Google Chromecast Expired SSL Certificate Brought Down Streaming Devices

Google’s second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio hardware experienced a significant outage in March 2025, to the disappointment of users who were greeted with “untrusted device” error screens when trying to cast video.

While initial speculation was that forced obsolescence was the cause, a closer look later revealed a more technical problem—an expired intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) certificate that Google hadn’t renewed in a timely manner.

This case highlights the paramount importance of efficient certificate lifecycle management (CLM) and reminds us that even technology giants like Google are not exempt from avoidable security blunders.

The Chromecast Outage: What Happened?

The second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio went out in March 2025. Casting to the devices no longer worked as it was supposed to; instead, these devices threw out “untrusted device” errors and could no longer stream.

It got so frustrating that even the Google Home app stopped recognizing the devices. First-generation, third-generation, and new Chromcast were utterly untouched.

This gave people the idea that Google had retired its older hardware; it was rumored until some reports surfaced that the situation turned technical.

A Reddit user later exposed what went wrong and discovered that it all started from an expired Intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) certificate.

Also Read: Expired SSL Certificates Are Risky: 14.7 Million People Affected by the Mr. Cooper Data Breach

When second-gen Chromecast was rolled out by Google in 2015, it was with an intermediate CA certificate issued by Google, which was valid for a period of 10 years.

This certificate silently expired on March 9, 2025, leading to authentication failure in all devices that relied on it.

So, as Google did not update or push out the new certificate, it made the Chromecast devices not get identified as trusted, which essentially made them unusable.

Google’s Reply: An Apology but No Quick Fix

The company eventually admitted to the problem; however, no remedy was provided on the spot, nor was there a timeline for one.

This brought a written apology in the form of an email to the affected users, explaining the situation and that some fix was in the works.

The advice not to perform a factory reset was even more frustrating for users, as that would render their devices permanently unusable.

The problem was that with the expired certificate, proper authentication was impossible: performing a reset on a Chromecast would erase stored credentials and make reconnection to Google’s servers impossible for the device.

Such an incident exposed a big flaw in Google’s certificate lifecycle management. Though common, failure to renew an intermediate CA certificate affecting whole categories of devices was quite a serious lapse.

This bad turn went a long way toward ruining the streaming experience of users and alerted to the dangers of poor certificate management within large-scale technology ecosystems.

The Bigger Problem: Certificate Lifecycle Management Failures

The Google Chromecast is the most famous victim of certificate lifecycle management errors. Since certificate management is a critical component for secure communication between devices, applications, and servers, the problem of tracking and renewal for an expired intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) is obvious.

This led to the widespread service disruption caused by Google. Since end-entity certificates usually have a much shorter lifespan than intermediate CA certificates (5 to 10 years), they tend to go unnoticed.

Intermediate CA certificates expire; otherwise, it will disrupt the entire chain, rendering the devices unable to authenticate and resulting in functionality failure in the Chromecast outage.

This becomes an issue of concern for this reason Google has always been an advocate of shorter-lived certificates, including the call for a 90-day SSL/TLS certificate renewal as a measure to enhance security and automation.

However, the incident shows that even giant technology companies can be victims of certificate management at scale. If thousands—maybe millions—of certificates need to be checked, manual tracking methods (e.g., spreadsheets or fragmentary tools) can lead to significant lapses.

An oversight on renewal, especially an intermediate or root certificate, can significantly impact entire product lines, interrupt services, and erode user confidence.

How Automated CLM Could Have Prevented the Outage?

Implementing an automated Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution would have prevented the outage altogether. CLM platforms continuously track, monitor, and automatically renew certificates so that they expire without disrupting services.

With real-time alerting and automated renewal workflows, Google would have been notified about the intermediate CA certificate expiration far in advance, thereby deploying a newer certificate before the old one was used.

This would save users from the aggravation of seeing the Chromecast service suddenly disappear and from losing authentication on the device.

Lessons from Google’s Certificate Failure

Certificate Expirations can cause Major Outages

Expired intermediate CA certificates often lead to service failures, affecting millions of users.

In Google’s case, it rendered second-gen Chromecast devices unusable, preventing proper authentication. The incident thus speaks to the importance of certificate management in enabling service continuity and avoiding unnecessary disruption to users.

Google’s mistake was preventable

The interruption could have been totally avoided had an update certificate on the intermediate CA been refreshed on time. Though a known risk, the lapse indicates a failure in harvesting certificate lifecycle management.

Close tracking and timely renewal would have ensured uninterrupted service, keeping Chromecast users around the globe from being frustrated.

Automated CLM Is No Longer Optional

Manual tracking of certificates could have proven unreliable because of human error, especially in large organizations running thousands of certificates.

Also Read: How to Avoid SSL Certificate Outages with ACME?

Automation ensures on-time renewals, real-time monitoring, and seamless deployments of certificates. Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management might have helped Google avoid this failure and keep its service reliable and straightforward.

Factory Resets Aren’t Always the Solution

In some cases, resetting a device may only become a lot worse. With Chromecast, factory resetting rendered devices completely unusable, making deployment of a fix that much harder for Google.

Users need to take care when resetting; sometimes, necessary setups could even be deleted, making future updates impossible.

Conclusion

In so doing, Google was given a rude reminder that the expiration of the certificate could take services down and aggravate its users.

Most failures could be avoided by adopting an automated certificate lifecycle management solution for monitoring and updating certificate credibility, among other things.

To keep interruptions from occurring would mean advancing notifications initiatively, yet automated CLM means quitting human errors from playing games, which means direct service to all.

Avoid such outages and get steadfast CLM solutions to safeguard your infrastructure today. Certera offers Sectigo Certificate Manager (SCM) and DigiCert Trust Lifecycle Manager for hassle-free automated certificate management.