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SSH certificates can expire: OpenSSH certificates carry a validity interval, and a server accepts one only from its start time up to—but not including—its end time. The phrase “new SSH CAs must sign expiring certificates” has a narrower product-specific meaning: GitHub Enterprise Cloud requires CAs uploaded after March 27, 2024, to issue certificates with a configured lifetime under 366 days. That is a GitHub policy, not a universal rule for every SSH certificate authority.

How SSH certificate expiration works

An OpenSSH certificate contains valid_after and valid_before timestamps, stored as Unix-epoch seconds. A verifier accepts it only when the current time is at least valid_after and strictly earlier than valid_before. The end time is exclusive: at or after that timestamp, the certificate is expired. The certificate format and validity fields are described in the OpenSSH certificate protocol document.

A CA sets that interval when it signs a certificate. In OpenSSH, ssh-keygen provides the -V option for specifying validity. For example, GitHub’s setup documentation shows -V '+1d' to issue a certificate valid for one day. That is an example command, not a general recommendation for every organization’s certificate lifetime. GitHub says its examples require OpenSSH 7.6 or later; check the installed version and command behavior in your environment.

What “new SSH CAs must” means on GitHub

GitHub Enterprise Cloud applies a specific rule based on when a CA was uploaded. According to GitHub’s SSH certificate authority documentation, CAs uploaded after March 27, 2024, must use -V when issuing certificates and configure a lifetime of less than 366 days.

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The date and product scope matter. GitHub documents an exception for CAs uploaded before March 27, 2024: they may omit -V and issue certificates that do not expire. GitHub also describes upgrading those legacy CAs to enforce expiration. OpenSSH’s certificate format supports finite validity intervals, but that capability does not itself impose GitHub’s 366-day limit on other services or SSH deployments.

Set the lifetime when signing

In GitHub’s documented OpenSSH example, a one-day validity interval is set with -V '+1d' in the ssh-keygen signing command. The signing system should apply the intended validity interval as part of issuance rather than leaving it to each caller to choose an arbitrary duration. For automated issuance, policy can also derive the allowed lifetime from verified identity information and enforce a maximum; the oidc-ssh-ca policy reference, for example, describes claims-based principals and TTL rules capped by a configured maximum. Its sample maximum is 900 seconds (15 minutes), an implementation example rather than an OpenSSH or industry standard.

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Make sure the certificate names an accepted principal

A finite lifetime is only one part of acceptance. A user certificate must name a principal the server accepts; principals are usernames for user certificates and hostnames for host certificates. OpenSSH also defines a zero-length principal field as valid for any principal of that certificate type, so issuers and relying-party policy should treat that special case deliberately.

For servers configured with TrustedUserCAKeys, principal matching depends on the server’s authorized-principal configuration. The OpenSSH sshd_config(5) documentation describes AuthorizedPrincipalsFile and AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand. If neither is configured, the username being accessed must appear in the certificate’s principal list.

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Expiration is not individual revocation

GitHub states: “After a certificate has been signed and issued, the certificate cannot be revoked.” In its OpenSSH CA workflow, removing the issuing CA from the organization or enterprise prevents acceptance of every certificate signed by that CA, including certificates that have not yet expired. This is a broad invalidation action, not a way to cancel just one certificate while leaving others from the same CA trusted. See GitHub’s certificate authority guidance.

Short validity periods and CA rotation address different problems. Expiration bounds how long an individual certificate can remain usable if compromised, assuming systems enforce its validity interval. Rotation changes which signing CA is trusted. GitHub’s documented low-disruption sequence is to add the replacement CA, switch the issuance system to sign with it, wait until users have received certificates from the new CA, and then remove the old CA.

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Choose a lifetime and rotation plan together

A shorter lifetime can reduce the exposure window for a compromised certificate, but it also means the issuance path and client refresh process must work reliably. If users or workloads cannot obtain replacement certificates before expiration, valid access can fail. A longer interval reduces refresh frequency but leaves a certificate usable longer if it is compromised. The cited documentation does not establish one universally suitable lifetime.

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  • For issuance policy: decide who or what may receive a certificate, how identity is verified, which principals may be included, and the maximum permitted lifetime.
  • For server policy: configure accepted CA keys and principal matching so a validly signed certificate is accepted only for the intended account or host.
  • For emergencies: understand that removing a CA affects every certificate it signed, not only the suspected compromised one.
  • For planned rotation: overlap trust in the old and new CA while issuance moves and users receive new certificates; remove the old CA only after the transition.

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