Patent ID: 8707027

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a certificate management sensor executing on a processor of a first computing device, first instructions from a certificate management system (CMS) over a first network to analyze a second computing device on a second network to identify an application on the second computing device associated with cryptographic network traffic on the second computing device; determining, by the certificate management sensor, an application identity of the application operating on the second computing device that uses a cryptographic certificate in response to the first instructions, wherein the application identity comprises an application name, an application version and an operating system identifier; generating, by the certificate management sensor, an application fingerprint of the application, wherein generating the application fingerprint comprises determining a checksum of a file on disk that corresponds to the application using the cryptographic certificate, a size of the file, and a byte pattern from the file; transmitting, by the certificate management sensor, the application fingerprint to the CMS in response to the first instructions; receiving, by the certificate management sensor, second instructions from the CMS to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) for a new, renewed or replacement certificate for the application, wherein the second instructions are generated by the CMS based on the application fingerprint received from the certificate management sensor; generating, by the certificate management sensor, the CSR for the new, renewed or replacement certificate for the application in response to the second instructions; transmitting, by the certificate management sensor, the CSR to the CMS over the first network in response to the second instructions; receiving, by the certificate management sensor, third instructions from the CMS to automatically install the new, renewed or replacement certificate on the second computing device in response to the CSR; and initiating execution of the third instructions to automatically install the new, renewed or replacement certificate on the second computing system.