🦉 OWL CLM

🦉 Overview

OWL CLM (Certificate Lifecycle Management) is a modern, enterprise-grade platform designed to simplify and automate the complete lifecycle of digital certificates across your organization. From initial issuance to renewal, monitoring, and revocation, OWL CLM provides a centralized solution for managing all your SSL/TLS certificates.

Core Capabilities

📦 Certificate Inventory

The Certificate Inventory is the heart of OWL CLM, providing a comprehensive view of all certificates across your organization. Each certificate configuration can have multiple instances, allowing you to track certificate history and manage renewals effectively.

Certificate Types

OWL CLM supports four distinct certificate types, each with specialized features:

🖥️ Server Certificates

• Purpose: SSL/TLS certificates for web servers, APIs, and applications
• Features: Security grading, endpoint monitoring, SAN support, chain validation
• Use Cases: HTTPS websites, REST APIs, microservices, load balancers

👤 Client Certificates

• Purpose: Authentication certificates for users, devices, and applications
• Features: Mutual TLS support, device authentication, API client authentication
• Use Cases: VPN access, API authentication, device identity, service-to-service communication

🔒 Root CA Certificates

• Purpose: Trust anchors for your certificate hierarchy
• Features: Trust chain visualization, distribution management
• Use Cases: Private PKI, internal certificate authority

🔗 Intermediate CA Certificates

• Purpose: Signing certificates in your certificate chain
• Features: Chain validation, issuer tracking
• Use Cases: Multi-tier PKI, certificate signing operations

Certificate Instances

Each certificate configuration can have multiple instances representing different versions over time. This allows you to:

• Track certificate renewal history
• Manage certificate rotation across environments
• Maintain both current and previous certificates during transitions
• Download certificates and private keys for any instance

Key Management

• Secure Storage: Private keys stored with encryption
• Download Control: Role-based access to private keys
• Key Upload: Associate existing private keys with certificate instances
• Key Validation: Automatic verification that keys match certificates

🔍 Endpoint Monitoring

Continuous monitoring of certificate deployments across all your endpoints ensures you always know what's running in production and can quickly identify misconfigurations or security issues.

Real-Time Certificate Checking

• Live TLS Connections: Connects to endpoints and retrieves actual deployed certificates
• Chain Retrieval: Automatically captures complete certificate chains
• Multiple Protocols: Supports TLS 1.2, TLS 1.3, with automatic fallback
• Redirect Handling: Follows HTTP redirects to find the final certificate

Sync Status Detection

OWL CLM automatically compares deployed certificates with your inventory to determine sync status:

• ✅ SYNCED: Deployed certificate matches an instance in inventory
• ❌ OUT OF SYNC: Deployed certificate not found in inventory
• ⚠️ ERROR: Unable to connect or retrieve certificate

Endpoint Discovery

• Manual Entry: Add endpoints by hostname and port
• Automatic Import: Import discovered certificates into inventory
• SAN Discovery: Automatically find endpoints from certificate SAN fields

Infrastructure Detection

OWL CLM automatically detects and displays infrastructure information:

• IP Address Resolution: DNS lookup for each endpoint
• Cloud Provider Detection: Identifies AWS, Azure, GCP, Cloudflare, etc.
• Region Identification: Geographic location of infrastructure

Filtering & Search

• Filter by status (online, error, checking)
• Filter by expiry window (expired, critical, warning, normal)
• Filter by certificate issuer
• Search by hostname or common name

🔄 Automation & Renewal

Automate certificate renewals to eliminate manual work and prevent expiration-related outages.

Workflow Integration

• HashiCorp Vault PKI: Generate certificates using Vault's PKI engine
• Custom Workflows: Define your own certificate issuance processes
• Renewal Automation: Automatically trigger renewals based on expiry thresholds

Certificate Generation

Generate new certificates directly from the inventory:

• Server certificates with custom key types (RSA 2048, 4096, or EC P-256, P-384)
• Client certificates for authentication
• Automatic CSR generation
• Private key encryption and storage

Bulk Operations

• Import multiple certificates from monitoring
• Renew certificates in batches
• Update configurations across multiple certificates

🚨 Smart Alerting

Proactive alerting ensures you're notified about certificate issues before they impact your operations.

Alert Policies

• Customizable Thresholds: Define alert triggers at 90, 60, 30, 15, 7, 1 days before expiry
• Effective Maximum Days: Limit alerts to recent certificates only
• Multiple Policies: Create different policies for different certificate types
• Auto-Renewal Awareness: Suppress alerts for certificates with auto-renewal enabled

Alert Management

• Automatic Cleanup: Alerts are removed when certificates are renewed
• Status Tracking: Track pending, sent, and suppressed alerts
• History: View alert activity over time with charts and tables

Email Notifications

Configure email delivery for alerts using multiple providers:

Supported Email Services

• SMTP: Any standard SMTP server (Office 365, Gmail, custom)
• AWS SES: Amazon Simple Email Service
• Google Workspace: Gmail API integration
• Local Testing: Built-in MailDev server for development

Email Configuration Features

• Test email delivery before activating
• Multiple configurations with one active at a time
• Configurable "from" address (default: noreply@owlclm.com)
• TLS/SSL encryption support

🌐 Distribution

Distribute certificates to target systems and services automatically.

Distribution Services

• AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
• Azure Key Vault
• Load Balancers (F5, Nginx, HAProxy)
• CDN Services (CloudFlare, Fastly, Akamai)
• Application Servers (Apache, IIS, Tomcat)

Deployment Tracking

• Track deployment status for each target
• View deployment history
• Monitor partial deployments
• Rollback capabilities

📊 Reporting & Analytics

Comprehensive reporting provides insights into your certificate landscape and helps maintain compliance.

Available Reports

📅 Certificate Expiry Report

• View all certificates expiring within a specified timeframe
• Grouped by expiry window (expired, critical, warning, normal)
• Export to CSV for external analysis
• Includes certificate details, endpoints, and renewal status

📝 Audit Trail Report

• Complete audit log of all certificate operations
• Track who made changes and when
• Filter by user, action type, and date range
• Maintain compliance with audit requirements

✅ Compliance Report

• Identify certificates with compliance issues
• Check for weak keys (< 2048 bits)
• Flag expired or expiring certificates
• Verify proper key algorithms

📈 Certificate Usage Report

• Overview of certificate distribution across types
• Identify underutilized or orphaned certificates
• Track certificate growth over time

📧 Alert History Report

• Visualize alert activity over time with line charts
• Filter by status (sent, pending, suppressed)
• Analyze alert trends and patterns
• Detailed table view of all alerts

Export Options

• CSV Export: All reports can be exported to CSV
• Scheduled Reports: Automatic report generation on a schedule
• Custom Filters: Filter data before export

🔐 Security & Grading

OWL CLM includes Qualys SSL Labs-style security grading to help you maintain strong certificate security.

Certificate Grading

Each server certificate receives a grade based on:

• Key Strength: RSA 2048+ or EC P-256+ required for good grades
• Algorithm: Modern algorithms (RSA, ECDSA) score higher
• Validity Period: Shorter validity periods (< 398 days) score better
• Certificate Issues: Self-signed, expired, or weak certificates receive failing grades

Grade Scale

• A+: Excellent security (2048-bit key, modern algorithm, valid certificate)
• A: Good security (2048-bit key, valid certificate)
• B: Fair security (1024-bit key or long validity)
• C: Poor security (weak key or old algorithm)
• D: Very poor security (very weak key)
• F: Failing (expired or major issues)
• T: Trust issues (self-signed or untrusted)

Security Best Practices

• Use 2048-bit or stronger RSA keys (or EC P-256+)
• Limit certificate validity to 398 days or less
• Use modern algorithms (RSA, ECDSA)
• Regularly rotate certificates
• Monitor for expiring certificates

⚙️ Workflows

Define and manage certificate workflows for consistent processes across your organization.

Workflow Types

• HashiCorp Vault PKI: Generate certificates using Vault
• Let's Encrypt: Automated ACME certificate issuance
• Manual Upload: Import certificates from external sources
• Custom CA: Integrate with your internal certificate authority

Workflow Configuration

• Assign workflows to certificate configurations
• Define renewal workflows
• Set up approval processes
• Configure automation triggers

🔐 User Authentication

OWL CLM uses AWS Cognito for secure user authentication and role-based access control.

User Roles

👁️ Read-Only

• View certificate inventory and details
• View monitoring status
• View reports
• Cannot: Download private keys, make changes

⚙️ Operator

• All read-only permissions
• Download private keys and certificates
• Import and manage certificates
• Run monitoring checks
• Cannot: Manage users, change system settings

👑 Administrator

• All operator permissions
• Manage users and roles
• Configure alert policies
• Manage workflows and integrations
• Full system access

Security Features

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Password complexity requirements
• Session management
• Audit logging of all actions

🔌 Integration

OWL CLM integrates with your existing infrastructure and tools.

Supported Integrations

Certificate Authorities

• HashiCorp Vault PKI
• Let's Encrypt (ACME)
• Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services
• Custom CA via API

Cloud Platforms

• AWS (ACM, Secrets Manager, S3)
• Azure (Key Vault, App Service)
• Google Cloud (Certificate Manager)

Monitoring & SIEM

• Splunk
• Datadog
• New Relic
• Prometheus/Grafana

Notification Channels

• Email (SMTP, SES, Google Workspace)
• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• PagerDuty
• Webhooks for custom integrations

API Access

• RESTful API for programmatic access
• API key authentication
• Comprehensive API documentation
• Rate limiting and usage tracking

🚀 Getting Started

Basic Workflow

1. Add Endpoints: Start by adding the endpoints you want to monitor
2. Check Certificates: Run certificate checks to discover what's deployed
3. Import to Inventory: Import discovered certificates into your inventory
4. Configure Alerts: Set up alert policies for expiration notifications
5. Monitor Sync Status: Verify certificates are synced across endpoints
6. Automate Renewals: Configure workflows for automatic certificate renewal

Need Help?

Contact our support team for assistance with setup, integration, or any questions about OWL CLM.