diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/certificate.go b/internal/ingress/controller/certificate.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cec420659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/certificate.go
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+package controller
+
+import (
+	"crypto/x509"
+	"net"
+	"strings"
+	"unicode/utf8"
+)
+
+// Please check https://github.com/golang/go/issues/22922
+//
+// Since Go 1.9 the common name field is not used anymore.
+// We copy the code to not break existing clusters that doesn't have certificates with SAN yet
+// TODO: Remove this helpers in the future.
+
+// verifyHostname returns nil if c is a valid certificate for the named host.
+// Otherwise it returns an error describing the mismatch.
+func verifyHostname(h string, c *x509.Certificate) error {
+	// IP addresses may be written in [ ].
+	candidateIP := h
+	if len(h) >= 3 && h[0] == '[' && h[len(h)-1] == ']' {
+		candidateIP = h[1 : len(h)-1]
+	}
+	if ip := net.ParseIP(candidateIP); ip != nil {
+		// We only match IP addresses against IP SANs.
+		// https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6125#appendix-B.2
+		for _, candidate := range c.IPAddresses {
+			if ip.Equal(candidate) {
+				return nil
+			}
+		}
+		return x509.HostnameError{Certificate: c, Host: candidateIP}
+	}
+
+	lowered := toLowerCaseASCII(h)
+
+	if len(c.DNSNames) > 0 {
+		for _, match := range c.DNSNames {
+			if matchHostnames(toLowerCaseASCII(match), lowered) {
+				return nil
+			}
+		}
+		// If Subject Alt Name is given, we ignore the common name.
+	} else if matchHostnames(toLowerCaseASCII(c.Subject.CommonName), lowered) {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	return x509.HostnameError{Certificate: c, Host: h}
+}
+
+// toLowerCaseASCII returns a lower-case version of in. See RFC 6125 6.4.1. We use
+// an explicitly ASCII function to avoid any sharp corners resulting from
+// performing Unicode operations on DNS labels.
+func toLowerCaseASCII(in string) string {
+	// If the string is already lower-case then there's nothing to do.
+	isAlreadyLowerCase := true
+	for _, c := range in {
+		if c == utf8.RuneError {
+			// If we get a UTF-8 error then there might be
+			// upper-case ASCII bytes in the invalid sequence.
+			isAlreadyLowerCase = false
+			break
+		}
+		if 'A' <= c && c <= 'Z' {
+			isAlreadyLowerCase = false
+			break
+		}
+	}
+
+	if isAlreadyLowerCase {
+		return in
+	}
+
+	out := []byte(in)
+	for i, c := range out {
+		if 'A' <= c && c <= 'Z' {
+			out[i] += 'a' - 'A'
+		}
+	}
+	return string(out)
+}
+
+func matchHostnames(pattern, host string) bool {
+	host = strings.TrimSuffix(host, ".")
+	pattern = strings.TrimSuffix(pattern, ".")
+
+	if len(pattern) == 0 || len(host) == 0 {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	patternParts := strings.Split(pattern, ".")
+	hostParts := strings.Split(host, ".")
+
+	if len(patternParts) != len(hostParts) {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	for i, patternPart := range patternParts {
+		if i == 0 && patternPart == "*" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if patternPart != hostParts[i] {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+
+	return true
+}
diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/controller.go b/internal/ingress/controller/controller.go
index 9a8883c8c..7d46f1a88 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/controller.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/controller.go
@@ -1032,8 +1032,15 @@ func (n *NGINXController) createServers(data []*extensions.Ingress,
 			cert := bc.(*ingress.SSLCert)
 			err = cert.Certificate.VerifyHostname(host)
 			if err != nil {
-				glog.Warningf("ssl certificate %v does not contain a Common Name or Subject Alternative Name for host %v", key, host)
-				continue
+				glog.Warningf("unexpected error validating SSL certificate %v for host %v. Reason: %v", key, host, err)
+				glog.Warningf("Validating certificate against DNS names. This will be deprecated in a future version.")
+				// check the common name field
+				// https://github.com/golang/go/issues/22922
+				err := verifyHostname(host, cert.Certificate)
+				if err != nil {
+					glog.Warningf("ssl certificate %v does not contain a Common Name or Subject Alternative Name for host %v. Reason: %v", key, host, err)
+					continue
+				}
 			}
 
 			servers[host].SSLCertificate = cert.PemFileName