certbot/docs/challenges.rst

Challenges
==========

To receive a certificate from Let's Encrypt certificate authority (CA), you must pass a *challenge* to 
prove you control each of the domain names that will be listed in the certificate. A challenge is one of 
three tasks that only someone who controls the domain should be able to accomplish:

* Posting a specified file in a specified location on a web site (the HTTP-01 challenge)
* Offering a specified temporary certificate on a web site (the TLS-SNI-01 challenge) 
* Posting a specified DNS record in the domain name system (the DNS-01 challenge)

It’s possible to complete each type of challenge *automatically* (Certbot directly makes the necessary 
changes itself, or runs another program that does so), or *manually* (Certbot tells you to make a 
certain change, and you edit a configuration file of some kind in order to accomplish it). Certbot's 
design favors performing challenges automatically, and this is the normal case for most users of Certbot.

Some plugins offer an *authenticator*, meaning that they can satisfy challenges:

* Apache plugin: (TLS-SNI-01) Tries to edit your Apache configuration files to temporarily serve 
  a Certbot-generated certificate for a specified name. Use the Apache plugin when you're running 
  Certbot on a web server with Apache listening on port 443.
* NGINX plugin: (TLS-SNI-01) Tries to edit your NGINX configuration files to temporarily serve a 
  Certbot-generated certificate for a specified name. Use the NGINX plugin when you're running 
  Certbot on a web server with NGINX listening on port 443.
* Webroot plugin: (HTTP-01) Tries to place a file where it can be served over HTTP on port 80 by a
  web server running on your system. Use the Webroot plugin when you're running Certbot on 
  a web server with any server application listening on port 80 serving files from a folder on disk in response.
* Standalone plugin: (TLS-SNI-01 or HTTP-01) Tries to run a temporary web server listening on either HTTP on 
  port 80 (for HTTP-01) or HTTPS on port 443 (for TLS-SNI-01). Use the Standalone plugin if no existing program 
  is listening to these ports. Choose TLS-SNI-01 or HTTP-01 using the `--preferred-challenges` option.
* Manual plugin: (DNS-01 or HTTP-01) Either tells you what changes to make to your configuration or updates 
  your DNS records using an external script (for DNS-01) or your webroot (for HTTP-01). Use the Manual 
  plugin if you have the technical knowledge to make configuration changes yourself when asked to do so. 

Tips for Challenges
-------------------
General tips:

* Run Certbot on your web server, not on your laptop or another server. It’s usually the easiest way to get a certificate.
* Use a tool like the DNSchecker at dnsstuff.com to check your DNS records to make sure 
  there are no serious errors. A DNS error can prevent a certificate authority from 
  issuing a certificate, even if it does not prevent your site from loading in a browser.
* If you are using Apache or NGINX plugins, make sure the configuration of your Apache or NGINX server is correct.

HTTP-01 Challenge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Make sure the domain name exists and is already pointed to the public IP address of the server where 
  you’re requesting the certificate.
* Make sure port 80 is open, publicly reachable from the Internet, and not blocked by a router or firewall.
* When using the Webroot plugin or the manual plugin, make sure the the webroot directory exists and that you
  specify it properly. If you set the webroot directory for example.com to `/var/www/example.com`
  then a file placed in `/var/www/example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile` should appear on
  your web site at `http://example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/testfile` (A redirection to HTTPS
  is OK here and should not stop the challenge from working.)
* In some web server configurations, all pages are dynamically generated by some kind of framework, 
  usually using a database backend. In this case, there might not be a particular directory 
  from which the web server can serve filesdirectly. Using the Webroot plugin in this case 
  requires making a change to your web server configuration first.
* Make sure your web server serves files properly from the directory where the challenge 
  file is placed (e. g. `/.well-known/acme-challenge`) to the expected location on the 
  website without adding a header or footer.
* When using the Standalone plugin, make sure another program is not already listening to port 80 on the server.
* When using the Webroot plugin, make sure there is a web server listening on port 80.

TLS-SNI-01 Challenge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* The TLS-SNI-01 challenge doesn’t work with content delivery networks (CDNs) 
  like CloudFlare and Akamai because the domain name is pointed at the CDN, not directly at your server.
* Make sure port 443 is open, publicly reachable from the Internet, and not blocked by a router or firewall.
* When using the Apache plugin, make sure you are running Apache and no other web server on port 443.
* When using the NGINX plugin, make sure you are running NGINX and no other web server on port 443.
* With either the Apache or NGINX plugin, certbot modifies your web server configuration. If you get
  an error after successfully completing the challenge, then you have received a certificate but the
  plugin was unable to modify your web server configuration, meaning that you'll have to install the certificate manually.
  In that case, please file a bug to help us improve certbot!
* When using the Standalone plugin, make sure another program is not already listening to port 443 on the server.

DNS-01 Challenge
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* When using the manual plugin, make sure your DNS records are correctly updated; 
  you must be able to make appropriate changes to your DNS zone in order to pass the challenge.