There are so many little things that are associated with managing a site; How to Configure And Manage CAA Records is one of them. They are not the glamorous feature of domain administration, but they serve quite an important purpose in ensuring that things are safe.
Many do not even know what they are until something breaks or a certificate request is denied. It is then that the scrambling starts, in an attempt to establish the reason a certificate authority will refuse to provide an SSL certificate.
Now what is a CAA record? It is only a little text, in your DNS settings, that states which certificate authorities may issue SSL/TLS certificates on your domain. In essence, it assists in avoiding the issue of issuance of unauthorized certifications.
When you get it wrong, or you simply forget all about it, you’re opening the door to possible security threats or at the very least, a lot of headache in getting your site secured.
The point is that most domain owners do not access these records until the time when they actually need to. And even there, how they operate can be like attempting to read another language. However with practice it is not that difficult to handle them. And just needs a bit of time and a few good examples to figure out what is going on.
CAA records, short for Certification Authority Authorization, are kind of like a bouncer for your domain. They tell certificate authorities “those are the folks who issue SSL certificates”, who’s allowed in and who’s not.
Without a CAA record, any trusted certificate authority can issue a certificate for your domain. That might not seem like a huge deal at first, but in terms of security, it’s a bit of a gamble.
The idea behind CAA records is pretty simple: you list which certificate authorities are allowed to hand out SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. If a CA isn’t on that list, they’re supposed to reject the request. It is like an extra layer of protection which keeps someone from tricking a random certificate authority into giving them a certificate for your site.
SSL/TLS certificates are what make that little padlock sign show up in your browser, this lets visitors know a site is secure. They are a big deal. So if someone else manages to get a certificate for your domain, they could set up a fake version of your site that looks legit. CAA records help stop that from happening. They don’t do everything, but they shut down one possible path for attackers. Which, honestly, is better than leaving the door wide open.
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Click HereOk, so now let’ s see what a CAA record really looks like. Once you have the hang of it it is pretty easy. It is not even quite as frightening as it may seem.
This part’s basically a switch. More often than not you will find it set to 0 which simply means non-critical. 1 corresponds to critical indicating that it is the responsibility of a certificate authority (CA) to know this record.
When you make the flag 1 you are effectively saying:
“This rule is super important. Should you (the Certificate Authority) not know what to do with this record, stop there and tell them no certificate.
In short:
This is where it gets somewhat more specific. There are three main tags:
This is just the CA’s domain or a contact method. So, if you want Let’s Encrypt to be your only CA, you’d write something like “letsencrypt.org”. For iodef, it might be your email: “mailto:admin@yourdomain.com”.
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Now imagine you want Let’s Encrypt to be the only one allowed to do that for your site. Then your CAA record would look like this:
0 issue “letsencrypt.org”
That just means:
Now let’s say you also wanna be notified if someone tries to get a certificate and they’re not allowed, maybe a hacker or just some mistake. Then you can tell the CA, “Yo, send me an email if that happens.” You’d add this:
0 iodef “mailto:you@yourdomain.com”
Let’s say you want two different companies to handle different kinds of certs. One for normal stuff, one for wildcard domains (like *.yourdomain.com). It might look like:
0 issue “sectigo.com”
0 issuewild “digicert.com”
So, Sectigo can give out the regular ones, and Digicert can handle wildcard ones. It’s all about who you trust.
All right, let’s walk through how to add a CAA record.
Go to wherever your domain is hosted. This could be your web hosting provider (cPanel), domain registrar, or a cloud service like Cloudflare. Look for something like “DNS settings” or “Zone editor.” That’s where all the magic happens.
Click on “manage” and then “Add Record” or something similar, and from the record types (A, CNAME, TXT, etc.), pick CAA. Not all providers list it by default, so sometimes you have to scroll or hit “Advanced.”
The following is what you will have to type in:
You just have to click save or apply, whichever button it happens to be.Propagation everywhere may not take as little time as it will need, it may take several hours, therefore do not panic when it does not work the first time.
Okay, so maybe you already added a CAA record, but now you need to tweak it a bit. Or just get rid of it altogether. No stress, here’s how you deal with it.
