Embedded PKI – Dedicated Certificate Infrastructure for Your Product
Technologically sophisticated products often need to be integrated into the operator’s systems or communicate with them at the point of use. This requires certificates whose security level meets today’s requirements. OpenXPKI enables the creation of a customized and robust PKI for the entire product lifecycle.
Today’s complex products consist of networked components that must communicate securely with one another: subsystems within a device connected via an internal network; instances orchestrated by a central platform—such as a telephone system, a mobile device management system, or a distributed control architecture. Wherever your product is intended to run in unknown customer environments and requires internal certificates, the question arises: Where do they come from—and who manages them throughout the product’s entire lifecycle?
An embedded PKI based on OpenXPKI provides the answer: a self-contained, dedicated PKI subsystem that is integrated directly into your product and reliably supplies it with certificates for decades—regardless of the customer’s other operating environment.
One product, one PKI. The embedded PKI is not a multi-purpose tool, but a certificate infrastructure strictly tailored to your specific use case. It exclusively supplies the components of your product—not the surrounding IT landscape. This deliberate limitation reduces complexity, minimizes the attack surface, and makes the system robust and manageable.
Fully automated operation. In normal operation, the embedded PKI operates autonomously. Certificates are primarily requested and renewed automatically via standard protocols such as SCEP or EST—without any manual intervention. For special cases, a request interface is also available for manually requesting certificates. The PKI also manages its own CA certificates and is designed so that only a few, clearly defined external administrative interventions are required—such as the scheduled execution of a CA rollover or the signing of a CA certificate by the customer’s external root CA.
Future-proof through planned CA rollovers. Cryptographic methods continue to evolve, and product lifecycles span decades. Embedded PKI takes this into account from the very beginning: Fully automated CA rollover processes are an integral part of the architecture and enable cryptographic keys to be upgraded when necessary—on schedule and without disrupting operations.
Tailored to your platform. An embedded PKI is always unique, custom-built to meet your specific needs. As engineers, we understand not only cryptography but also hardware and system architecture. We understand your technology stack and tailor the PKI precisely to the specifics of your platform—whether it’s Embedded Linux, a container environment, or traditional server architecture. The result is a PKI that integrates seamlessly into your product and handles certificate provisioning invisibly in the background for your customers.
Technologically sophisticated products often need to be integrated into the operator’s systems or communicate with them at the point of use. This requires certificates whose security level meets today’s requirements. OpenXPKI enables the creation of a customized and robust PKI for the entire product lifecycle.
Today’s complex products consist of networked components that must communicate securely with one another: subsystems within a device connected via an internal network; instances orchestrated by a central platform—such as a telephone system, a mobile device management system, or a distributed control architecture. Wherever your product is intended to run in unknown customer environments and requires internal certificates, the question arises: Where do they come from—and who manages them throughout the product’s entire lifecycle?
An embedded PKI based on OpenXPKI provides the answer: a self-contained, dedicated PKI subsystem that is integrated directly into your product and reliably supplies it with certificates for decades—regardless of the customer’s other operating environment.
One product, one PKI. The embedded PKI is not a multi-purpose tool, but a certificate infrastructure strictly tailored to your specific use case. It exclusively supplies the components of your product—not the surrounding IT landscape. This deliberate limitation reduces complexity, minimizes the attack surface, and makes the system robust and manageable.
Fully automated operation. In normal operation, the embedded PKI operates autonomously. Certificates are primarily requested and renewed automatically via standard protocols such as SCEP or EST—without any manual intervention. For special cases, a request interface is also available for manually requesting certificates. The PKI also manages its own CA certificates and is designed so that only a few, clearly defined external administrative interventions are required—such as the scheduled execution of a CA rollover or the signing of a CA certificate by the customer’s external root CA.
Future-proof through planned CA rollovers. Cryptographic methods continue to evolve, and product lifecycles span decades. Embedded PKI takes this into account from the very beginning: Fully automated CA rollover processes are an integral part of the architecture and enable cryptographic keys to be upgraded when necessary—on schedule and without disrupting operations.
Tailored to your platform. An embedded PKI is always unique, custom-built to meet your specific needs. As engineers, we understand not only cryptography but also hardware and system architecture. We understand your technology stack and tailor the PKI precisely to the specifics of your platform—whether it’s Embedded Linux, a container environment, or traditional server architecture. The result is a PKI that integrates seamlessly into your product and handles certificate provisioning invisibly in the background for your customers.
