wildcard SSL config file so to edit.
- Configure the http.conf file.
- Test your new config file. Test it under the command
- If a successful restart your system.
