What happens if symbols are included in the CSR for some CAs?

Including symbols in a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) can potentially lead to parsing errors with some Certificate Authorities (CAs). This is because the CSR format is based on specific encoding standards, and certain symbols may not be processed correctly, leading to issues in the submission and validation stages. When a CA receives a CSR, it parses the data to extract key information, such as the subject's distinguished name and public key. If the CSR contains unexpected characters or symbols that are not in line with the expected format, the CA's system may not be able to correctly interpret the request, resulting in errors.

Maintaining a clean and valid CSR is critical to ensure successful certificate issuance, which makes understanding the implications of including symbols essential for anyone working with SSL or digital certificates. Some CAs may handle such characters better than others, but it is generally prudent to adhere to straightforward formatting to avoid complications during the CSR processing stages.