| ID | product.platform.secrets_manager.ca_service |
|---|---|
| Description | Issues device X.509 certificates. |
| Key | ca_service |
| Type | component |
| Team | Platform Engineering |
| Owner | platform@iotgateway.example |
| Status | active |
| Technologies | Go, PKI/x509, HashiCorp Vault |
| Attributes | cert_ttl: 90d, key_algorithm: ECDSA P-256 |
| Tags |
The CA Service is the certificate authority behind every device identity. Given a certificate signing request, it validates the requester, signs a short-lived X.509 certificate, and records it for later revocation.
Why short-lived certs
A device certificate is valid for 90d. Short lifetimes mean a lost or cloned key stops working soon on its own — rotation, not revocation, is the primary defence.
A validated CSR is signed with the issuing key fetched from the Secret Store and returned with its chain.
Before expiry the device requests a fresh certificate; the old one is allowed to lapse rather than being revoked.
A compromised serial is added to the CRL, served from GET /ca/crl, so relying
parties reject it immediately.
Certificate issuance is the trust step of device provisioning:
Keys are ECDSA P-256 — small, fast to verify on constrained devices, and supported by the MQTT broker’s mutual-TLS handshake.
1 incoming link · 1 workflow
| Source object | Label | Link type | Relation | Raw id | Required | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stores secrets for | — | links | product.platform.secrets_manager.ca_service | — | — |
| Workflow | Model | Participant id | Participant label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device provisioning device-lifecycle.provisioning | example-iot | product.platform.secrets_manager.ca_service | CA service |