Censys Lite Certificates

To provide optimal search performance on high-value (for example, unexpired) certificates in the Censys Certificates dataset, we limit searchable fields on expired certificates. We call these Censys Lite Certificates.

What are Lite Certificates?

Lite Certificates refers to a technique where Censys removed numerous indexed fields from our search index after a certificate expires, allowing us to significantly shrink the amount of data needed to be stored and queried across.

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

Lite Certificates include the following indexed fields:

Does this mean that data is no longer available?

No! This only removes any field not listed above from being queried in a search query. All fields and their existing data are still present when looking at a certificate on the Details page or using the certificate lookup API.

When does a Certificate become a Lite Certificate?

Certificates turn into Lite Certificates immediately after the certificate expiration date.