Automatic HTTPS (ACME)

rws obtains certificates from Let's Encrypt (or any ACME CA) by itself and keeps them renewed. Point a domain's DNS at the server, then:

# rws.config.toml
port               = 443
http_redirect_port = 80     # HTTP → HTTPS redirects; also answers ACME challenges

[acme]
domains = ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
email   = "you@example.com"

rws

On first start rws requests a certificate, stores it in .rws/acme/ (cert.pem, key.pem, account.key — keys 0600, the directory 0700, and never served: the working directory is the web root), and starts serving HTTPS, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 with it. Later starts reuse the stored certificate. Renewal happens in the background and is hot-swapped without dropping connections.

Requirements#

• DNS for every domain in domains points at this server.
• One way for the CA to check you control the domains: port 80 reachable from the internet (HTTP-01, the default), or port 443 (TLS-ALPN-01), or write access to the domain's DNS (DNS-01, also for wildcards) — see Challenge types.
• Binding ports 80/443 on Linux needs root or the capability: sudo setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep "$(which rws)".

IPv6 is handled: when a domain has an AAAA record, Let's Encrypt validates over IPv6, so the challenge and redirect listeners accept both IPv4 and IPv6.

How it works#

1. Startup. If no certificate exists, or it is due for renewal (see 4), rws runs the ACME flow before opening the HTTPS port: account (key saved to .rws/acme/account.key), order, HTTP-01 challenge, ECDSA P-256 key + CSR, finalize, download.
2. Challenges. At startup a temporary listener on the challenge port (default 80) answers them. Once the HTTP → HTTPS redirect listener is running on that port, it answers challenges itself — so renewals never compete with it for port 80.
3. First-time failures are retried, e.g. while DNS for a new domain is still propagating: after 30 s, doubling up to every 15 minutes, until a certificate is issued.
4. Renewal (since 18.0.0). A certificate is renewed at two-thirds of its lifetime — day 60 of 90, day 30 of 45, day 4 of 6 — or earlier when the CA's ACME Renewal Information (RFC 9773) suggests a window that opens sooner, e.g. after a revocation. rws asks for it at every check (every 12 hours at most, every 6 when the CA has renewal information, sooner when renewal is due earlier or the CA's Retry-After says so) and picks a point in the window that's fixed per certificate. The renewal order names the certificate it replaces, so the CA can exempt it from rate limits. A failed renewal is retried within an hour. After renewing it reloads the TLS certificate in place (on Unix, via the same SIGHUP reload used for config). renew_before_days, if set, replaces the two-thirds point (a CA window that opens earlier still wins).
5. Profiles. profile orders a certificate profile the CA offers — Let's Encrypt has classic, tlsserver and shortlived (6-day certificates). A name the CA doesn't list stops provisioning with the list it offers. Unset, the CA picks its default.

The ACME client (RFC 8555) is implemented in-crate. It has been tested end to end against Pebble, Let's Encrypt's test CA, including a shortlived profile and renewal on Pebble's renewal information through the redirect listener.

Testing with the staging CA#

Let's Encrypt production has strict rate limits. Try your setup against staging first — its certificates aren't browser-trusted, but the limits are generous:

[acme]
domains = ["example.com"]
staging = true

Delete .rws/acme/ before switching back to production.

Before 17.113.1 the defaults were cert.pem, key.pem and acme_account.key in the working directory — the web root, so the keys could be downloaded. On upgrade, files found there are moved into .rws/acme/ (when the default paths are in use), and the static server no longer serves *.pem, *.key or rws.config.toml anywhere. Rotate a key that was exposed.

Private ACME CAs#

To use step-ca, an internal Boulder, or Pebble, set the directory URL and trust the CA's root certificate (in addition to the public roots):

[acme]
domains   = ["internal.example"]
directory = "https://ca.internal.example:9000/acme/acme/directory"
ca_file   = "/etc/rws/internal-root.pem"

Challenge types#

challenge picks how the CA checks that you control the domains (since 18.4.0; HTTP-01 before):

TLS-ALPN-01#

For a server that only listens on 443 — no port 80 at all:

port = 443

[acme]
domains   = ["example.com"]
challenge = "tls-alpn-01"

rws answers on its HTTPS port: at startup, before it has a certificate, a temporary acceptor on the same socket serves the challenge; afterwards the TLS listener does, beside the normal traffic. A challenge handshake gets a special self-signed certificate and is then closed; other clients never see it. If a port mapping forwards 443 elsewhere, set port to where it lands.

