# Source: https://infisical.com/docs/documentation/platform/pki/certificates/profiles.md

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://infisical.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Certificate Profiles

## Concept

A certificate profile is a configuration set specifying how leaf certificates should be issued for a group of end-entities including the [issuing CA](/documentation/platform/pki/ca/overview), a [certificate policy](/documentation/platform/pki/certificates/policies), and the [enrollment method](/documentation/platform/pki/enrollment-methods/overview) (e.g. ACME, EST, API, etc.) used to enroll certificates.

You typically request certificates against a certificate profile through its associated enrollment method. Each method defines its own interaction flow which you can read more about in its respective documentation.

## Guide to Creating a Certificate Profile

To create a certificate profile, head to your Certificate Management Project > Certificates > Certificate Profiles and press **Create Profile**.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/infisical/images/platform/pki/certificate/cert-profile.png" alt="pki certificate profile" />

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/infisical/images/platform/pki/certificate/cert-profile-modal.png" alt="pki certificate profile modal" />

Here's some guidance on each field:

* Name: A slug-friendly name for the profile such as `web-servers`.
* Description: An optional description for the profile.
* Issuer Type: The type of issuer that should be used to issue certificates for the profile; this can be either `Certificate Authority` or `Self-Signed`. If `Self-Signed` is selected, then the profile will only support the API enrollment method and be used to issue self-signed certificates over REST API.
* Issuing CA: The [issuing CA](/documentation/platform/pki/ca/overview) that should be used to issue certificates for the profile when the **Issuer Type** is set to `Certificate Authority`.
* Certificate Policy: The [certificate policy](/documentation/platform/pki/certificates/policies) that should be used to validate certificate requests for the profile.
* Enrollment Method: The enrollment method that should be used to enroll certificates for the profile such as ACME, EST, API, etc.
* Default Certificate TTL: An optional fallback validity period used when a TTL is not explicitly specified in the certificate request. The default TTL must not exceed the maximum validity defined in the associated [certificate policy](/documentation/platform/pki/certificates/policies).

Depending on which enrollment method you choose, you may be presented with additional enrollment-specific configuration fields.