Microsoft Corporation
SECURELY ROTATING A SERVER CERTIFICATE

Abstract:

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and computer-readable media for enhancing security of communications between instances of clients and servers while enabling rotation of server certificates (e.g., X.509 certificates). The systems described herein involve updating a client list of server certificates (e.g., a certificate thumbprint) without reconfiguring or re-installing a client and/or server application, starting a new session (e.g., a hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) session), or deploying new code. The systems described herein may passively or actively update a client list of certificates to enable a client to security verify an identity of a server instance in a non-invasive way that boosts security from man-in-the-middle types of attacks.