# LetsEncrypt on a Ubuntu System without Apache or nginx

In this example, I use etherpad.noc.ietf.org as the instance name.  Of course you will want to change that.

## Preparation

As strongly advised in the [acme_tiny README.md](https://github.com/diafygi/acme-tiny/blob/master/README.md), create a separate user acme, in which to do all this.

To keep things tidy, I create three sub-directories

```
cd
mkdir work secrets challenges
chmod 750 work
# protect secrets
chmod 700 secrets
chmod 750 challenges
```

challenges has to be readable by the web server, but this hack can only be done by root

```
chown acme:www-data /home/acme/challenges
```

I do not have git on small machines, so just grab the code with fetch.  Being lazy, I just fetch the source into /home/acme.

```
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/diafygi/acme-tiny/master/acme_tiny.py > acme_tiny.py
chmod 700 acme_tiny.py
```

## LetsEncrypt Account Key

I use the same LetsEncrypt account key for all servers.  so I copy it

```
rsync <somewhere>:/home/acme/secrets/account.key /home/acme/secrets
chmod 600 /home/acme/secrets/account.key
```

If you do not already have a Let's Encrypt account key, generate one per the README.md.

```
openssl genrsa 4096 > /home/acme/secrets/account.key
chmod 600 /home/acme/secrets/account.key
```

If you generate an account key, keep it very safe and use it for all LetsEncrypt transactions from now on.

## Domain Private Key

The domain private key will be the server's TLS private key, and should be protected.  Generate it as described in the README.md.  It remains constant for the initial use and subsequent certificate refresh requests.

```
openssl genrsa 4096 > /home/acme/secrets/domain.key
chmod 600 /home/acme/secrets/domain.key
```

## Generate the Certificate Request

As described in the README.md, generate the certificate request.  It remains constant for the initial use and subsequent certificate refresh requests.

```
openssl req -new -sha256 -key /home/acme/secrets/domain.key -subj "/CN=etherpad.noc.ietf.org" > /home/acme/work/domain.csr
```

If the web site virtualizes multiple domains, 

```
cat /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf |
awk '
  {print}
  END {
        print "[SAN]";
        print "subjectAltName=DNS:permatrac.sql1.ietf.org,DNS:etherpad.sql1.ietf.org,DNS:tickets.meeting.ietf.org";
  }' |
openssl req -new -sha256 -key secrets/domain.key -subj "/" \
        -reqexts SAN -config /dev/stdin -out work/domain.csr
```

## Installl and Configure micro-http to Provide Proof of Ownership

LetsEncrypt will send a challenge nonce that we have to store where they can subsequently GET it from the web server for the domain being registered.  acme_tiny.py uses what it calls a challenge directory.  It must be writable by the acme_tiny.py script and readable by the web server; hence the perms and ownership used above.

LetsEncrypt fetches the challenge over port 80 from a URL of [http:your.domain/.well-known/acme-challenge/].  So we need to configure a web server to make the challenge data readable on port 80.  We do not want to run full apache or ngix, so we use micro-httpd.

```
apt install xinetd micro-httpd
```

I suggest hacking `/etc/services` to use micro-httpd

```
#http           80/tcp          www             # WorldWideWeb HTTP             
#http           80/udp                          # HyperText Transfer Protocol   
micro_httpd     80/tcp                          # WorldWideWeb HTTP             
```

Since you will use micro-http very rarely, run it out of inetd, well xinetd

```
cat > /etc/xinetd.d/micro_http << EOF
service micro_httpd
{
     disable         = no
     protocol        = tcp
     port            = 80
     socket_type     = stream
     wait            = no
     user            = nobody
     server          = /usr/sbin/micro-httpd
     server_args     = /home/acme/challenges
     }
EOF
service restart xinetd
```

It is a good check to ensure that you can browse to the challenge directory [http:etherpad.noc.ietf.org/.well-known/acme-challenge].

Getting my browsers not to fall forward to https was very painful.  So I tested as follows:

```
echo gobbledygook > challenges/foo
chmod 644 challenges/foo
```

Then, from a remote system, this should work

```
curl http://etherpad.noc.ietf.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/foo
gobbledygook
```

## Getting the Certificate

I lost a number hours because I have a conservative umask.  So I made a handy script to get the certificate and, while we're at it, the certificate chain from LetsEncrypt.

Before you go for real, I strongly suggest you test using the staging server so as not to encounter LetsEncrypt's rate limiting. To do this, hack the acme_tiny.py as follows:

```
DEFAULT_CA = "https://acme-staging.api.letsencrypt.org"
#DEFAULT_CA = "https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org"
```

When it all works, then you can go for real.

```
#!/bin/sh -x

umask 0022
H=/home/acme
WK=$H/work
SEC=$H/secrets
CH=$H/challenges

python acme_tiny.py \
    --account-key \
    $SEC/account.key \
    --csr $WK/domain.csr \
    --acme-dir $CH \
    > $WK/signed.crt || exit

curl https://letsencrypt.org/certs/lets-encrypt-x3-cross-signed.pem \
    > $WK/intermediate.pem

# note that you may have the certs stored elsewhere
sudo $H/CAT $SEC/domain.key      /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
sudo $H/CAT $WK/signed.crt       /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
```

Where `/home/acme/CAT` is

```
/bin/cat $1 > $2
```

And you will have needed to hack /etc/sudoers to have

```
acme ALL = (root) NOPASSWD: /home/acme/CAT
acme ALL = (root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/service
```

## Renewal

You can run the same script as above for certificate renewal.  Put

```
36  0  1   */2 *     /home/acme/LE
```

in acme's crontab.

2017.08.07

​            [Last modified](https://wiki.rg.net/wiki/AcmeTinyNoApache?action=diff&version=1) [3 years ago](https://wiki.rg.net/timeline?from=2017-08-06T23%3A46%3A41Z&precision=second)                      

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