CA/Browser Forum
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Application for Membership

For CAs and Browsers Interested in Joining the CA / Browser Forum:

Browser manufacturers or developers of software that includes trusted root certificates may wish to consider joining the CA/Browser Forum.  Our Bylaws require that your organization “…produces a software product intended for use by the general public for browsing the Web securely.”

Our bylaws provide that CA members shall meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • Issuing CA:- The member organization operates a certification authority that has a current and successful WebTrust for CAs audit, or ETSI 102042 or ETSI 101456 audit report prepared by a properly-qualified auditor, and that actively issues certificates to Web servers that are openly accessible from the Internet using any one of the mainstream browsers.
  • Root CA:- The member organization operates a certification authority that has a current and successful WebTrust for CAs, or ETSI 102042 or ETSI 101456 audit report prepared by a properly-qualified auditor, and that actively issues certificates to subordinate CAs that, in turn, actively issue certificates to Web servers that are openly accessible from the Internet using any one of the mainstream browsers.

Click this Membership Application section of our “Information for Potential Members” page.

Membership
Latest releases
Server Certificate Requirements
SC-081v3: Introduce Schedule of Reducing Validity and Data Reuse Periods - May 21, 2025

BR v2.1.5

Code Signing Requirements
v3.8 - Aug 5, 2024

What’s Changed CSC-25: Import EV Guidelines to CS Baseline Requirements by @dzacharo in https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/pull/38 Full Changelog: https://github.com/cabforum/code-signing/compare/v3.7...v3.8

S/MIME Requirements
v1.0.10 - Ballot SMC012 - Jul 2, 2025

Introduces a new method for validation of mailbox control, using ACME for S/MIME as defined in RFC 8823: Extensions to Automatic Certificate Management Environment for End-User S/MIME Certificates.

Network and Certificate System Security Requirements
v2.0 - Ballot NS-003 - Jun 26, 2024

Ballot NS-003: Restructure the NCSSRs in https://github.com/cabforum/netsec/pull/35

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The Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/Browser Forum) is a voluntary gathering of Certificate Issuers and suppliers of Internet browser software and other applications that use certificates (Certificate Consumers).