Understanding mark certificates

Mark certificates enable organizations to display trademarked or brand logos in recipients' inboxes, in accordance with Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standards, boosting sender legitimacy and email engagement.

For more information about BIMI standards, see All about BIMI.

SCM supports the following mark certificates:

  • Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) — VMCs allow organizations to display their officially trademarked logos alongside authenticated emails in inboxes. They require a registered trademark and a strict Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) policy.

    For more information about the DMARC protocol, see DMARC Overview.
  • Common Mark Certificates (CMCs) — CMCs serve the same purpose as VMCs but do not require a registered trademark. Instead, they require proof of consistent logo use for at least one year and adherence to a strict DMARC policy.

In addition to providing a centralized view of mark certificates and certificate details, SCM enables appropriately privileged administrators to do the following:

  • Manage certificate lifecycles — Request and revoke mark certificates.

  • Manage certificate requests — Approve, decline, and edit mark certificate requests.

  • Download certificates — Download mark certificates in various formats.

Mark certificates can be managed on the Certificates  Mark Certificates page.

Mark Certificates page

The following table describes the details and controls of the Mark Certificates page.

Column Description

ID

The unique numeric identifier of the certificate.

Status

The status of the certificate.

The possible values are:

  • Requested — The certificate request has been received in SCM and is awaiting approval.

  • Approved — The certificate request has been approved in SCM and is awaiting certificate authority (CA) issuance.

  • Applied — The certificate request is being processed by the CA.

  • Issued — The certificate has been issued.

  • Expired — The certificate has expired.

  • Declined — The certificate request has been declined by an administrator.

  • Invalid — The certificate request has been rejected by SCM because of one or more issues.

  • Rejected — The certificate request has been rejected by the CA because of one or more issues.

  • Revoked — The certificate has been revoked.

Common name

The domain name used in the mark certificate request. This refers to the common name in the certificate itself.

Order number

The unique identifier created by the issuing CA to represent the certificate request.

Certificate profile

The certificate profile used for the certificate request.

Verification type

The verification type used when requesting the certificate.

The possible values are:

  • Common — The certificate request is for a Common Mark Certificate (CMC) and is not associated with a verified trademark.

  • Verified — The certificate request is for a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) and is associated with a verified trademark.

Term

The validity period of the certificate.

Requested via

The method used to request the certificate or to bring it into SCM.

The possible values are:

  • Admin — The certificate was requested by an administrator using the built-in enrollment wizard in SCM.

  • Web API — The certificate was requested using the Web API.

Organization

The organization that requested or has been issued the certificate.

Department

The department, if any, that requested or has been issued the certificate.

Requester

The email address of the end-user, or the name of the administrator who requested the certificate.

Approver

The name of the administrator who approved the certificate request.

Subject

The entity (such as a domain, organization, individual, or device) identified by the certificate, containing unique attributes that distinguish it from others.

City

The city where the associated organization or department is located.

State

The state or province where the associated organization or department is located.

Country

The country where the associated organization or department is located.

Subject alt name

Additional names or attributes that identify the entity associated with the certificate. These can include alternative domain names, email addresses, IP addresses, or other identifiers relevant to SSL certificates.

Issuer

The name of the certificate-issuing CA.

Expires

The date that the certificate expires.

Serial number

A unique serial number assigned to the certificate.

Key usage

The cryptographic operations that the certificate is valid for.

Extended key usage

Additional cryptographic operations that the certificate is valid for.

Key algorithm

The algorithm used to generate the key pair.

Key size / curve

The size of the key pair or the curve used to generate the key pair.

Signature algorithm

The algorithm used to sign the certificate.

MD5 hash

The MD5 hash (thumbprint/fingerprint) of the certificate.

SHA1 hash

The SHA1 hash (thumbprint/fingerprint) of the certificate.

Comments

Comments or notes about the certificate.

Requested

The date that the certificate was requested.

Approved

The date that the certificate was approved.

Declined

The date that the certificate request was declined.

Issued

The date that the certificate was issued.

Downloaded

The date that the certificate was downloaded.

Revoked

The date that the certificate was revoked.

Table controls

Quick Search

Enables you to quickly search the results by ID, Common Name, or Subject Alternative Name.

Filter

Enables you to sort the table information using custom filters.

Group

Enables you to sort the table information using predefined groups.

Refresh

Refreshes the information presented in the table.

Download CSV

Downloads the table information as a .csv file.

Manage Columns

Enables you to select which table columns to display.

Admin controls

Add

Opens the Request Mark Certificate dialog where you can request a new certificate.

Edit

Opens the Edit Mark Certificate dialog where you can edit the details of the certificate request.

View

Opens the Mark Certificate page where you can view certificate details and perform various administrative tasks (such as, resending collection emails or downloading the certificate).

Approve

Opens the Approve Message dialog where you can approve the certificate request.

Decline

Opens the Decline Message dialog where you can decline the certificate request.

Revoke

Opens the Revocation Reason dialog where you can revoke the certificate.

View Audit

Opens the Certificate Audit page where you can view or download audit logs.

Enrollment methods

SCM supports the enrollment of Mark certificates using the following methods:

  • Enrollment Wizard — Enroll Mark certificates through the SCM enrollment wizard. For more information, see Enroll a Mark certificate in SCM.

  • Admin API — Enroll Mark certificates through the SCM Admin API using a configured SCM API Admin. For more information, see Understanding administrators.