/crtsh/certificates/search

POST /api/crtsh/certificates/search

Price: 1 credit

Search Certificate Transparency logs for certificates covering a domain

How to use it

Search Certificate Transparency logs for certificates by domain identity or serial number. Returns each certificate's common name, the full list of covered domains (Subject Alternative Names), issuer name, serial number, validity window (not before / not after), and when it was logged. Use a `%` wildcard in the domain (e.g. `%.example.com`) to surface subdomains — the primary tool for subdomain and certificate reconnaissance. Narrow matching with `field` (common name, SAN, organization, organizational unit, email) and `match` (exact vs pattern), drop expired certificates with `exclude_expired`, or look up a specific certificate by `serial`. A domain with no certificates returns an empty list.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• domain string nullable — Identity to search for — a domain (the common case), organization, or email, matched against the field selected by `field`. Accepts a `%` wildcard (e.g. `%.example.com` to surface subdomains). Provide either `domain` or `serial`, not both. (examples: "example.com", "%.github.com"; minLength: 1)
• serial string nullable — Certificate serial number in hexadecimal to look up. Provide either `domain` or `serial`, not both. (examples: "27fd65644d90aa4763b6cfb53d6dcca3")
• field string — Which identity field the `domain` term is matched against. (default: "identity"; one of: "identity", "common_name", "san", "organization", "organizational_unit", "email")
• match string — How the `domain` identity is matched: `autoselect` lets the source decide (wildcard when `%` is present), `exact` requires an exact identity match, `ilike`/`like` do case-insensitive/case-sensitive pattern matching, `single`/`any`/`full_text` are advanced modes. (default: "autoselect"; one of: "autoselect", "exact", "ilike", "like", "single", "any", "full_text")
• exclude_expired boolean — Exclude certificates whose validity period has ended (default: false)
• deduplicate boolean — Collapse precertificate/leaf-certificate pairs into a single result (default: true)
• count integer required — Max number of certificates to return (min: 1)

Response

• @type string (default: "CrtshCertificate")
• id integer required
• common_name string nullable
• name_value array (default: [])
• issuer_name string nullable
• issuer_ca_id integer nullable
• serial_number string nullable
• not_before string nullable
• not_after string nullable
• logged_at string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — The entity was not found, or a precondition failed Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.