diff --git a/pkg/router/routeapihelpers/validation.go b/pkg/router/routeapihelpers/validation.go
index 2f105d3e8..ba8d955cb 100644
--- a/pkg/router/routeapihelpers/validation.go
+++ b/pkg/router/routeapihelpers/validation.go
@@ -206,6 +206,9 @@ func ExtendedValidateRoute(route *routev1.Route) field.ErrorList {
 				tlsConfig.CACertificate = string(data)
 			}
 		}
+		if _, err := validateCACertificatePEM(tlsConfig.CACertificate); err != nil {
+			result = append(result, field.Invalid(tlsFieldPath.Child("caCertificate"), "redacted ca certificate data", err.Error()))
+		}
 
 		verifyOptions = &x509.VerifyOptions{
 			DNSName:       hostname,
@@ -353,6 +356,36 @@ func validateInsecureEdgeTerminationPolicy(tls *routev1.TLSConfig, fldPath *fiel
 	return nil
 }
 
+// validateCACertificatePEM checks if a CA certificate PEM is valid and
+// verifies the certificate is valid.
+func validateCACertificatePEM(certPEM string) ([]*x509.Certificate, error) {
+	certs, err := cert.ParseCertsPEM([]byte(certPEM))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	if len(certs) < 1 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid/empty certificate data")
+	}
+
+	for _, cert := range certs {
+		// Only intermediate CAs are affected, not root CAs.
+		if cert.IsCA && cert.BasicConstraintsValid && cert.Issuer.CommonName != cert.Subject.CommonName {
+			// Reject any unsupported cert algorithms as HaProxy will refuse to start with them.
+			switch certs[0].SignatureAlgorithm {
+			case x509.SHA1WithRSA, x509.ECDSAWithSHA1:
+				return certs, fmt.Errorf("router does not support intermediate certs using SHA1")
+			case x509.MD5WithRSA:
+				return certs, fmt.Errorf("router does not support intermediate certs using MD5")
+			default:
+				// Acceptable algorithm
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	return certs, nil
+}
+
 // validateCertificatePEM checks if a certificate PEM is valid and
 // optionally verifies the certificate using the options.
 func validateCertificatePEM(certPEM string, options *x509.VerifyOptions) ([]*x509.Certificate, error) {