Design Partner programme: the first 100 teams get SreNix free. 100 places left.

See the offer and apply
Examples / Weak certificate key
Fix example · Enterprise catalog · escalates for approval

A certificate that renewed on time, but was weak underneath

cert-manager considered this certificate perfectly healthy — it was renewing on schedule and had not expired. A deeper check available on paid plans looked inside the certificate itself and found the key was too weak to trust.

What happened

This is not a fix SreNix applies on its own. Read why on the right, then below.

  1. Detect: a deeper certificate check — part of the Enterprise catalog — reads the actual key and certificate chain behind every TLS Secret, not just whether cert-manager marked it healthy.
  2. Cause: this certificate used a 1024-bit RSA key. cert-manager does not check key strength; it only tracks whether a certificate is issued and current.
  3. Decision: replacing a certificate's key algorithm means editing the Certificate resource that a GitOps pipeline owns. That is outside the default closed list on purpose.
  4. Escalate: SreNix sent a signed, expiring approval link to the on-call security engineer, with the full diagnosis attached.
  5. Verify: once the stronger key was issued, the same check ran again and confirmed the new certificate met the required key strength.
finding · internal-billing-tlsAWAITING APPROVAL → VERIFIED
09:41:02DETECTSecret/internal-billing-tls · key size 1024-bit RSA
09:41:02CAUSEcertificate healthy by cert-manager's own check · key strength below policy minimum
09:41:10POLICYkey-algorithm change is outside the closed catalog · not auto-applied
09:41:15ESCALATEsigned approval link sent to security-oncall · full diagnosis attached
10:02:47APPROVEapproved by J. Alvarez (security-oncall) · Certificate updated to RSA-2048
10:04:12VERIFYreissued certificate confirmed at RSA-2048 · SAN list unchanged
recorded to the signed audit log either way

Why this one waits for a person

Anything that touches certificate or key material beyond a straightforward reissue is deliberately kept out of the closed list. SreNix's job here is to find what nobody else was looking for, explain it clearly, and get it in front of the right person fast — not to make cryptographic decisions on its own.

A fix class only becomes automatic once it has a track record of working, in your environment, with a way to pull it back the moment it doesn't. That's true everywhere in SreNix, not just for certificates. Read how autonomy is earned.

On-call should be quieter every week

Helm install in 5 minutes. No telemetry exfiltration. No per-investigation surprises.