EMUDHRA , the Indian certificate authority, has said it is exiting the global SSL/TLS certificate business after a fault in a key generation ceremony allowed eight intermediate certificates to be minted with dangerously weak private keys. Researchers had shown that the private keys used to create these certificates were so weak they could be discovered in milliseconds, enabling attackers to issue TLS certificates for any website or mail server trusted by major browsers and other devices relying on the same roots.
The company attributed the debacle to a flaw in the Key Generation Ceremony (KGC) used in April 2025, where a wrap/unwrap step for transferring keys between hardware security modules produced a second set of weak keys alongside the intended strong keys. The eight compromised keys had private key sizes ranging from 3 to 8 bits, compared with the expected NIST P-384 ECC standard that should provide about 384 bits of entropy. The weak keys included the private keys 4, 56, 66, 115, 155, 156, 230, and 237.
Browsers blocked the affected intermediates within a day or two, and evidence suggests the weakness could have impacted many devices and systems relying on these certificates. eMudhra's chairman cited rising compliance costs and competition from free TLS providers as factors in withdrawing from the global SSL/TLS market, stating the decision to exit is in the best interests of shareholders. The firm says it will continue to investigate root causes and tighten internal controls.