The internet was built on the idea that open and free software drives innovation. Open-source projects are a prime example of community-driven efforts, and they play a pivotal role in the digital ecosystem. Infosec professionals have used free tools like Nmap, OpenVAS, and Snort for several years to minimize their attack surface.
Open-source projects offer major benefits, including reduced reliance on vendors, low or no licensing fees, building on developer skills, and accelerating digital transformation. However, open source comes with some risks, too.
An open-source certificate authority is a great example. It’s flexible and free, but there are limitations. As your needs scale, you might want to move to an enterprise version. EJBCA gives you the best of both worlds–it’s an open-source certificate authority that gives you the flexibility to seamlessly scale into the enterprise version to maintain security continuity.
The pros of EJBCA’s open-source certificate authority
EJBCA’s open-source certificate authority, known as Community, is one of the most popular public key infrastructure (PKI) solutions. It’s over two decades old, with 127 contributors.
One of the benefits of EJBCA’s certificate authority is its flexibility. It’s platform-independent and can integrate into most environments with relative ease. Because it’s open source, it allows for project forks, in which someone can take a version of the code and spin it off to create a new or customized version of the app. It also scales up or down to meet your needs.
EJBCA Community is a feature-rich certificate authority that allows you to secure industrial environments, IoT devices, national eIDs, DevOps workflows, internal PKIs, and more. Here are some of its capabilities:
- Automated EJBCA deployments
- Certificates issued for containerized apps
- Quantum-safe cryptography PKI
- Digital identities for IoT products
- TLS and mTLS certificates
- Industrial cybersecurity and birth identities
The myths about an open-source certificate authority
When it comes to open-source software, some myths simply won’t disappear:
- It’s more vulnerable to hackers.
- You’ll have trouble with support.
- Open-source software isn’t as user-friendly as enterprise software.
Myth 1: Open-source projects are more vulnerable to hackers
There’s a classic argument about security and obscurity: is software safer when no one can see how the machine works? The myth is that bad guys have an equal opportunity to inspect open-source code, then exploit its vulnerabilities.
However, in many cases, open-source software has high integrity. There have been enhancements made to it so it’s less vulnerable to attack. With multiple users performing quality assurance on it, issues can be identified and rectified quickly.
While a hacker could identify and exploit a vulnerability within open-source software, it’s even more likely that they’ll do it within closed-source software. At least with open-source projects, there are many good actors who are also looking for bugs.
Myth 2: You’ll have trouble with support
Another major myth is that open-source software automatically means you’ll have trouble with support when you need it. Because it’s a project people work on in their spare time for free, so the logic goes, you won’t get the same level of support as you would for enterprise software.
However, some projects have huge communities and robust documentation. In some cases, there’s more crowd-sourced reference material for those apps than their commercial competitors. So, when you have a question about your software, help is a few clicks away.
Myth 3: Open-source software isn’t as user-friendly as enterprise software
At one point in time, open-source software wasn’t particularly user-friendly. That reputation stuck, but open-source projects have come a long way. Now the stereotype isn’t so accurate.
Today’s open-source projects have excellent user interfaces that are simple and easy to use. EJBCA is downloaded 3,000 times per month, a testament to its positive user experience.
How to choose a certificate authority
Here are the factors you should think about when considering to go open source or proprietary for your certificate authorities:
- Budget
- Expertise
- Risk Appetite
- Your configuration needs
- Scalability
Budget
When you think about the cost of purchasing certificate authorities, it’s easy to focus on the upfront costs. If you’re only thinking about the upfront costs, then yes, an open-source certificate authority is cheaper.
However, take into account all of the work you’ll need to do to implement those certificate authorities in your organization. Can you afford to pull away personnel for an indeterminate amount of time to implement those technologies? If they’re working on your certificate authorities, they can’t work on other more valuable tasks.
Expertise
Another question to ask yourself about going open source for certificate authorities is whether you’ve got the in-house expertise needed. Do your personnel know how to implement certificate authorities and maintain them? If the answer is “no,” you’re going to have to turn to outside help.
Risk Appetite
Everyone has a certain tolerance for risk. Ask yourself what your tolerance is. Are you comfortable with your certificate authority being somewhat out of your control because it’s open source? Updates may not take place on a regular schedule, which could lead to vulnerabilities and outages.
Configuration Needs
One reason to go the open-source route for certificate authorities is that you have unique configuration needs. Open-source certificate authorities tend to be more customizable. Proprietary certificate authorities offer some level of customization but tend to be more rigid.
Scalability
While open-source certificate authorities tend to be more flexible for integration, they don’t scale well. Then again, they’re not designed to. That lack of scalability is fine if you have no plans for growth.
If you’re planning for growth, proprietary certificate authorities are designed to scale up. In addition, vendors help you as you grow by offering updates, patches, and customer support when you need it.
EJBCA: The best of both worlds
EJBCA started as an open-source certificate authority project. It’s now the most widely used and trusted certificate authority software on the market today. If you’re using the open-source version (known as EJBCA Community), you can make the shift to the enterprise version seamlessly.
Why make the switch to Enterprise?
EJBCA Community is a great place to start if you’re looking for a strong public-key infrastructure foundation. However, your needs might evolve over time, and you may be ready for advanced features and functionality that EJBCA Enterprise can provide.
When you’re ready to make the switch, EJBCA makes it as easy as possible. The Community version and the Enterprise version are compatible with one another, so there’s no reconfiguration required. You’ll also receive extensive vendor support and documentation during the transition to speed things along. Additionally, you can test EJBCA Enterprise in a controlled environment to minimize disruptions.
Make the move from open source to enterprise-grade software
Open-source certificate authorities are a good place to start. Explore EJBCA Community for a flexible foundation to public key infrastructure. If you’re ready to try the fully featured enterprise version, check out EJBCA Enterprise.
