SSCP Cryptography Practice Question
A company is implementing a PKI for internal use. What is the primary purpose of a Certificate Revocation List (CRL)?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the CRL's purpose with certificate validation or storage, mistakenly thinking it validates chains or stores all certificates, when in fact it only publishes revoked certificates for status checking.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
To publish revoked certificates
The primary purpose of a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) is to publish a list of certificates that have been revoked by the Certificate Authority (CA) before their scheduled expiration. This allows relying parties to verify that a certificate is still valid and has not been compromised, ensuring trust in the PKI.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
To validate certificate chains
Why it's wrong here
Certificate chain validation involves verifying signatures from the root CA to the end-entity certificate; CRL is used to check revocation status.
- ✗
To encrypt certificate requests
Why it's wrong here
CRLs are not used for encryption.
- ✗
To store all issued certificates
Why it's wrong here
CRLs store only revoked certificates, not all issued ones.
- ✓
To publish revoked certificates
Why this is correct
CRLs list certificates that have been revoked and should no longer be trusted.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SSCP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SSCP exam.