The Let's Encrypt initiative is a popular, free, automated, and open certificate authority that provides TLS certificates free of charge. Let's Encrypt announced that it will provide new six day certificates as well as IP Address certificates for general availability be end of 2025.

Six Day Certificate Lifetime

Let's Encrypt will provide certificates with six-day lifetimes (“short-lived certificates”) as an additional option. The longer-lived Let's Encrypt certificates, which currently have a lifetime of 90 days, will continue to be available alongside the six-day offering. Subscribers will be able to opt in to short-lived certificates via a certificate profile mechanism being added to the Let's Encrypt ACME API.

As Let's Encrypt explains the primary advantage of short-lived certificates is that they greatly reduce the potential compromise window because they expire relatively quickly. This reduces the need for certificate revocation, which has historically been unreliable.

Let's Encrypt hopes to make the short-lived certificates generally available by the end of 2025, whereas a small set of early adopting subscribers will get access around April 2025.

Find more information on the Let's Encrypt website: Announcing Six Day and IP Address Certificate Options in 2025 - Let's Encrypt

IP Address Certificates

In addition, Let's Encrypt will support IP addresses as Subject Alternative Names in the six-day certificates. This will enable secure TLS connections, with publicly trusted certificates, to services made available via IP address, without the need for a domain name.

The earliest short-lived certificates issued may not support IP addresses, but they intend to enable IP address support by the time short-lived certificates reach general availability.

Find more information on the Let's Encrypt website: Announcing Six Day and IP Address Certificate Options in 2025 - Let's Encrypt

 

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