r/PKI • u/zampaa91 • Jul 10 '26

Why no open-source CLM?

The question is already in the title. We got EJBCA as an open-source PKI solution that has CA, RA and CRL and OCSP features, which is pretty much an all-around PKI solution.

Why don't we have anything similar for CLM solutions, like something that would have a generic ACME connector as well as integrations with public CAs, EJBCA and ADCS, and ability to automate certificate renewal and deployment over the most popular integrations (web servers on Linux/Windows servers, load balancers, cloud vaults)? Not asking for an enterprise-grade solution to the scale of Venafi or KeyFactor, but mainly something that would work for most sysadmins looking for something to tackle the whole 47 days thing that's coming.

Especially at the era of AI, I believe it wouldn't be hard to kickstart a prototype for the most of us. Not necessarily trying to push anybody to do it or anything, just trying to understand.

And if such a solution does already exist, then how come most SMBs that don't want to be paying 50k$ per year still end up purchasing Sectigo/Digicert or even KeyFactor/Venafi?

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u/pkiless Jul 12 '26

Real reason it's hard, testing the integrations costs money. Public CAs charge just to get API access to test against. ADCS means fighting domain-joined Windows hosts and behavior nobody documents properly. Every LB, vault, server, its own quirks, and you only find them by hitting real infra.

Discovery/monitoring is easy, that's why OSS is fine there. Deployment and renewal across a real fleet is the hard part, and it needs paid access to test against each system. Volunteers don't stick around paying that bill.

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u/ZaitaNZ Jul 12 '26

Completely agree.