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POST /api/certificates/by-subject

Find certificate objects by subject. A SQL-style LIKE -- you supply the wildcards.

WARNING: this is a SQL-style LIKE against the FULL stored DN, and YOU supply the wildcards. The stored subject is slash-prefixed and slash-separated, for example /CN=teFileX509/O=ERUCES. Measured behaviour:

subjectresult
/CN=X/O=ERUCESthe set
/CN=X%the set
/CN=XNOTHING -- a correct-but-partial DN with no trailing % matches nothing
CN=XNOTHING -- a bare CN matches nothing
%EVERYTHING the key server holds

An empty list is a successful answer to the question you asked, which is why subject is echoed in the response.

subject may not be the empty string: LIKE '' matches only a certificate whose stored subject is empty, so an empty value is far more likely to be a caller who meant %.

includeBodies is opt-in and defaults to false, because this query is deliberately unbounded -- a bare % enumerates every certificate on the server -- and returning every DER body by default would turn a metadata listing into a bulk export by accident.

Authentication​

Send the session id as Authorization: Bearer <session id>, and an RFC 9449 DPoP proof in the DPoP header if your session is bound to a key. The two are required together, not as alternatives — see Authenticating and Proving you hold your key.

This surface sets no cookie

There is no session cookie on any response and none is read on any request. Do not set credentials: "include" on a browser fetch.

Request​

FieldTypeRequiredDescription
subjectstringyesA LIKE pattern against the full stored DN. Send % to enumerate everything.
includeBodiesbooleannoSend true to receive certificate (the DER body) and request (the stored CSR), both base64.

Example

{
  "subject": "...",
  "includeBodies": true
}

Responses​

200​

The matching certificate objects.

FieldTypeRequiredDescription
lookupstring (by-id, by-subject, by-transport-principal, from-certificate)yesWhich lookup answered, echoed so a response is self-describing.
systemIdintegerno
principalIdstringno
subjectstringnoEchoed
countintegeryes
bodiesIncludedbooleanyes
certificatesarray of CertificateyesA certificate object as the key server holds or parses it.
detailstringno

Example

{
  "lookup": "by-id",
  "systemId": 0,
  "principalId": "...",
  "subject": "...",
  "count": 0,
  "bodiesIncluded": true,
  "certificates": [
    {
      "certificateId": "...",
      "className": "...",
      "subject": "...",
      "issuer": "...",
      "publicKeyType": "...",
      "serialNumber": "...",
      "certHash": "...",
      "effectiveDate": "...",
      "expirationDate": "...",
      "status": 0,
      "statusLabel": "...",
      "certificate": "...",
      "request": "..."
    }
  ],
  "detail": "..."
}

400​

The request was refused before anything was sent to the key server.

Most 400s on this surface carry code: BAD_REQUEST and a detail naming the field and saying what the key server would otherwise have done with it. A large share of them exist because the value would have been ACCEPTED downstream and quietly meant something else -- an empty string that reaches the wire as "mint a new key", a zero-length identifier that names no object, a numeric flag word that clears bits the caller did not name.

401​

No live session, or a DPoP proof that did not verify.

SESSION_NOT_FOUND -- the credential names no session this Gateway holds. SESSION_EXPIRED -- it aged out. Both carry reauth: true; obtain a new credential rather than retrying.

PROOF_* -- the sender constraint refused. See the DPoP section of this document for the full table; PROOF_MALFORMED is a 400 and PROOF_REPLAY_CACHE_FULL a 503, and the rest are here.

SCOPED_CREDENTIAL_EXPIRED -- a scoped browser credential passed its fixed lifetime. Use does not extend it: an idle timeout would be refreshed by exactly the traffic a stolen handle produces.

403​

Authenticated, and refused. The codes differ in what they say about where the refusal came from: ACCESS_DENIED and PRINCIPAL_DISABLED are the key server's, while NOT_WRITABLE, BUILT_IN_PRINCIPAL, OWN_ACCOUNT and OBJECT_NOT_IN_CREDENTIAL_SCOPE are decided by the Gateway before anything is sent.

500​

A fault rather than a refusal.

OP_FAILED is the catch-all: the key server refused in words that match no classified pattern, so the Gateway cannot say more than that the operation did not happen. Some key server refusals that are conceptually a caller error arrive here rather than as a 4xx, because the wire carries no distinguishing code -- where a route can recognise one from its message it maps it, and each such mapping is documented on the operation.

503​

A capacity ceiling or a missing deployment prerequisite. retryable says which.

A scope of session or process names the ceiling that was hit, and the response carries Retry-After.

Error handling​

Every failure answers JSON carrying at least code and detail. Match on code — detail is written for a human debugging the call and its wording is not part of the contract. See the error model.

StatusMeaning
400The request was refused before anything was sent to the key server. Most 400s on this surface carry code: BAD_REQUEST and a detail naming the field and saying what the key server would otherwise have done with it. A large share of them exist because the value would have been ACCEPTED downstream and quietly meant something else -- an empty string that reaches the wire as "mint a new key", a zero-length identifier that names no object, a numeric flag word that clears bits the caller did not name.
401No live session, or a DPoP proof that did not verify. SESSION_NOT_FOUND -- the credential names no session this Gateway holds. SESSION_EXPIRED -- it aged out. Both carry reauth: true; obtain a new credential rather than retrying. PROOF_* -- the sender constraint refused. See the DPoP section of this document for the full table; PROOF_MALFORMED is a 400 and PROOF_REPLAY_CACHE_FULL a 503, and the rest are here. SCOPED_CREDENTIAL_EXPIRED -- a scoped browser credential passed its fixed lifetime. Use does not extend it: an idle timeout would be refreshed by exactly the traffic a stolen handle produces.
403Authenticated, and refused. The codes differ in what they say about where the refusal came from: ACCESS_DENIED and PRINCIPAL_DISABLED are the key server's, while NOT_WRITABLE, BUILT_IN_PRINCIPAL, OWN_ACCOUNT and OBJECT_NOT_IN_CREDENTIAL_SCOPE are decided by the Gateway before anything is sent.
500A fault rather than a refusal. OP_FAILED is the catch-all: the key server refused in words that match no classified pattern, so the Gateway cannot say more than that the operation did not happen. Some key server refusals that are conceptually a caller error arrive here rather than as a 4xx, because the wire carries no distinguishing code -- where a route can recognise one from its message it maps it, and each such mapping is documented on the operation.
503A capacity ceiling or a missing deployment prerequisite. retryable says which. A scope of session or process names the ceiling that was hit, and the response carries Retry-After.