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Document ACME device attestation across ACME docs#522

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tashian merged 2 commits into
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carl/acme-da-docs
Jun 4, 2026
Merged

Document ACME device attestation across ACME docs#522
tashian merged 2 commits into
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carl/acme-da-docs

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@tashian tashian commented Jun 4, 2026

What

Refreshes the ACME documentation to present ACME device attestation (ACME DA) as a supported, standardized capability rather than a speculative future extension. Based on a docs audit of the ACME pages.

Page Change
certificate-manager/acme/when-to-use-acme.mdx Removed the outdated "draft RFC … may support in the future" bullet from When not to use ACME; added ACME DA as a supported Scenario (native on macOS/iOS/Windows/Android/Linux, device-attest-01, modern SCEP replacement).
certificate-manager/acme/README.mdx Added an ACME vs. ACME device attestation callout (server certs via http-01/dns-01/tls-alpn-01 vs. hardware-bound device certs via device-attest-01).
step-ca/acme-basics.mdx Added an ACME-vs-DA distinction at the top of the device-attest-01 section; added the DA platform page as the primary Further reading link (kept both blog links).
certificate-manager/acme/how-to-use-acme.mdx Added an ACME DA link to the More ACME read-more block.
certificate-manager/acme/why-use-acme.mdx Noted ACME DA as the modern SCEP replacement for device identity in the SCEP/EST/CMC passage.

Notes

  • Link target: the audit referenced /docs/platform/acme-device-attestation/, which is a 404. The page actually lives on the marketing site at https://smallstep.com/platform/acme-device-attestation/, so links use that full URL (the convention here for marketing-site links).
  • Accuracy: wording follows Smallstep's public positioning ("Smallstep developed with Google at the IETF"). The IETF draft (draft-ietf-acme-device-attest, Proposed Standard) lists Smallstep folks as contributors, not co-authors, so I avoided a flat "co-developed the standard" claim.

Verification

  • vale --no-wrap --glob='!step-cli/reference/**' → 0 errors on all changed files (one pre-existing heading warning, untouched).
  • markdown-link-check → new DA URL resolves; no new dead links.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

@tashian tashian requested a review from a team as a code owner June 4, 2026 18:31
Refresh the ACME docs to cover ACME device attestation (ACME DA) as a
supported, standardized capability rather than a speculative future
extension.

- when-to-use-acme: remove the outdated "draft RFC ... may support in the
  future" bullet and add ACME DA as a supported scenario
- acme/README: add an "ACME vs. ACME device attestation" callout
- step-ca/acme-basics: add an ACME-vs-DA distinction to the
  device-attest-01 section and link the DA platform page as primary
  further reading
- how-to-use-acme: link ACME DA from the read-more block
- why-use-acme: note ACME DA as the modern SCEP replacement for device
  identity

Links point to https://smallstep.com/platform/acme-device-attestation/.
@tashian tashian force-pushed the carl/acme-da-docs branch from 970449c to f43fff4 Compare June 4, 2026 18:33
@tashian tashian enabled auto-merge June 4, 2026 18:52
GitHub Actions traffic intermittently gets throttled by datatracker.ietf.org,
producing Status: 0 (dropped connection) false positives even though the RFC
links are live. Skip them like other flaky external domains.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

<Alert severity="info">
<div>
<strong>ACME vs. ACME device attestation.</strong> Standard ACME issues certificates to servers and workloads, proving control of a domain or IP address through the <code>http-01</code>, <code>dns-01</code>, or <code>tls-alpn-01</code> challenges. <a href="https://smallstep.com/platform/acme-device-attestation/">ACME device attestation (ACME DA)</a> extends the same protocol to issue hardware-bound certificates for <em>device</em> identity, using the <code>device-attest-01</code> challenge to verify a device's built-in security module. Reach for ACME DA when you're identifying devices rather than servers.
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Reach for ACME DA when you're identifying devices rather than servers.

It's not so clear-cut since you can use a tpm on a server.

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@tashian tashian Jun 4, 2026

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Yeah it should say "identifying devices rather than hostnames"

Here's a fix: #523

@tashian tashian merged commit 5a7549f into main Jun 4, 2026
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@tashian tashian deleted the carl/acme-da-docs branch June 4, 2026 19:15
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2 participants