Wildcard SSL common name - can it be called anything?

Question

Hi anyone,

I was just wondering if a wildcard SSL certificate necessarily needs to have a common name that contains the domain name of the sites that need the SSL certificate applied to. E.g for the following:

domain name: testdomain.com subsites: www.testdomain.com mobile.testdomain.com mytestenvironment.testdomain.com

Do i necessarily need my wildcard certificate to have a common name of *.testdomain.com?

Answer 1

Yes, your common name should be *.yourdomain.com for a wildcard certificate.

Basically, the Common Name is what states what domain your certificate is good for, so it has to specify the actual domain.

Clarification: It shouldn't "contain" the domain name of the sites, it should be the domain of the sites. I'm guessing there is no difference in your question, I just wanted to clarify, in case there's a misconception of what the domain should be, or what the certificate will be used for.