Hidden switches of Certutil.exe and Certreq.exe

Hey Kids, Rock and Roll! Two of the most reliable toolsets in Windows for the last two decades have been the tandem of certutil.exe and certreq.exe. It’s no secret there are a wealth of very useful functions exposed in the basic usage of these tools, also documented publicly here: certutil.exe public documentation certreq.exe public documentation…

Read More

The Hidden Cost of a Single Click

I type how I talk, and I tell stories in the voice of the time. It was a different time in corporate IT and a different attitude with the Microsoft stack ranking system. In 2007 I interviewed for the ACE Team at Microsoft and one of my interviewers was Roger Grimes. He asked me “How…

Read More

Field Report – Stop REACTING to Expired CRLs

In this article, I continue to dig into how we are changing the world of PKI administration with PKI Spotlight. One of the most common issues organizations face around the world is due to expired Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs). If you’re not already familiar, Certificate Authorities (CA) are not involved in the moment-to-moment verification of…

Read More

Field Report – PKI Spotlight Rocked My World Again

This is another blog in the series about how PKI Spotlight is changing how customers realize improved operational efficiency, enhanced security, and better visibility of their PKI and HSM key management environments, and how it’s changing our world as PKI practitioners. All the names and specifics are redacted to protect the confidentiality of all involved…

Read More