DNS-01#

The CA looks up a TXT record, so nothing needs to reach the server — and it is the only way to get a wildcard certificate (*.example.com). rws adds the record, waits until the zone's server answers with it, lets the CA check, and removes it.

[acme]
domains   = ["example.com", "*.example.com"]
challenge = "dns-01"
dns_provider        = "rfc2136"            # DNS UPDATE (RFC 2136) to the primary server
dns_server          = "ns1.example.com"    # host[:port], port 53
dns_tsig_key        = "rws-acme"           # TSIG key name the server knows
dns_tsig_secret     = "base64secret=="     # better in RWS_CONFIG_ACME_DNS_TSIG_SECRET
# dns_tsig_algorithm  = "hmac-sha256"      # or hmac-sha512
# dns_zone            = "example.com"      # found by SOA lookup when not set
# dns_propagation_secs = 120               # how long to wait for the record

A BIND key and the zone permission it needs:

key "rws-acme" { algorithm hmac-sha256; secret "base64secret=="; };
zone "example.com" { type primary; file "example.com.zone";
    update-policy { grant rws-acme name _acme-challenge.example.com. TXT; }; };

(tsig-keygen rws-acme prints a new key.) The secret is never printed in rws's startup log.

Cloudflare#

[acme]
domains      = ["example.com", "*.example.com"]
challenge    = "dns-01"
dns_provider = "cloudflare"
# dns_api_token = "..."     # better in RWS_CONFIG_ACME_DNS_API_TOKEN; never printed
# dns_zone_id   = "023e105f4ecef8ad9ca31a8372d0c353"

Create the token under My Profile → API Tokens with Zone → DNS → Edit for the zone. rws finds the zone by asking for example.com's parents in turn, which also needs Zone → Zone → Read — or set dns_zone_id (the zone's overview page shows it) and the DNS permission is enough. rws replaces the _acme-challenge TXT records and deletes its own afterwards.

Route 53#

[acme]
domains      = ["example.com", "*.example.com"]
challenge    = "dns-01"
dns_provider = "route53"
# dns_zone_id = "Z0123456789ABCDEFGHIJ"

Credentials come from the environment the AWS tools use — AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and, for temporary ones, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN (instance roles and profiles in ~/.aws aren't read: export them, e.g. eval "$(aws configure export-credentials --format env)"). The IAM policy needs route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets and route53:GetChange, plus route53:ListHostedZonesByName unless dns_zone_id is set:

{"Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [
  {"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets"], "Resource": "arn:aws:route53:::hostedzone/Z0123456789ABCDEFGHIJ"},
  {"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["route53:GetChange", "route53:ListHostedZonesByName"], "Resource": "*"}]}

rws waits for Route 53 to report the change INSYNC, then for the record to be visible, as with every provider (dns_server, or the system resolver — set dns_server to one of the zone's name servers to skip resolver caches).

CI tests both against a stand-in API that writes into BIND, with the request signatures checked independently, and Pebble validating (ci/e2e/acme_dns_api.sh).

DNS-PERSIST-01#

The CA looks up one TXT record that you publish once and leave in place: it names the CA and your ACME account, so nothing on the server needs DNS credentials or an open port, and renewals need no DNS change at all (draft-ietf-acme-dns-persist; Let's Encrypt is rolling it out — Pebble has it).

[acme]
domains   = ["example.com", "*.example.com"]
challenge = "dns-persist-01"
# dns_server = "ns1.example.com"   # where to look for the record (else the system resolver)

The first time, rws creates its ACME account and logs the record to publish (one line):

[ACME] Provisioning failed: dns-persist-01: publish this TXT record once (it stays; rws retries until it's visible): _validation-persist.example.com. TXT "letsencrypt.org; accounturi=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/123456; policy=wildcard"

Publish it at your DNS host; rws retries on its own and issues as soon as it sees the record. policy=wildcard is there because *.example.com is in domains. The record belongs to the ACME account, so keep account_key_path's file (.rws/acme/account.key) — with a new key comes a new account, and a new record to publish. Before asking the CA, rws checks that the record is visible, so a missing one never costs a failed validation. dns_provider is ignored: rws never changes this record.

