The CA sends an email to the administrator of the domain to be validated (or of a higher level domain), to one of the standard privileged mailboxes, namely: postmaster, webmaster, hostmaster, administrator, admin@domain. The email contains a unique link that the recipient is required to click, then following the instructions shown by the browser. The CA waits for the recipient to read the email and proceed in the expected manner, to prove that the Applicant has control of the domain.

Similar to the previous method, but the email is sent to a mailbox found in the domain's WHOIS record. Also in this case, the CA waits for the recipient to read the email, click on the link therein, and follow the instructions shown by the browser. This method assumes that at least one email address is found in the output of the whois <domain> command. If the email address can only be seen via different query modes (e.g. via the domain registrar's web site), then this method requires the manual intervention of a CA operator, delaying the validation process. This method is supported, but not recommended.

To prove its control of the domain, the Applicant must publish a plain text (.txt) file on the domain's (or a higher level domain's) HTTP server. The file must contain a unique confirmation value generated by the CA (*), without spaces or newlines, and must be published at the following URL:

http(s)://dominio/.well-known/pki-validation/actalis.txt

The CA will automatically check that the said file is found on the server, in the expected path and with the expected contents. To create the text file actalis.txt we recommend to use a plain text editor (e.g. Notepad under Windows).

Please take note that:

• no other path may be used (it is a standard)
• the period "." before "well" is not a typo: it is required
• HTTP redirects are not followed by the CA

To prove its control of the domain, the Applicant must publish a suitable TXT record on the domain's (or a higher level domain's) DNS server. The TXT record must have the following value:

“actalis-dcv=confirmationValue”

…where confirmationValue is a unique confirmation value generated by the CA (*). The CA will automatically check that the expected TXT record is present on the domain, with the expected value. To verify the proper publication of the TXT record, you can use the nslookup command (under Windows) or the dig command (under Linux).

This method may only be used for domains registered and managed by Aruba. In such a case, no actions are required of the Applicant to prove control of the domain.

The CA itself will verify the database of domains managed by Aruba S.p.A. In this case, validation may take several hours, depending on the availability of operators.