# Getting a Free Domain with a TLS Certificate

🐲

Difficulty: Easy / Basic

With this tutorial you will get a valid TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt without having to open any incoming ports. You can use the certificate to enable HTTPS with your reverse proxy (Apache, Nginx, Caddy, etc...) or other self hosted services. Since this only uses acme.sh which is a shell script it should work on everything that runs Linux.

The tutorial was written for and tested with Duck DNS and deSEC, but you can (in theory, because I did sadly encounter a few bugs/incompatibilities here and there) use every one of the 150+ DNS providers supported by acme.sh (there is also a second page at the end). If you want to use a wildcard certificate I would recommend deSEC because Duck DNS currently has a bug/incompatibility with acme.sh.

If you want to use another DNS provider you can skip right to step Install acme.sh. You will need to change the parameter --dns YOURDNS in all the below commands and set the necessary variables yourself according to the acme.sh DNS API wiki.

# Select a DynDNS Provider

# Duck DNS

Go to https://www.duckdns.org/ and sign in with one of the providers at the top.
After your are successfully logged in, enter the sub domain you want and press add domain. This domain name (including the .duckdns.org part) needs to be replaced in all commands where you see $YOURDOMAIN.
Enter either:
- The local IP address of your server if your server is not accessible from the internet or the public IP address of your server if your server is accessible from the internet in the current ip field and press update ip.
  
  The choosen sub domain name will be the one that the server/service needs to be addressed when using the certificate, for it to be valid. Since you set the sub domain to the IP address of your server it should be reachable when the sub domain name get's translated by any DNS. Depending on your home router you might need add an exception of the sub domain name to the DNS rebind protection.
Keep the website open, because you need it in a later step.

# deSEC

Go to https://desec.io/signup and create a new account. It doesn't matter what you choose for Do you want to set up a domain right away? because you can add a domain afterwards.
Log into your deSEC account.
If you havent't added a domain during signup, click on the + button on the right and enter the subdomain you want and add .dedyn.io after your subdomain so it looks like example.dedyn.io. If the sub domain was added successfull there will be a popup with setup instructions which you will not need and can be closed. This domain name needs to be replaced in all commands where you see $YOURDOMAIN.
Optionally add a DNS record. Click onto your sub domain name and then the + button on the right. A popup with Create New Record Set will show up. Choose the Record Set Type value A and enter either:
- The local IP address of your server if your server is not accessible from the internet or the public IP address of your server if your server is accessible from the internet in the 'IPv4 address' field and press Save.
  
  The choosen sub domain name will be the one that the server/service needs to be addressed when using the certificate, for it to be valid. Since you set the sub domain to the IP address of your server it should be reachable when the sub domain name get's translated by any DNS. Depending on your home router you might need add an exception of the sub domain name to the DNS rebind protection.
At the top menu change to TOKEN MANAGEMENT and press the + button on the right. A popup with Generate New Token will show up. Enter a token name of your choosing (the name doesn't matter and is only for the convenience of knowing what the token is used for). Press save.

Now there will be a green bar at in the popup saying:
```
Your new token's secret value is: aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffffgggg
It is only displayed once.
```
Copy the secret token value into a text editor because you'll need it later. Don't worry, you can always come back to this step and generate a new token in case you lose the secret token value.

# Install `acme.sh`

Run the following command on your server to install acme.sh:
```
curl https://get.acme.sh | sh -s
```
If you wish to receive an expiration notification email before your certificates expires you can insert your email address and install acme.sh with the following command:
```
curl https://get.acme.sh | sh -s email=my@example.com
```
You can find more information on expiration emails here: https://letsencrypt.org/docs/expiration-emails/
Run the command - exec $SHELL. This will pick up on anything new which the installation has installed.

