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letsencrypt

Automatic Let's Encrypt HTTPS / TLS / SSL Certificates for node.js

Free SLL with 90-day HTTPS / TLS Certificates

STOP

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

This is a low-level library for implementing ACME / LetsEncrypt Clients, CLIs, system tools, and abstracting storage backends (file vs db, etc).

For express, raw https or spdy, or restify (same as raw https) see letsencrypt-express.

For hapi see letsencrypt-hapi.

For koa or rill see letsencrypt-koa.

For bash, fish, zsh, cmd.exe, PowerShell see letsencrypt-cli.

CONTINUE

If you're sure you're at the right place, here's what you need to know now:

Install

letsencrypt requires at least two plugins: one for managing certificate storage and the other for handling ACME challenges.

The default storage plugin is le-store-certbot and the default challenger is le-challenge-fs.

npm install --save letsencrypt@2.x
npm install --save le-store-certbot@2.x
npm install --save le-challenge-fs@2.x

Usage

It's very simple and easy to use, but also very complete and easy to extend and customize.

Overly Simplified Example

Against my better judgement I'm providing a terribly oversimplified example of how to use this library:

var le = require('letsencrypt').create({ server: 'staging' });

le.register(
  { domains: ['example.com'], email: 'user@email.com', agreeTos: true }
, function (err, results) {
    console.log(err, results);
  }
);

You also need some sort of server to handle the acme challenge:

var app = express();
app.use('/', le.middleware());

Note: The webrootPath string is a template. Any occurance of :hostname will be replaced with the domain for which we are requested certificates.

Useful Example

The configuration consists of 3 components:

• Storage Backend (search npm for projects starting with 'le-store-')
• ACME Challenge Handlers (search npm for projects starting with 'le-challenge-')
• Letsencryt Config (this is all you)

'use strict';

var LE = require('letsencrypt');
var le;


// Storage Backend
var leStore = require('le-store-certbot').create({
  configDir: '~/letsencrypt/etc'                          // or /etc/letsencrypt or wherever
, debug: false
});


// ACME Challenge Handlers
var leChallenger = require('le-challenge-fs').create({
  webrootPath: '~/letsencrypt/var/'                       // or template string such as
, debug: false                                            // '/srv/www/:hostname/.well-known/acme-challenge'
});


function leAgree(opts, agreeCb) {
  // opts = { email, domains, tosUrl }
  agreeCb(null, opts.tosUrl);
}

le = LE.create({
  server: LE.stagingServerUrl                             // or LE.productionServerUrl
, store: leStore                                          // handles saving of config, accounts, and certificates
, challenger: leChallenger                                // handles /.well-known/acme-challege keys and tokens
, agreeToTerms: leAgree                                   // hook to allow user to view and accept LE TOS
, debug: false
});


// If using express you should use the middleware
// app.use('/', le.middleware());
//
// Otherwise you should use the wrapped getChallenge:
// le.getChallenge(domain, key, val, done)



// Check in-memory cache of certificates for the named domain
le.check({ domain: 'example.com' }).then(function (results) {
  if (results) {
    // we already have certificates
    return;
  }


  // Register Certificate manually
  le.get({

    domains: ['example.com']                                // CHANGE TO YOUR DOMAIN (list for SANS)
  , email: 'user@email.com'                                 // CHANGE TO YOUR EMAIL
  , agreeTos: ''                                            // set to tosUrl string (or true) to pre-approve (and skip agreeToTerms)
  , rsaKeySize: 2048                                        // 2048 or higher
  , challengeType: 'http-01'                                // http-01, tls-sni-01, or dns-01

  }).then(function (results) {

    console.log('success');

  }, function (err) {

    // Note: you must either use le.middleware() with express,
    // manually use le.getChallenge(domain, key, val, done)
    // or have a webserver running and responding
    // to /.well-known/acme-challenge at `webrootPath`
    console.error('[Error]: node-letsencrypt/examples/standalone');
    console.error(err.stack);

  });

});

Here's what results looks like:

{ privkey: ''     // PEM encoded private key
, cert: ''        // PEM encoded cert
, chain: ''       // PEM encoded intermediate cert
, fullchain: ''   // cert + chain
, issuedAt: 0     // notBefore date (in ms) parsed from cert
, expiresAt: 0    // notAfter date (in ms) parsed from cert
}

API

The full end-user API is exposed in the example above and includes all relevant options.

le.register
le.get          // checkAndRegister
le.check

Helper Functions

We do expose a few helper functions:

• LE.validDomain(hostname) // returns '' or the hostname string if it's a valid ascii or punycode domain name

TODO fetch domain tld list

Template Strings

The following variables will be tempalted in any strings passed to the options object:

• ~/ replaced with os.homedir() i.e. /Users/aj
• :hostname replaced with the first domain in the list i.e. example.com

Developer API

If you are developing an le-store-* or le-challenge-* plugin you need to be aware of additional internal API expectations.

IMPORTANT:

Use v2.0.0 as your initial version - NOT v0.1.0 and NOT v1.0.0 and NOT v3.0.0. This is to indicate that your module is compatible with v2.x of node-letsencrypt.

Since the public API for your module is defined by node-letsencrypt the major version should be kept in sync.

store implementation

TODO double check and finish

• accounts
  • accounts.byDomain
  • accounts.all
  • accounts.get
  • accounts.exists
• certs
  • certs.byAccount
  • certs.all
  • certs.get
  • certs.exists

challenge implementation

TODO finish

• .set(opts, domain, key, value, done); // opts will be saved with domain/key
• .get(opts, domain, key, done); // opts will be retrieved by domain/key
• .remove(opts, domain, key, done); // opts will be retrieved by domain/key

Change History

• v2.0.0 - Aug 5th 2016
  • major refactor
  • simplified API
  • modular pluigns
  • knock out bugs
• v1.5.0 now using letiny-core v2.0.0 and rsa-compat
• v1.4.x I can't remember... but it's better!
• v1.1.0 Added letiny-core, removed node-letsencrypt-python
• v1.0.2 Works with node-letsencrypt-python
• v1.0.0 Thar be dragons

LICENSE

Dual-licensed MIT and Apache-2.0

See LICENSE