A certificate authority service receives a request to issue a long-duration digital certificate from an entity for validation purposes between the entity and the service. Upon issuance of the long-duration digital certificate, the entity submits a request to the service for issuance of a short-duration digital certificate that includes a shorter validity period than the long-duration digital certificate. The service may utilize the long-duration digital certificate to validate the entity and, upon validating the entity, issues the short-duration digital certificate to the entity. The entity may subsequently utilize the short-duration digital certificate to enable a user client to authenticate the entity and securely communicate with the entity.