AWS imported SSL certificate not showing up in CloudFront
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AWS: Imported SSL Certificate Not Showing Up in CloudFront
In the world of cloud services, security is of paramount importance. AWS CloudFront, a popular content delivery network (CDN) service, allows you to enhance the security of your content delivery by configuring SSL/TLS certificates. However, a common issue that many users encounter is importing SSL certificates into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and then finding them not appearing in CloudFront. This article delves into the possible reasons for this problem and provides solutions.
Understanding SSL Certificates in AWS
AWS heavily relies on the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to manage SSL certificates. These certificates can be either generated within ACM or imported from external certificate authorities (CAs).
Key Components:
- ACM (AWS Certificate Manager): Service used to provision, manage, and deploy SSL/TLS certificates.
- CloudFront: Content delivery network service that can leverage SSL/TLS certificates for secure content distribution.
Basics of SSL/TLS Configuration with CloudFront:
- Generate or Import Certificates: Create or import an SSL certificate using ACM.
- Attach to CloudFront Distribution: Assign the certificate to a specific CloudFront distribution to enable HTTPS.
Common Reasons for the Issue
1. Regional Discrepancy
One of the most frequent reasons is a mismatch between the regions. ACM is a regional service, meaning the certificate must be in the `us-east-1` region (N. Virginia) to be used with CloudFront. CloudFront itself is a global service but requires certificates from a specific region.
Solution:
Ensure that the certificate is imported into ACM in the `us-east-1` region. If it's imported in another region, re-import it into `us-east-1`.
2. Incorrect Certificate Format
AWS ACM requires certificates to be in PEM format. If you attempt to import a certificate in a different format, such as DER or PFX, it will fail.
Solution:
Convert your SSL certificate to PEM format before importing it to ACM. You can use tools like OpenSSL to perform this conversion:

