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Internal here means I don’t need the certificates trusted by a third party.

Having built many Enterprise PKI systems — including Smart Card auth — I do know the complexity involved. I can prattle on for hours about how the Key Recovery Agents should be distributed and stored, and how “offline” means no network cables at all you dimwit.

I also know that there is virtually no difference between a root CA certificate and a signed leaf certificate.

They’re both just files.

The difference is the amount of ceremony.

DigiCert’s Root CA certificate files had a lot of ceremony — with good reason.

But the CA for “I need five devs in India to get VPN certs with a common root” is practically zero.

No, it does not take a “a lot of infrastructure” to host a 1kb file. It really doesn’t, and your persistent confusion is my point: you are simply unable to let go of your preconceptions.

Just last week I needed a pair of certs with a common root for a load balancer’s back end. Not for transmitting NSA secrets over intercontinental backhaul.

I already have access to a bone-fide HSM! For pennies!

Why can’t I be allowed to use that pre-engineered secure certificate storage system for its intended purpose!?



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