this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)

Homelab

827 readers
1 users here now

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
communick@selfhosted.forum
rglullis@communick.news
1
Finally using SSL certs on my local services, no more HTTPS warnings. Someone appreciate because my GF could care less (alien.top)
submitted 2 years ago by -my_reddit_username-@alien.top to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum
47 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I love my homelab, and the more I tune things the more satisfaction I have. I tolerated the "Your connection is not private" for my self-signed SSL certs on my services for way too long.

I just setup NGINX Proxy Manager as a LXC on my Proxmox Server and pointed a subdomain I own to the server. Now I have custom domains for each service along with valid SSL Certificates. It's all local without exposing anything to the outside world. It's very satisfying. I tried explaining what I was doing to my GF but she could care less ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Followed this video from Wolfgang's Channel YouTube (great channel btw), the first minute does a better job explaining the setup. I always thought I would have to setup a local CA which is more work than I was interested in, but this approach was much simpler (and free!).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] hadrabap@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago (12 children)

Welcome to the TLS family! I personally run my own CA, but the end result is the same. 🙂 Welcome and enjoy! 😛

[–] bobbyorlando@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago (11 children)

Hiw can i set this up? Is it hard?

[–] hadrabap@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago (10 children)

No, it is not so difficult. But you need a bit of planning.

First of all, you need a way to distribute your ROOT certificate to your clients. That's more a question of automation.

Second, you need to prepare the topology with certain rules. Things like dedicated certificates for people (identity), services (server certificates for dedicated subdomains), machine clients (for mTLS and zero-trust), infrastructure stuff like BMC/IPMI, UPS, routers...

Basically, the rules are:

  1. Self signed ROOT certificate
  2. Intermediate CA (signing certificate)
  3. (Optional) signing certificate

In case of multiple (dedicated) certificates, you want to make the split at the intermediate/signing level. The chain will help you enforce the rules.

You should decide which algorithm to use (RSA vs. ECC).

Finally, you need a piece of software that will create and sign the certificates for you. This software must authenticate you and check your request if it comforms to the rules above.

I'm using multiple instances of step-ca. Most of the famous certificate management solutions (the service side asking your authority for a certificate, including rekeying/renewal) support it. Which is good. Standard protocols are always better than in-house ~solutions~ workarounds.

To start building your CA:

  1. Learn about PKI (good start is RFC-5280
  2. Learn OpenSSL, how to deal with openssl.conf, sections, ASN.1
  3. If you need additional information on the certificate, register for your own Private Enterprise Number. Do not abuse existing attributes!
  4. Prepare HTTP (plain HTTP, no TLS) server to serve your intermediate/signing certificates (for AIA protocol) and CRL (for validation)
  5. Put your intermediate/signing key/certificate to step-ca as a ROOT and you're good to go.

You can also incorporate HSM if you have one. Just configure its pkcs11 module in the OpenSSL and in the step-ca.

As it is quite a complex topic, feel free to drop additional questions. 👍

[–] Simon-RedditAccount@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Finally! A ~~worth opponent~~ fellow who also cares about having proper OIDs and AIA :)

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)