In an embodiment, a computing resource service provider provides a certificate management service that allows customers of the computing resource service provider to create, distribute, manage, and revoke digital certificates issued by private certificate authorities. In an embodiment, a private certificate authority hosted by the computing resource service provider is able to issue signed certificates to network entities within the customer enterprise. In an embodiment, the certificate management service provides a network-accessible application programming interface to the private certificate authority that allows applications to create and deploy private certificates programmatically. In an embodiment, the system provides the flexibility to create private certificates for applications that require custom certificate lifetimes or resource names.