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DV certificates and vetting by file on FTP

The certification authorities in our offer allow you to verify a DV certificate order in several ways, including verification with file (sometimes called a practical demonstration). This method is suitable for all orders that cannot be verified via the verification email on the verified domain (no MX records, no mailserver).

Standard DV certificate verification

The standard way to verify a DV certificate is to send a verification email to the verified domain. There are five mailboxes for a given domain and a domain owner or administrative contact’s email. The certificate applicant must have (at least) one of the mailboxes active on the domain  admin, administrator, hostmaster, postmaster or webmaster to get the email and confirm it. The only alternative is to forward the email approver to the email of the domain's administrative contact or owner (WHOIS contacts).

Alternative DV certificate verification

Certification authorities can verify a DV certificate order not only via email, but also through the unique fileauth.txt file uploaded to the FTP domain in the directory /.well-known/pki-validation/.

You can select the File vetting option in the certificate order’s fifth step (Certificate Verification and Public Key (CSR)).

Alternative DV certificate verification

The file to be used for verification can be downloaded from the order detail in customer administration. Its unique content is given by the CA and is unique to your order.

Download the fileauth.txt file (plain text) from the SSLMarket administration and upload it to the /.well-known/pki-validation/ (FTP) folder. Make sure that the file is accessible to the visitor and not restricted by, for example, the .htaccess file.

Fileauth.txt on ftp must be accessible from the internet
Fileauth.txt on ftp must be accessible from the internet
The file must be on the base domain (2nd level) in the basic form. If your site is redirected to a www.domain.com, you can set a redirect exception for the verification file (or temporarily disable this redirect).

The authority will automatically check the file and it's content at regular intervals. Once found, it will confirm the certificate order and it will be issued.

File verification is quick and easy

The above verification method will not cause any delays when issuing the certificate. The authority performs checks at very short intervals.

You are having problems with domain verification?

Please feel free to contact our customer support, who will be happy help you with any problems you may have.

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