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Let's Encrypt

certbot

certbot is a free, open source software tool for automatically using Let’s Encrypt certificates on manually-administrated websites to enable HTTPS.

HTTP-01 challenge

Install certbot: 

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install certbot

Add the following location to the Nginx HTTP vhost: 

location ^~ /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
    root /var/www/letsencrypt;
    allow all;
}

For Apache, use: 

Alias /.well-known/acme-challenge/ "/var/www/letsencrypt/.well-known/acme-challenge/"
<Directory "/var/www/letsencrypt/">
    AllowOverride None
    Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
    Require method GET POST OPTIONS
</Directory>

Request a certificate: 

$ certbot certonly --agree-tos --email [email protected] --webroot -w /var/www/letsencrypt/ --rsa-key-size 4096 -d your_domain.tld -d your_domain2.tld -d your_domain3.tld

Generate a Diffie-Hellman key: 

$ openssl dhparam -out /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/dhparam.pem 4096

Add the following to the Nginx HTTPS vhost: 

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/backup.homelab.lu/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/backup.homelab.lu/privkey.pem;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/live/backup.homelab.lu/dhparam.pem;
    ssl_session_timeout 5m;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_session_tickets off;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload"; # six month
    add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

For Apache: 

    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/privkey.pem
    # This is valid only for Apache 2.4.8 or later if using OpenSSL 1.0.2 or later
    SSLOpenSSLConfCmd DHParameters /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/dhparam.pem
    # Requires Apache 2.4.36 & OpenSSL 1.1.1
    SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.3 +TLSv1.2
    SSLOpenSSLConfCmd Curves X25519:secp521r1:secp384r1:prime256v1
    # Older versions
    # SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
    SSLHonorCipherOrder On
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
    # Requires Apache >= 2.4
    SSLCompression off
    SSLUseStapling on
    SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/stapling-cache(150000)"
    # Requires Apache >= 2.4.11
    SSLSessionTickets Off

Make sure to visit https://syslink.pl/cipherlist/ to get an updated SSL cipher list for your webserver.

Setup autorenewal of all the certificates: 

$ crontab -e
30 3 * * 0 /usr/bin/certbot -q renew --renew-hook "systemctl reload nginx"

DNS-01 challenge

Install certbot: 

$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
Install the necessary certbot DNS plugin, in this case for Cloudflare: 
$ apt-get install python3-certbot-dns-cloudflare

Create the necessary credentials file: 

$ nano /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini
dns_cloudflare_api_token = exampletoken
$ chmod 600 /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini

Request a certificate: 

$ certbot certonly \
  --agree-tos \
  --dns-cloudflare \
  --dns-cloudflare-credentials /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare.ini \
  --dns-cloudflare-propagation-seconds 10 \
  --rsa-key-size 4096 \
  -d your_domain.tld

Generate a Diffie-Hellman key: 

$ openssl dhparam -out /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/dhparam.pem 4096

Add the following to the Nginx HTTPS vhost: 

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/privkey.pem;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/dhparam.pem;
    ssl_session_timeout 5m;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_session_tickets off;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload"; # six month
    add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

For Apache: 

    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/privkey.pem
    # This is valid only for Apache 2.4.8 or later if using OpenSSL 1.0.2 or later
    SSLOpenSSLConfCmd DHParameters /etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain.tld/dhparam.pem
    # Requires Apache 2.4.36 & OpenSSL 1.1.1
    SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.3 +TLSv1.2
    SSLOpenSSLConfCmd Curves X25519:secp521r1:secp384r1:prime256v1
    # Older versions
    # SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
    SSLHonorCipherOrder On
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
    # Requires Apache >= 2.4
    SSLCompression off
    SSLUseStapling on
    SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/stapling-cache(150000)"
    # Requires Apache >= 2.4.11
    SSLSessionTickets Off

Make sure to visit https://syslink.pl/cipherlist/ to get a list of updated ciphers for your webserver.

Setup autorenewal of all the certificates: 

$ crontab -e
30 3 * * 0 /usr/bin/certbot -q renew --renew-hook "systemctl reload nginx"

Hint

If DNS records get wiped by accident, credentials as well as CNAMEs for all domains are stored in /etc/letsencrypt/acmedns.json.

acme.sh

acme.sh is a pure Unix shell script implementing ACME client protocol.

DNS-01 challenge

$ cd /tmp
$ git clone https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh.git
$ cd acme.sh
$ ./acme.sh --install --nocron --home /opt/etc/acme.sh --accountemail "[email protected]"
$ nano /opt/etc/acme.sh/dnsapi/dns_ovh.sh

# set your variables
#Application Key
OVH_AK="foo"

#Application Secret
OVH_AS="bar"

#Consumer Key
OVH_CK="foobar"

$ /opt/etc/acme.sh/acme.sh --home /opt/etc/acme.sh --server letsencrypt --issue -d example.com --dns dns_ovh
$ crontab -e
30 3 * * 0 "/opt/etc/acme.sh/acme.sh" --cron --home "/opt/etc/acme.sh/" > /dev/null
Last update: May 18, 2024