this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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Do you run a private CA? Could you tell me about your certificate setup if you do? (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hi, I was looking at private CAs since I don't want to pay for a domain to use in my homelab.

What is everyone using for their private CA? I've been looking at plain OpenSSL with some automation scripts but would like more ideas. Also, if you have multiple reverse-proxy instances, how do you distribute domain-specific signed certificates to them? I'm not planning to use a wildcard, and would like to rotate certificates often.

Thanks!

Edit: thank you for everyone who commented! I would like to say that I recognise the technical difficulty in getting such a setup working compared to a simple certbot setup to Let's Encrypt, but it's a personal choice that I have made.

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[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, could you tell me why one would run this over plain OpenSSL with automation? Also, what risks would I run running a private CA? I'd love to know!

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

could you tell me why one would run this over plain OpenSSL with automation?

Those projects essentially are the automation...

what risks would I run running a private CA? I’d love to know!

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/205174/what-are-the-risks-of-installing-a-ca-on-the-same-machine-as-openvpn-server

More or less you're adding a root certificate to your systems that will effectively accept any certificate issues with your CA's key. If your PK gets stolen somehow and you don't notice it, someone might be issuing certificates that are valid for those machines. Also real CA's also have ways to revoke certificates that are checked by browsers (OCSP and CRLs), they may employ other techniques such as cross signing and chains of trust. All those make it so a compromised certificate is revoked and not trusted by anyone after the fact.

[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I do realise the security problem in keeping the private key safe. I plan to use a VM with encrypted storage underneath. Do you think that's OK for a homelab, or should I invest time into integrating HSM modules from Nitrokey?

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why are you pushing for your own CA in the first place?

[–] MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I would not like to use a public domain for my internal network. By extension, I do not want any public CA to know the domains and subdomains I use in my lab and home network