diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | changelog.d/6905.doc | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/ACME.md | 55 |
2 files changed, 44 insertions, 12 deletions
diff --git a/changelog.d/6905.doc b/changelog.d/6905.doc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..ca10b38301 --- /dev/null +++ b/changelog.d/6905.doc @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Mention in `ACME.md` that ACMEv1 is deprecated and explain what it means for Synapse admins. diff --git a/docs/ACME.md b/docs/ACME.md index 9eb18a9cf5..f4c4740476 100644 --- a/docs/ACME.md +++ b/docs/ACME.md @@ -1,12 +1,48 @@ # ACME -Synapse v1.0 will require valid TLS certificates for communication between -servers (port `8448` by default) in addition to those that are client-facing -(port `443`). If you do not already have a valid certificate for your domain, -the easiest way to get one is with Synapse's new ACME support, which will use -the ACME protocol to provision a certificate automatically. Synapse v0.99.0+ -will provision server-to-server certificates automatically for you for free -through [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/) if you tell it to. +From version 1.0 (June 2019) onwards, Synapse requires valid TLS +certificates for communication between servers (by default on port +`8448`) in addition to those that are client-facing (port `443`). To +help homeserver admins fulfil this new requirement, Synapse v0.99.0 +introduced support for automatically provisioning certificates through +[Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/) using the ACME protocol. + +## Deprecation of ACME v1 + +In [March 2019](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/end-of-life-plan-for-acmev1/88430), +Let's Encrypt announced that they were deprecating version 1 of the ACME +protocol, with the plan to disable the use of it for new accounts in +November 2019, and for existing accounts in June 2020. + +Synapse doesn't currently support version 2 of the ACME protocol, which +means that: + +* for existing installs, Synapse's built-in ACME support will continue + to work until June 2020. +* for new installs, this feature will not work at all. + +Either way, it is recommended to move from Synapse's ACME support +feature to an external automated tool such as [certbot](https://github.com/certbot/certbot) +(or browse [this list](https://letsencrypt.org/fr/docs/client-options/) +for an alternative ACME client). + +It's also recommended to use a reverse proxy for the server-facing +communications (more documentation about this can be found +[here](/docs/reverse_proxy.md)) as well as the client-facing ones and +have it serve the certificates. + +In case you can't do that and need Synapse to serve them itself, make +sure to set the `tls_certificate_path` configuration setting to the path +of the certificate (make sure to use the certificate containing the full +certification chain, e.g. `fullchain.pem` if using certbot) and +`tls_private_key_path` to the path of the matching private key. Note +that in this case you will need to restart Synapse after each +certificate renewal so that Synapse stops using the old certificate. + +If you still want to use Synapse's built-in ACME support, the rest of +this document explains how to set it up. + +## Initial setup In the case that your `server_name` config variable is the same as the hostname that the client connects to, then the same certificate can be @@ -32,11 +68,6 @@ If you already have certificates, you will need to back up or delete them (files `example.com.tls.crt` and `example.com.tls.key` in Synapse's root directory), Synapse's ACME implementation will not overwrite them. -You may wish to use alternate methods such as Certbot to obtain a certificate -from Let's Encrypt, depending on your server configuration. Of course, if you -already have a valid certificate for your homeserver's domain, that can be -placed in Synapse's config directory without the need for any ACME setup. - ## ACME setup The main steps for enabling ACME support in short summary are: |