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Requirements for Using SSL/TLS Certificates with CloudFront

The requirements for SSL/TLS certificates are described in this topic. They apply, except as noted, to both of the following:

  • Certificates for using HTTPS between viewers and CloudFront
  • Certificates for using HTTPS between CloudFront and your origin

Topics

Certificate Issuer

The certificate issuer you must use depends on whether you want to require HTTPS between viewers and CloudFront or between CloudFront and your origin:

  • HTTPS between viewers and CloudFront – You can use a certificate that was issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) such as Comodo, DigiCert, or Symantec; you can use a certificate provided by AWS Certificate Manager (ACM); or you can use a self-signed certificate.

  • HTTPS between CloudFront and a custom origin – If the origin is not an ELB load balancer, such as Amazon EC2, the certificate must be issued by a trusted CA such as Comodo, DigiCert, or Symantec. If your origin is an ELB load balancer, you can also use a certificate provided by ACM. Important
    When CloudFront uses HTTPS to communicate with your origin, CloudFront verifies that the certificate was issued by a trusted CA. CloudFront supports the same certificate authorities as Mozilla; for the current list, see Mozilla Included CA Certificate List. You cannot use a self-signed certificate for HTTPS communication between CloudFront and your origin.

    For more information about getting and installing an SSL/TLS certificate, refer to the documentation for your HTTP server software and to the documentation for the certificate authority. For information about ACM, see the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide.

AWS Region that You Request a Certificate In (for AWS Certificate Manager)

If you want to require HTTPS between viewers and CloudFront, you must change the AWS region to US East (N. Virginia) in the AWS Certificate Manager console before you request or import a certificate.

If you want to require HTTPS between CloudFront and your origin, and you're using an ELB load balancer as your origin, you can request or import a certificate in any region.

Certificate Format

The certificate must be in X.509 PEM format. This is the default format if you're using AWS Certificate Manager.

Intermediate Certificates

If you're using a third-party certificate authority (CA), in the .pem file, list all of the intermediate certificates in the certificate chain, beginning with one for the CA that signed the certificate for your domain. Typically, you'll find a file on the CA website that lists intermediate and root certificates in the proper chained order.

Important
Do not include the following: the root certificate, intermediate certificates that are not in the trust path, or your CA's public key certificate.

Here's an example:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
Intermediate certificate 2 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
Intermediate certificate 1 
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Key Type

CloudFront supports only RSA public/private key pairs.

Private Key

If you're using a certificate from a third-party certificate authority (CA), note the following:

  • The private key must match the public key that is in the certificate.
  • The private key also must be an RSA private key in PEM format, where the PEM header is BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY and the footer is END RSA PRIVATE KEY.
  • The private key cannot be encrypted with a password.

If AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) provided the certificate, ACM doesn't release the private key. The private key is stored in ACM for use by AWS services that are integrated with ACM.

Permissions

You must have permission to use and import the SSL/TLS certificate, including permission from the certificate authority (CA) that issued the certificate to import it to a content delivery network (CDN).

If you're using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), we recommend that you use AWS Identity and Access Management permissions to restrict access to the certificates. For more information, see Permissions and Policies in the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide.

Size of the Public Key

The length of the public key for a certificate depends on where you're storing it.

  • Importing a certificate into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): public key length must be 1024 or 2048 bits. The limit for a certificate that you use with CloudFront is 2048 bits, even though ACM supports larger keys.
  • Uploading a certificate to the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) certificate store: maximum size of the public key is 2048 bits.

We recommend using 2048 bits.

For information about the public keys for certificates provided by ACM, see ACM Certificate Characteristics in the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide.

For information about how to determine the size of the public key, see Determining the Size of the Public Key in an SSL/TLS Certificate.

Supported Types of Certificates

CloudFront supports all types of certificates, including the following:

  • Domain-validated certificates
  • Extended validation (EV) certificates
  • High-assurance certificates
  • Wildcard certificates (*.example.com)
  • Subject alternative name (SAN) certificates (example.com and example.net)

Certificate Expiration Date and Renewal

If you're using certificates that you get from a third-party certificate authority (CA), you are responsible for monitoring certificate expiration dates and for renewing SSL/TLS certificates that you import into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) or upload to the AWS Identity and Access Management certificate store.

If you're using ACM-provided certificates, ACM manages certificate renewals for you. For more information, see Managed Renewal in the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide.

Domain Names in the CloudFront Distribution and in the Certificate

When you're using a custom origin, the SSL/TLS certificate on your origin includes a domain name in the Common Name field, and possibly several more in the Subject Alternative Names field. (CloudFront supports wildcard characters in certificate domain names.)

One of the domain names in the certificate must match the domain name that you specify for Origin Domain Name. If no domain name matches, CloudFront returns HTTP status code 502 (Bad Gateway) to the viewer.

Minimum SSL Protocol Version

If you're using dedicated IP addresses, you can choose the minimum SSL protocol version for the connection between viewers and CloudFront by choosing a security policy.

For more information, see Security Policy in the topic Values That You Specify When You Create or Update a Web Distribution.

Supported HTTP Versions

If you associate one certificate with more than one CloudFront distribution, all the distributions associated with the certificate must use the same option for Supported HTTP Versions. You specify this option when you create or update a CloudFront distribution.