CNAME SSL certificates

If I go to www.example.com which has an image on the page that links to assets.example.com which is a CNAME for assets.example2.com.

Will I get the green lock even if assets.example2.com does not have a certificate, but assets.example.com does?

Solution 1:

Whether your DNS entry uses a CNAME or an A record doesn't matter. What matters is the host name the client is trying to connect to. It must match one of the Subject Alternative Names in the certificate of the server providing that resource (or, failing that, it must match the CN RDN of the cert's Subject DN).

If https://www.example.com embeds an image to https://assets.example.com (providing both are served over HTTPS with valid certificates for each) and if there is no mixed content (no resource loaded over http://, that is no JavaScript, no image, no iframe, ...) then you should get the green/blue bar as appropriate.

If assets.example.com is a CNAME to assets.example2.com and the requests are made to https://assets.example.com, this machine must present a certificate valid for assets.example.com to the client.

In addition, if multiple certificates need to be used at the same time on this IP address (and same port), support for Server Name Indication (SNI) may be required.

Alternatively, having a single certificate that supports all these names, typically via multiple Subject Alternative Name (SANs) entries, or possibly via wildcard names (which are not recommended), may be used.

This is independent of the DNS resolution mechanism (CNAME or A record).