# Let's Encrypt Decreasing Certificate Lifetimes to 45 Days

**URL:** <https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932>\
**Category:** Third Party News\
**Created:** [December 2, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932 "2025-12-02T06:32:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Joe](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/joe/32/9_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Joe)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/1 "2025-12-02T06:32:58Z")

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> **[Decreasing Certificate Lifetimes to 45 Days](https://letsencrypt.org/2025/12/02/from-90-to-45.html)**
>
> Let’s Encrypt will be reducing the validity period of the certificates we issue. We currently issue certificates valid for 90 days, which will be cut in half to 45 days by 2028.
> This change is being made along with the rest of the industry, as...

Virtualmin will, of course, change its default renewal schedule to accommodate this change.

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**Author:** ![Azr](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/azr/32/10100_2.png) [@Azr](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Azr)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/2 "2025-12-02T09:20:40Z")

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sad 😔, but I hope the auto-renew feature will still be on

 ![image](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/3X/6/d/6d7c8775715d675f74543b849a5866e971711d27.png)

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**Author:** ![Joe](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/joe/32/9_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Joe)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/3 "2025-12-02T16:13:14Z")

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Nothing sad about it. It doesn’t matter how often it needs to renew. They’re free. You just get a new one before it expires.

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**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/4 "2025-12-02T16:22:48Z")

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> [@Joe](#):
>
> Nothing sad about it.

just one more thing to check then we will get used to it and forget.  
“30 days, which will be reduced to 7 hours” is a massive change, even if is over 3 years

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**Author:** ![CTS](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/cts/32/18535_2.png) [@CTS](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/CTS)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/5 "2025-12-02T16:26:14Z")

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Can always ask for a refund 😁

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**Author:** ![Joe](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/joe/32/9_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Joe)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/6 "2025-12-02T16:26:36Z")

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> [@Stegan](#):
>
> “30 days, which will be reduced to 7 hours” is a massive change, even if is over 3 years

That’s the domain authorization time (how long they believe you own the domain you’re requesting a cert for), not the cert. Nothing wrong with that change, either.

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**Author:** ![Stegan](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/stegan/32/6860_2.png) [@Stegan](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Stegan)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/7 "2025-12-02T16:39:58Z")

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oK mis read/mis understood, not really worried, but as said just one more thing to check that it has happened, then forget. Tx for the heads up and for looking out for us.

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**Author:** ![ID10T](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/id10t/32/7895_2.png) [@ID10T](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/ID10T)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/8 "2025-12-02T18:07:15Z")

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> [@Joe](#):
>
> Virtualmin will, of course, change its default renewal schedule to accommodate this change.

This will **OVER RIDE** current settings so we lazy admins do nothing? 😉

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**Author:** ![jimdunn](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/jimdunn/32/3487_2.png) [@jimdunn](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/jimdunn)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/9 "2025-12-03T01:50:54Z")

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I’ll be asking Ilia for the “command-line command” again… : )

So, are they shortening the time because hackers are breaking their certs in 90 days?

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**Author:** ![Joe](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/user_avatar/forum.virtualmin.com/joe/32/9_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/Joe)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/10 "2025-12-03T02:21:44Z")

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They explained why in the blog post in the third sentence.

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**Author:** ![creeble](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@creeble](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/creeble)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/11 "2025-12-05T14:11:14Z")

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For those paranoid about LE cert renewal, here a portion of a script that I run daily in crontab:

```auto
foreach (@domains) {
        my $old_expire = read_file("/tmp/$_.last-expire", err_mode => 'carp', chomp => 1);
        my $cur_expire = `cat /home/$_/ssl.cert |openssl x509 -noout -enddate`;
        $cur_expire =~ s/notAfter=//;
        my $cur_exp_time = str2time($cur_expire);
        if ($opt_p) {
                print("$_:\t$cur_expire\n");
        }
        if ($cur_exp_time > str2time($old_expire)) {
                # cert updated
                unless ($old_expire eq undef) { # i.e., not first time
                        $msg = "Subject: $_ CERT UPDATED\n\nOld expire: $old_expire\nCurrent expire: $cur_expire\n";
                        if ($_ eq 'somespecialname') {
                                `/usr/sbin/service dovecot restart`;
                                `/usr/sbin/postmap -F hash:/etc/postfix/sni_map`;
                                `/usr/sbin/service postfix restart`;
                                $msg .= "Restarted dovecot, postfix!\n";
                        }
                        mail($msg);
                }
                write_file("/tmp/$_.last-expire", $cur_expire);
                next;
        }

        if ($cur_exp_time < time()) {
                # cert expired
                # warn()
                mail("Subject: $_ CERT EXPIRED!!!\n\nOld expire: $old_expire\nCurrent expire: $cur_expire\n");
                next;
        }
}

```

‘somespecialname’ isn’t really used any more, but there was a time when I needed to restart dovecot et al before it would recognize the cert.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![teners](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@teners](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/teners)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 4:46am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/12 "2025-12-07T04:46:55Z")

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We all want a saver and more secure internet, and more importantly:

> [@Joe](#):
>
> Virtualmin will, of course, change its default renewal schedule to accommodate this change.

2028 is quite a while ahead too.

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**Author:** ![system](https://cdn.forum.virtualmin.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/cd96d761e326db4b2bef94886a639109bd7a8e76.svg) [@system](https://forum.virtualmin.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2025, 4:47am UTC](https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/lets-encrypt-decreasing-certificate-lifetimes-to-45-days/135932/13 "2025-12-27T04:47:14Z")

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Closed on December 27, 2025, 4:47am UTC

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