Dynamic generation of digital certificate requests

A server, comprising:

• a memory storing a certificate signing request (CSR) input template comprising:
• (i) a dynamic first field definition including an attribute name, and
• (ii) a second field definition including a second field value;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• transmit a common set of CSR instructions to a plurality of client devices using the CSR input template;
• in response to transmitting the instructions, receive, device-specific CSRs from each client device, each of the device-specific CSRs comprising:
• (i) a first field value including an attribute value specific to a corresponding client device of the plurality of client devices, the first field value is retrieved from memory of the corresponding client device in response to receipt of the common set of CSR instructions and is inserted in place of the attribute name by the corresponding client device, and
• (ii) the second field value;
• install respective device-specific digital certificates at each of the client devices in response to receiving the CSRs,
• wherein the processor is further configured, prior to storing the CSR input template, to:
• store a list of attribute names in the memory;
• receive input data corresponding to the dynamic first field;
• select an attribute name from the list that matches the input data;
• and
• present the selected attribute name on a display.

A method in a client computing device, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a server, a common set of instructions to generate a certificate signing request (CSR), the common set of instructions being sent to a plurality of client devices and containing:
• (i) a dynamic first field definition including an attribute name, and
• (ii) a second field definition including a second field value;
• retrieving, by a processor of the client computing device without user intervention, a device-specific attribute value corresponding to the attribute name from a local memory of the client computing device in response to receipt of the common set of instructions;
• replacing, by the processor of the client computing device without user intervention, the attribute name in the dynamic first field definition with the retrieved device-specific attribute value, to generate a first field value;
• generating and sending the CSR containing the first field value and the second field value;
• and
• responsive to generating and sending the CSR, receiving and storing a device-specific digital certificate in the local memory.

A client computing device, comprising:

• a communications interface;
• a memory;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive, from a server, a common set of instructions to generate a certificate signing request (CSR), the common set of instructions being sent to a plurality of client devices and containing:
• (i) a dynamic first field definition including an attribute name, and
• (ii) a second field definition including a second field value;
• retrieve, by the processor of the client computing device without user intervention, a device-specific attribute value corresponding to the attribute name from the memory;
• replace, by the processor of the client computing device without user intervention, the attribute name in the dynamic first field definition with the retrieved device-specific attribute value, to generate a first field value;
• generate and send the CSR containing the first field value and the second field value;
• and
• responsive to generating and sending the CSR, receive and store a device-specific digital certificate in the memory.