Cloudflare plans public certificate authority for post-quantum web

Cloudflare has announced plans to become a public certificate authority, expanding its role from distributing certificates issued by other providers to operating part of the trust infrastructure that underpins encrypted web traffic.

The company said on September 30 that the planned service will issue conventional Transport Layer Security certificates as well as Merkle Tree Certificates, a proposed format intended to make post-quantum authentication practical at Internet scale. Cloudflare is not issuing certificates yet, and several technical and approval steps remain before the service becomes operational.

Cloudflare seeks browser and device trust

A certificate authority verifies control of a domain and issues the digital certificate that browsers use to authenticate a website and establish an encrypted connection. For a new authority, the central challenge is getting its root certificates accepted across browsers, operating systems and devices.

Cloudflare said it has applied for inclusion in the root programs operated by Chrome, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla. It has also signed a definitive agreement to acquire publicly trusted root certificate key material from GlobalSign. The transaction is expected to close within two months, subject to customary closing conditions.