Lite Certificates

To provide optimal search performance on high-value (for example, unexpired) certificates in the Censys Legacy Search certificates dataset, searchable fields are limited on expired certificates. These are called Censys Lite Certificates.

Lite Certificates refers to a technique in which Censys removes numerous indexed fields from the Legacy Search index after a certificate expires. This allows Censys to significantly reduce the amount of data needed to be stored and queried.

A certificate is converted into a Lite Certificate immediately upon its expiration.

Certificate searches are significantly faster and more responsive while still maintaining the most common fields for searches, such as certificate names, fingerprints, serial numbers, subject information, and validity information.

Lite Certificates include the following indexed fields:

Category	Indexed fields
General Information	`names`, `precert`, `labels`, `ever_seen_in_scan`
Fingerprint Identifiers	`fingerprint_sha256`, `fingerprint_sha1`, `fingerprint_md5`, `tbs_fingerprint_sha256`, `tbs_no_ct_fingerprint_sha256`
Timestamps	`added_at`, `modified_at` `validated_at`
Validation Details	`parse_status`, `validation.ever_valid`, `validation.had_trusted_path`, `validation.type`
Parsed Certification Details	`parsed.serial_number`, `parsed.serial_number_hex`, `parsed.issuer_dn`, `parsed.subject_dn`
Issuer Information	All fields under `parsed.issuer`
Subject Information	All fields under `parsed.subject`
Validity Period	All fields under `parsed.validity_period`
Subject Key Info	All fields under `parsed.subject_key_info`

The removal of certain fields from search queries does not result in data loss. All fields and their associated data remain accessible when viewing a certificate's details page or utilizing the certificate lookup API.