VeriSign’s Description of Certificate Revocation I
A Certificate Revocation List (CRL) is a list of Digital IDs that have been revoked before their scheduled expiration date.
There are several reasons why a key might need to be revoked and placed on a CRL.
- A key might have been compromised.
- A key might be used professionally by an individual for a company; for example, the official name associated with a key might be "Alice Avery, Vice President, NPAC."
- If Alice were fired, her company would not want her to be able to sign messages with that key and therefore the company would place the key on the CRL.