First, head back into your DNS settings. Go wherever you manage your domain. Look for your list of existing DNS records. Somewhere in there, you’ll see the ones marked as CAA.
They might be listed next to the A, MX, and TXT records, it depends on the system, but just scroll through the list and you’ll spot them.
If you just need to change something, like switching from one certificate provider to another, you can usually click “Edit” next to the If you just need to change something, like maybe switching from one certificate provider to another, you can usually click “Edit” next to the record.
From there, you can change:
Make your changes, save, and you’re good.
To delete a CAA record altogether, perhaps it is outdated or you simply do not need it any longer, simply press the little delete or trash icon next to it.
After that, the system will probably ask you to confirm. Say yes, and that’s it. Gone.
Managing CAA records isn’t something you need to stress about every day, but it is smart to keep a few good habits. Here’s what helps keep things clean and secure.
Don’t just allow every certificate authority out there.
List only those that you use or trust. Under the assumption that you have it integrating into Let’s Encrypt, then just go with that.
No need to open the door wider than necessary. Less is more here — the fewer CAs allowed, the smaller the risk of someone messing with your domain.
This one’s simple, but most people forget it. Add an iodef tag with your email so you’ll get notified if a CA tries to issue a certificate that’s not allowed by your settings.
Like this: 0 iodef “mailto:you@yourdomain.com”
That way, if something shady or just plain wrong happens, you’ll hear about it right away. Free early warning system.
Life changes. So does your website. Maybe you switch hosting providers, maybe you start using a different CA. It’s a good idea to check your CAA records once in a while — make sure they still match what you’re actually doing. Delete anything outdated. Update what needs updating. It takes five minutes, max.
If you’ve got a bunch of domains or subdomains, doing this stuff manually can get messy fast. Some tools or hosting platforms let you automate CAA record management — totally worth looking into. Less clicking, fewer mistakes. Just set it and forget it.
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Click HereCAA record management may not be first on your to do list and quite frankly, that is understandable. They mostly work in the background until something goes awry, such as when a certificate request is rejected without an explanation as to why. But they’re one of those behind-the-scenes tools that quietly do a lot for your domain’s security.
Now that you’ve seen what they’re about; what they do, how they work, and how to set them up, you’re in a much better spot than most domain owners. It’s not rocket science, just a matter of knowing where to look and what to fill in.
Whether you’re locking things down to a specific certificate authority, setting up notifications in case something goes sideways, or just doing a quick check to keep things current, CAA records are a simple but powerful way to protect your site.and when you put them there they take care of themselves most.
Periodically verify your records, particularly when you change your setup.
Yes, you absolutely can. For example, when you want one CA such as Sectigo to issue regular certificates and another one such as DigiCert to issue wildcard certificates, you can add two separate CAA records with different values. This will enable you to assign duties to other reliable CAs without a problem.
It is a great practice to verify your CAA records after every couple of months to ensure that they are current. When you switch your Certificate Authority, receive a new email address to contact in case of violations, or otherwise change anything, it is important to update your CAA entries accordingly. It can be done within a few minutes and it serves to keep your site safe.
It is not necessary, but it is a good idea to add the tag iodef. In doing so, you will be informed in case someone attempts to issue a certificate of your domain without authorization. It is the security guard on your back- in case something sneaky is going on, you will get an email notification to investigate the matter before it turns into another bigger issue.
The regular certificates under your domain like the www.yourdomain.com would have a regular CAA record and the wildcard certificates like the *.yourdomain.com would get the wildcard CAA record only.. To be able to control who is able to issue wildcard certificates, you will have to create an additional issuewild record to your normal issue records.
CAA records are expected to be verified by Certificate Authorities prior to the issuance of a certificate. Nevertheless, when a CA disregards the record or otherwise does not comply with the regulations the critical flag (1) can be set such that the issuing of the certificate is not permitted. CAs will not overturn CAA records as often, but the flag will assist in making sure that they obey your settings.
Any change of CAA records takes a few hours to spread, although in some cases, it may require up to 24 hours depending on your DNS configuration and your provider. Do not panic that your new CAA record is not working, it just needs time to propagate through the web.
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