Certificates Dataset

The Censys certificates collection includes all unique certificates observed in historical host scans and through synchronization with public certificate transparency servers.

A Google BigQuery account is required to access these Censys resources.

Here’s how to:

Query effectively using the most complete and up-to-date data Censys has on certificates.
View the data set’s schema to write efficient queries.

If you're new to Censys certificates, this brief introduction to Censys certificates will help you get started in five minutes.

The two datasets

You can add two certificate datasets.

censys-io.certificates_v2.certificates: Contains all final certificates and any pre-certificates whose final certificates are not known to Censys.
censys-io.certificates_v2.certificates_all: Contains all final certificates and all pre-certificates known to Censys.

Understand the datasets

The certificates_v2 datasets are indexed on a certificate’s SHA-256 fingerprint.

Because the certificate dataset is append-only, any change to a certificate record results in a new row.

Changes to the dataset appear throughout the day.

Controlling cost

Use Partitions and Clusters

One way to save cost is to query over certain partitions if your interest is in certificates that expire within a certain year. The dataset is partitioned by expiration date in a top-level field called not_valid_after with granularity of a year.

Within a partition, certificates are clustered by the date they were added or updated, which is present in a top-level field called inserted_at. Clusters can also be specified for cost savings if you are interested in new or newly updated certificates.

Specify Columns

The certificate dataset is wide, with about 400 columns. Use the SELECT function in SQL statements to reduce the amount of data processed.

View the Certificate Schema

You can view the certificate schema directly in the Google BigQuery interface.