Managing TLS/SSL certificates is simple—until you scale. In the beginning, it’s easy for one person or a small team to own both the DNS and certificate lifecycle. However, as businesses grow, so does the complexity of their digital infrastructure, and you may find yourself managing multiple domains and certificate authorities, all while trying to maintain a secure and performative online experience for your customers.
Last-minute certificate renewals can result in costly delays or even outages. DNS pre-validation, adding DNS records ahead of time to prove domain ownership, can eliminate these uncertainties, ensuring a smooth and reliable certificate issuance.
The Problem: DNS Ownership Gaps Break the Certificate Process
In a perfect world, TLS certificates would renew themselves, websites and applications would never go offline, and no one would have to chase down a DNS admin in a panic. But in reality, many teams still struggle with last-minute certificate issues, especially in organizations with siloed responsibilities or where DNS responsibilities are bifurcated between different teams, such as security and infrastructure.
For example, imagine your organization needs to renew or deploy a new certificate for your organization. First, a certificate authority (CA) needs proof of domain ownership; this process is called Domain Control Validation (DCV). Here’s where most organizations run into issues:
- Different teams (or a third-party vendor) manage the organization’s DNS.
- The team requesting the certificate doesn’t have access to add the required validation record.
- The request for updated DNS records is stuck in a ticket queue or approval workflow.
These delays are more than annoying; they can cause expired certificates, which, in turn, can have trickle-down impacts on your digital infrastructure’s availability. Uncoordinated certificate renewals can also lead to misaligned security settings and expose gaps in your DNS defenses. At the end of the day, no business wants its customers to see a ‘connection not secure’ error message due to expired certificates.
Learn more about how DNS ties into end‑to‑end certificate security.
The Advantages of Pre-Validation in DNS
Pre-validating DNS records can help streamline the DCV process, ensuring a smooth and timely certificate issuance. Think of it like having your ID out before you reach the front of the security line at the airport. Because you’ve already added the required DNS records ahead of time, there’s no risk of delays due to missing or incorrect records. This is particularly useful for organizations managing multiple domains or wildcard domains. When implemented correctly, revalidation can also help minimize the risk of DNS hijacking attacks that often target weak security postures and outdated records.
When your DNS records are pre-validated, certificates can be issued almost instantly. This is vital in situations where a last-minute renewal is necessary. Pre-validation is especially critical for organizations that handle high volumes of network traffic and can’t afford certificate-related downtime. As an added benefit, pre-validation reduces the burden on internal teams and frees up resources to handle other priorities. It’s a smart, scalable way to deliver security without complexity.
Choosing a DCV Method for DNS Pre-Validation
Modern CAs (like DigitCert) support DNS-01 challenges that allow organizations to prove domain ownership by adding a DNS TXT or CNAME record containing a unique verification token. Most importantly, these records can be left in place so that the CA can re-verify ownership automatically for renewals or additional certs.
Previously, domain control validation could be performed using the WHOIS database, an internet listing of domain owners, and how to contact them. However, due to a mix of privacy and security concerns, WHOIS validation went end-of-life, and is no longer a valid method.
DNS TXT DCV
Using DNS TXT DCV, the applicant will add a DNS TXT record to the domain’s DNS zone file. Applicants will receive a randomly generated value from that they add to the DNS TXT record. When the CA searches for records associated with the domain, they will find a record with the assigned value and complete the validation process. This method is reliable as it directly ties the domain to the entity that controls the DNS entries, establishing a secure validation process.
DNS CNAME DCV
Using DNS CNAME DCV, the applicant will add a DNS CNAME record to the domain’s DNS configuration, which points to a validation server controlled by the CA. The CA will then check that the CNAME record exists and resolves correctly to confirm domain ownership. Because CNAME validation often involves changes to internet traffic routing, it’s important to monitor and test these configurations to avoid misdirected requests or service disruption.
It’s important to note that both DNS TXT and DNS CNAME DCV require access to DNS settings and, depending on the size of the organization, may require cross-team coordination.
Other Validation Methods: Email and HTTP Practical Demonstration
While these methods are incompatible with pre-validation, some organizations may also use email verification or HTTP file upload methods to complete the DCV process.
Email DCV sees the CA send a verification link to a domain-based email address (i.e., admin@yourbusiness.com), and clicking the link proves you own the domain. Because this is a one-time validation done at the time of certificate issuance and doesn’t persist, you can’t automate or “pre-approve” future certs using this method.
Meanwhile, in the HTTP file upload method, applicants upload a specific file to a well-known path on their website, usually specified by the CA, and the file acts as proof of domain ownership. While some automation is possible with this process, the file changes with each certificate issuance, meaning even if the upload process is automated a new file will need to be added for every renewal or new certificate.
The Advantages of Pre-Validated DNS
When your DNS records are pre-validated, certificates can be issued almost instantly. This is vital in situations where a last-minute renewal is necessary. Pre-validation ensures stability across dynamic infrastructure for organizations dealing with large-scale autonomous systems. This method ensures a smooth and reliable certificate issuance process, eliminating guesswork and last-minute panic.
