Defaults.Exposed › September 2026 census › v10 registry › CAA records
CAA records
Methodology v10 · canonical ID caa-record · DNS Security · scored · census as of September 5, 2026
Stops anyone but your chosen provider issuing SSL certificates for your domain.
Definition
| Canonical ID | caa-record |
|---|---|
| Category | DNS Security |
| Grade impact | Scored, counts toward the grade |
| Pass | The domain publishes at least one CAA record restricting certificate issuance. |
| Fail | No CAA records are published (any CA may issue). |
| Example (passing) | example.com. IN CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" |
No-data rule: when this check couldn't be determined for a domain (timeout, SERVFAIL, redacted source) it returns N/A and is excluded from that domain's scoring denominator: "couldn't determine" is never counted as a failure. "Determined absent" is a real fail.
Prevalence across the census
1.38% of graded domains publish a CAA record (4,325,806 of 313,913,664, as of September 5, 2026).
Census denominator: 316,600,902 graded domains. Aggregates only: never an individual domain's result.
Fix it
Plain-English impact, cost of ignoring it, and step-by-step remediation: defaults.exposed/fix/caa
Cite this check
Defaults.Exposed, "CAA records (caa-record)", Grading Methodology v10 (census as of September 5, 2026). https://defaults.exposed/v10/methodology/caa-record
Permalink: https://defaults.exposed/v10/methodology/caa-record ·
All 34 checks: v10 registry ·
Machine-readable: /v10/methodology/checks.json ·
Licence: open data