CAA record

Last change on 2025-10-07 • Created on 2025-10-07 • ID: NE-9E48E

Usage

CAA records are used to define certificate issuance policies for a domain.

Example:

Type Name (use @ for root) Criticality Tag Value TTL
CAA @ 0 issue letsencrypt.org
CAA @ 0 issuewild letsencrypt.org
CAA @ 0 issuemail digicert.com
CAA @ 0 issuevmc digicert.com
CAA @ 0 iodef mailto:security@example.com
CAA @ 0 contactemail holu@example.com
CAA @ 0 contactphone tel:+1234567890

Description

When a Certificate Authority (CA) issues a certificate, it checks the domain's CAA records (Certification Authority Authorization record) to verify that the issuance complies with the specified rules. This mechanism helps prevent unauthorized CAs from issuing certificates for your domain.

  • The issue and issue* tags specify which CAs are authorized to issue certificates for the domain.
  • The iodef tag defines a contact method for reporting certificate issuance problems or policy violations. The CA must support this tag. If it doesn't, you won't be notified about violations.
  • The contactemail and contactphone tags specify your contact information.
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