Let’s Encrypt has made 6-day IP-based TLS certificates Generally Available

Let’s Encrypt announced general availability of short-lived (160-hour) TLS certificates and IP address-based certificates, aiming to reduce risk from key compromise and unreliable revocation while enabling secure TLS for IP-only environments. Short-lived certs require frequent automated renewal via ACME, and IP certs are mandated to be short-lived due to address dynamism, supporting use cases like legacy systems, containerized apps, and test setups. The roadmap includes gradually halving default lifetimes to 45 days, with guidance to integrate into CI/CD and monitor deployments via Certificate Transparency logs.