AWS Private CA

AWS Private Certificate Authority (AWS Private CA) is a fully managed, highly available private certificate authority service that enables enterprises to create and operate customized private public key infrastructure (PKI) hierarchies without the investment and operational overhead of maintaining on-premises hardware security modules and certificate authorities. Designed to secure internal network communications, APIs, connected IoT fleets, and containerized microservices, AWS Private CA issues X.509 certificates that establish cryptographic trust across enterprise ecosystems.

The service provides dedicated root and subordinate CAs backed by FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated hardware security modules (HSMs), ensuring that private keys are securely generated and protected against unauthorized extraction. Administrators can customize certificate extensions, cryptographic algorithms, validity periods, and subject alternative names to meet specialized enterprise security architectures. AWS Private CA supports automated certificate lifecycle management and automated renewal through native integration with AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), Kubernetes cert-manager, and the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) for mobile device management (MDM) platforms like Microsoft Intune and Jamf. In addition, the service maintains public Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responders to verify certificate validity dynamically.

Primary enterprise use cases include internal TLS/SSL encryption, mutual TLS (mTLS) microservice authentication, enterprise mobile device identity management, IoT device onboarding, and corporate PKI modernization. By providing a scalable, cloud-native PKI foundation, AWS Private CA secures internal communications across modern distributed architectures.