Looking through my hosting folders and noticed a new subdirectory (folder) that we didn’t put there.

.well-known | pki-validation

What is it and how did it get there?

cPanel automatically adds SSL certificates to your domains so you rank better on search engines and have a more secure site.

The process of generating these certificates creates the .well-known/acme-challenge/ folder on the domain.

It is safe to remove the folder if you want, however when the certificate is renewed every 90 days the folder will be re-created.

The /.well-known/ subdirectory is defined by RFC 5785