Let’s Encrypt announced earlier this year that they will begin issuing wildcard certificates in January 2018. This announcement comes after multiple requests from users who are keen to utilise wildcard certificates to make HTTPS deployment simpler.
Wildcard certificates are used in the case of websites where a number of subdomains are switching to HTTPS, as well as the base domain. The wildcard certificate means a single certificate is issued for both the domain and all associated subdomains, making the process much more streamlined.
Let’s Encrypt recently blogged about the upcoming release and explained the following about the availability of the certificates:
“Wildcard certificates will be offered free of charge via our upcoming ACME v2 API endpoint. We will initially only support base domain validation via DNS for wildcard certificates, but may explore additional validation options over time.”
As the web is working towards 100% HTTPS status, solutions like wildcard certificates are hugely helpful and it’s great to see Let’s Encrypt listening to the community and working to provide options to suit all business and website types.
For more information about the certificates or to ask any outstanding questions, head over to the Let’s Encrypt community support forums.