On-demand TLS#

For a SaaS whose customers point their own domains at it: rws orders a certificate at the first TLS handshake for a name nobody configured, once your ask endpoint allows that name (since 18.4.0).

http_redirect_port = 80                  # answers HTTP-01

[acme]
domains       = ["saas.example.com"]     # rws's own certificate, the default
on_demand     = true                     # RWS_CONFIG_ACME_ON_DEMAND
on_demand_ask = "http://127.0.0.1:9000/allowed"   # RWS_CONFIG_ACME_ON_DEMAND_ASK

• Before each order rws asks GET <on_demand_ask>?domain=<name>; a 2xx answer allows it, anything else (or no answer in five seconds) refuses it. Answer from your list of customer domains. on_demand without on_demand_ask is refused: anyone could make rws order certificates for every name they point at it.
• The first handshake for a new name waits for its certificate (up to 90 seconds; with Let's Encrypt usually a few). A refused name gets the default certificate and isn't asked about again for a minute; a failed order isn't retried for ten. At most four orders run at once, and one per name however many clients arrive together.
• Certificates are kept in .rws/acme/on-demand/<name>/ (next to the cert_path), loaded at startup and renewed like the main one; with redis replicas share them too.
• HTTP-01 or TLS-ALPN-01 (DNS-01 would need every customer's zone). Over HTTP/3 a name is served once a TCP handshake has ordered it.

CI checks it against Pebble with an ask endpoint (ci/e2e/acme_on_demand.sh): an allowed name is served its certificate on the first request, a refused one the default, five simultaneous first requests make one order, and a restart orders nothing.

Several replicas#

Replicas of one site behind a load balancer each run ACME for the same domains. On their own they would each order a certificate — hitting the CA's rate limits — and each answer only the challenges they presented, while the CA's request may reach another replica. Give them one Redis (since 18.4.0):

[acme]
domains = ["example.com"]
redis   = "10.0.0.20:6379"       # RWS_CONFIG_ACME_REDIS
# redis_password = "..."         # RWS_CONFIG_ACME_REDIS_PASSWORD; never printed
# redis_prefix   = "rws:acme"    # several sites in one Redis

• One replica orders each certificate (a lock in Redis, held up to five minutes); the others wait for it and install it.
• A renewal by any replica reaches the rest at their next renewal check, which they hot-swap like their own.
• HTTP-01 and TLS-ALPN-01 challenges are answered by every replica, from Redis, wherever the CA's request lands.
• Redis down: each replica carries on alone with its own files, and says so in its log.

The certificate's private key is stored in Redis: keep Redis on a private network (and set a password). CI runs two replicas against one Redis and Pebble (ci/e2e/acme_shared.sh): one order per certificate, both serving the same one before and after a renewal.

Configuration reference#

Every setting can go in the [acme] section of rws.config.toml, on the command line (--acme-domains=...; not the last three), or in the environment.

Top-level http_redirect_port (RWS_CONFIG_HTTP_REDIRECT_PORT) starts the HTTP → HTTPS redirect listener; set it to the challenge port (80) in production.

Using ACME from Rust#

The rws binary does all of the above. In your own binary built on the library, the equivalent is:

use rust_web_server::acme::{AcmeConfig, AcmeManager};
use rust_web_server::prelude::*;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let (listener, pool) = Server::setup().unwrap();

    if let Some(cfg) = AcmeConfig::from_env() {
        // Serve the issued certificate unless TLS paths were set explicitly.
        cfg.install_as_tls_certificate();
        let mgr = AcmeManager::new(cfg);
        mgr.provision_until_ready().await;   // retries until issued
        tokio::spawn(mgr.run_renewal_loop());
    }

    let app = App::new();
    tokio::join!(
        Server::run_tls(listener, pool, app.clone()),
        Server::run_quic(app),
        Server::run_redirect(),               // answers renewal challenges
    );
}

AcmeManager::provision_if_needed() (single attempt, returns the error) is also available if you want to handle failures yourself.