---
title: "Understanding how wildcard domains work"
date: "2022-02-25T23:57:41+00:00"
summary:
image:
type: "article"
url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/help/92146-understanding-how-wildcard-domains-work"
id: "0f58d939-5ca7-46aa-a240-5162d9ea9bf1"
---

Table of contents will be added

Issue
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Wild card domains certificates will only cover the encryption of the first level in a subdomain if that is what has been purchased by the Organisation.

Limitations
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Be aware, a wildcard domain entry in an SSL certificate will only cover the specific level of the domain where the wildcard is declared.

For example, a wildcard entry like `*.domain.com` will only cover sub-domains at the third-level (of the domain structure). So `*.domain.com` would cover sub-domains like `www.domain.com` and `blog.domain.com`. To cover fourth-level domains, an explicit wildcard entry covering that domain level is required. So `*.blog.domain.com` would cover domains like `news.blog.domain.com` and `sport.blog.domain.com`.

For any further level sub-domains, a wildcard domain entry covering that specific level would also be required.

Resolution
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As an Acquia customer, you need to select the type of SSL certificate carefully when purchasing it from their third-party Certificate Authority. For further details of the types of certificates there are, please see our [documentation](/node/94501).