Flexibility and Security in Domain Validation
Pre-validated DNS records offer increased flexibility and enhanced security for domain validation. This approach allows organizations to easily handle multiple DNS types, such as CNAME records, TXT records, and IP addresses. By validating these in advance, the domain owner gains flexibility in managing DNS settings without disrupting security protocols. It provides assurance that the qualified domain names are protected and reduces risks related to unauthorized changes. Having DNS records pre-validated streamlines updates, giving teams the freedom to focus on other security measures. This is especially important when aligning DNS management with security strategies aimed at reducing vulnerabilities and exposure to threats against DNS, such as DNS hijacking attacks.
Enabling DNSSEC prevents hijacking—see our DNSSEC guide.
Implementing Pre-Validated DNS
Once you understand the value of pre-validating your domains, the next step is making it part of your certificate management workflow. Whether securing a single domain or automating certificates across multiple services, the goal is the same: eliminate manual steps by preparing your DNS in advance.
1. Use an ACME Client That Supports DNS Automation
To automate the certificate process using DNS-based validation, use an Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) client. These clients provide a seamless way to manage and validate domain certificates through DNS challenges. By integrating ACME clients into existing systems, organizations can automate routine checks, reducing human errors and operational delays.
Several popular ACME clients include:
- Certbot: Utilizes plugins to automate DNS record creation and removal.
- lego: A Go-based ACME client that supports certificate issuance through DNS challenges.
- win-acme: A Windows ACME client that facilitates automated certificate management on Windows systems.
- dehydrated: A shell script-based ACME client that can be extended with hooks.
2. Create and Maintain a Persistent DNS Validation Record
Depending on your ACME client, you may be able to use a static, account-bound token, or you might configure your DNS to delegate validation to a centralized service via CNAME. Persistent records also help maintain compliance with DNS security providers’ recommendations for automated certificate management.
3. Secure and Automate the Workflow
If your DNS provider requires API keys for automation, be sure to implement secure storage and robust access controls for DNS access. As a best practice, audit all access and changes made to DNS records to prevent abuse or misconfiguration. Working with trusted DNS security vendors can also help ensure your automation tools are properly integrated with up-to-date security settings.
With these steps in place, you’ll move from reactive certificate scrambling to a proactive, self-healing certificate ecosystem where security, performance, and deployment speed can coexist.
Overcoming Challenges in DNS Pre-Validation
While DNS pre-validation can dramatically streamline certificate issuance and renewal, implementing it successfully isn’t always straightforward. Here are a few common hurdles organizations face:
Unclear DNS Ownership
Even small or mid-sized organizations can have a robust digital infrastructure, including multiple domains and subdomains. DNS management may be split across multiple teams or even outsourced to third-party vendors. Certificate requests can easily become stalled when it’s unclear who owns a DNS zone or who is responsible for adding validation records. These bottlenecks often contribute to security incidents when expired certificates go unnoticed or unaddressed. Pre-validation only works when you have clear, reliable access to the right part of your DNS.
Propagation Delays and Validation Timeouts
DNS changes don’t always go live instantly. A DNS service can play a crucial role in DNS pre-validation by ensuring DNS records are propagated quickly. Depending on your DNS service provider and time-to-live (TTL) settings, new TXT or CNAME records might take minutes—or hours—to propagate. Any lag can cause automated certificate issuance to fail, especially if the system is expecting near-instant validation. This latency can also affect network traffic performance if timeouts cascade into service disruptions.
Cluttered or Dangling DNS Records
Even in the digital space, clutter can happen. Unfortunately, unused, abandoned DNS records can become a serious liability. Abandoned (also called dangling) records that point to inactive services can expose your organization to serious security incidents, including DNS hijacking or BGP hijacking attacks. These attacks occur when malicious actors reroute internet traffic to assets under their control, posing a direct risk to both your organization and your users.
Dangling DNS records are often a symptom of poor DNS hygiene. Using DNS pre-validation necessitates organizations implement robust DNS hygiene controls to avoid stale, vulnerable records that could undermine the validation process or create a weak security posture.
Security Considerations
Persistent DNS validation records may not contain sensitive business or customer data, but they do offer insight into your certificate activity. If you’re using reusable tokens or delegating validation via CNAMEs, it’s important to ensure those endpoints are secure. In the wrong hands, misused tokens or compromised delegated zones could potentially be exploited. Establishing strong controls around these records is essential for certificate reliability and as part of a broader approach to network security that accounts for evolving DNS-based threats.
Token Reuse Limitations
Some CAs don’t support persistent tokens, requiring a new DNS challenge every time a certificate is issued. This limits how “pre-validated” your setup can be unless you use automation tools that dynamically update DNS records in real time.
Automation Complexity
To make DNS pre-validation scalable, you need to rely on ACME clients, and that means managing API credentials, building scripts or pipelines, and ensuring permissions are secure. Automation brings major benefits but also a steeper learning curve and tighter coordination across teams.
DNS Made Easy: Superior support for DNS Pre-validation
Ready to take control of your certificate lifecycle? DNS Made Easy enables organizations to streamline the certificate issuance and renewal process with robust integrations and automation capabilities.
As an added benefit, DNS Made Easy helps reduce the risk of DNS-based attacks and enhances readability and availability with lightning-fast resolution, built-in security controls, and global propagation in sections. Don’t settle for less when it comes to your critical infrastructure. Explore how DNS Made Easy can elevate your DNS performance.