# Configure `acme.sh`

First enable auto updates. This allows the script to keep itself updated:
```
acme.sh --upgrade --auto-upgrade
```
Next change the default CA (Certificate Authority) to Let's Encrypt (see explanation in the remarks):
```
acme.sh --set-default-ca --server letsencrypt
```
Take the token from your DynDNS provider and insert it into either one of the following commands between the quotation marks:
Duck DNS
```
export DuckDNS_Token="aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee"
```
deSEC
```
export DEDYN_TOKEN="aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffffgggg"
```

# Issuing a TLS Certificate

In the following commands you need to replace $YOURDNS with either dns_duckdns for Duck DNS or dns_desec if you chose deSEC. Insert your registered sub domain in the following command to issue your first certificate:

acme.sh --issue --dns $YOURDNS --domain $YOURDOMAIN

If you have registered more domains you can add them as alternative names to the certificate by adding more --domain $YOURDOMAIN at the end, for example:

acme.sh --issue --dns $YOURDNS --domain subdomain.example.com --domain subdomain-nextcloud.example.com --domain subdomain-vaultwarden.example.com

The first given --domain of the --issue command will be the primary domain of the certificate and the only one domain you will need to state when running other acme.sh commands. I would recommend keeping the primary domain the same when adding/removing other subdomains.

# 4. Installing The Certificate to a Target Directory

After the certificate is issued, acme.sh needs to copy the certificate to a target directory. The target directory (or at least filename) must be unique. Your reloadcmd command must also be for this specific certificate.

The following command sets the variable CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY (which is just for ease of use in the next command) with a directory of your choosing as well as creates the directory.

CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY=$HOME/certificates
mkdir -p "$CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY"

Now tell acme.sh where and under which filenames it should copy the certificate (--cert-file and --fullchain-file) and key (--key-file) files and which command (--reloadcmd) it should run to restart your reverse proxy or other service.

acme.sh --install-cert --domain $YOURDOMAIN --cert-file "$CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY/certificate.pem" --fullchain-file "$CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY/fullchain.pem" --key-file "$CERTIFICATE_DIRECTORY/key.pem" --reloadcmd "sudo service apache2 force-reload"

In the above example we've set the directory to store the certificate files as a certificates directory within your home directory and to run the command sudo service apache2 force-reload once the certificate has been obtained.

# Automatic Renewal

Certificates from Let's Encrypt are only valid for 90 days. Because of this acme.sh will create a daily cronjob that runs at a random time. When the task is run it will:

Renew every certificate after 60 days.
Copy the certificate and key files to their previously configured destination directory.
Run the reloadcmd command as previously configured.

# Notes

How can I add more domain names to my certificate?
Run the command from Issuing a TLS Certificate again with all domain names (old and new) that you want in your certificate. As long as the primary domain stays the same it is not necessary to install the certificate again.

After changing the domain names with the --issue parameter, it will not copy the new certificate to it's destination or run the --reloadcmd that was set with the --install-cert command. You will either have to do it by yourself or run the --install-cert command again (with all the same parameters as before) or copy the files manually from the .acme.sh directory in your home directory. If you don't know the parameters from last time you can look them up in the info about the certificate (see next point).
Show configuration of acme.sh:
```
acme.sh --info
```
Show configuration of a certificate:
```
acme.sh --info -d $YOURDOMAIN
```
List all certificates issued with acme.sh:
```
acme.sh --list
```
Remove a certificate from acme.sh:
```
acme.sh --remove -d YOURDOMAIN
```
Why change the default CA to Let's Encrypt?
I did encounter bugs with the default CA of acme.sh (ZeroSSL) which where gone once I switched to Let's Encrypt.
How to create a wildcard certificate:
Add *.YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURSITEDOMAIN.com as an alternative domain name to your certificate:
```
acme.sh --issue --dns dns_... --domain YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURSITEDOMAIN.com --domain *.YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURSITEDOMAIN.com
```
In theory it works with Duck DNS, but if you add the wildcard as an alternative name there sadly is a bug or incompatibility (depending on who you want to blame) and acme.sh runs into an infitie loop. It works if you only use the wildcard domain as the primary domain name. But with only a wildcard in the certificate I don't know if this certificate will play nice with all devices, browsers and applications.

If you want to use acme.sh and create a wildcard certificate desec.io works as a DNS provider.
How to create a staging certificate for testing: Add the --test parameter to the --issue command to create test (or staging) certificates which are not valid but are better if you are just testing things. The certificate will stay in the staging environment until you renew it without the --test parameter:
```
acme.sh --renew -d YOURSUBDOMAIN.YOURSITEDOMAIN.com
```
More on that topic here: https://letsencrypt.org/docs/staging-environment/
Uninstall acme.sh:
```
acme.sh --uninstall
```
and delete the .acme.sh directory in your home directory.