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138 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
138 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# Step Certificates
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`step-ca` is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management. It's the server counterpart to the [`step` CLI tool](https://github.com/smallstep/cli).
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You can use it to:
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- Issue X.509 certificates for your internal infrastructure:
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- HTTPS certificates that [work in browsers](https://smallstep.com/blog/step-v0-8-6-valid-HTTPS-certificates-for-dev-pre-prod.html) ([RFC5280](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5280) and [CA/Browser Forum](https://cabforum.org/baseline-requirements-documents/) compliance)
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- TLS certificates for VMs, containers, APIs, mobile clients, database connections, printers, wifi networks, toaster ovens...
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- Client certificates to [enable mutual TLS (mTLS)](https://smallstep.com/hello-mtls) in your infra. mTLS is an optional feature in TLS where both client and server authenticate each other. Why add the complexity of a VPN when you can safely use mTLS over the public internet?
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- Issue SSH certificates:
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- For people, in exchange for single sign-on ID tokens
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- For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents
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- Easily automate certificate management:
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- It's an ACME v2 server
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- It has a JSON API
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- It comes with a [Go wrapper](./examples#user-content-basic-client-usage)
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- ... and there's a [command-line client](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) you can use in scripts!
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Whatever your use case, `step-ca` is easy to use and hard to misuse, thanks to [safe, sane defaults](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/certificate-authority-server-production#sane-cryptographic-defaults).
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---
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**Don't want to run your own CA?**
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To get up and running quickly, or as an alternative to running your own `step-ca` server, consider creating a [free hosted smallstep Certificate Manager authority](https://info.smallstep.com/certificate-manager-early-access-mvp/).
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---
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**Questions? Find us in [Discussions](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions) or [Join our Discord](https://u.step.sm/discord).**
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[Website](https://smallstep.com/certificates) |
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[Documentation](https://smallstep.com/docs) |
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[Installation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/installation) |
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[Getting Started](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/getting-started) |
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[Contributor's Guide](./docs/CONTRIBUTING.md)
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[](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/releases/latest)
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[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/smallstep/certificates)
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[](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates)
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[](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0)
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[](https://cla-assistant.io/smallstep/certificates)
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[](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/stargazers)
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[](https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=smallsteplabs)
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## Features
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### 🦾 A fast, stable, flexible private CA
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Setting up a *public key infrastructure* (PKI) is out of reach for many small teams. `step-ca` makes it easier.
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- Choose key types (RSA, ECDSA, EdDSA) and lifetimes to suit your needs
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- [Short-lived certificates](https://smallstep.com/blog/passive-revocation.html) with automated enrollment, renewal, and passive revocation
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- Capable of high availability (HA) deployment using [root federation](https://smallstep.com/blog/step-v0.8.3-federation-root-rotation.html) and/or multiple intermediaries
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- Can operate as [an online intermediate CA for an existing root CA](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/intermediate-ca-new-ca)
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- [Badger, BoltDB, Postgres, and MySQL database backends](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/configuration#databases)
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### ⚙️ Many ways to automate
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There are several ways to authorize a request with the CA and establish a chain of trust that suits your flow.
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You can issue certificates in exchange for:
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- [ACME challenge responses](#your-own-private-acme-server) from any ACMEv2 client
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- [OAuth OIDC single sign-on tokens](https://smallstep.com/blog/easily-curl-services-secured-by-https-tls.html), eg:
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- ID tokens from Okta, GSuite, Azure AD, Auth0.
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- ID tokens from an OAuth OIDC service that you host, like [Keycloak](https://www.keycloak.org/) or [Dex](https://github.com/dexidp/dex)
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- [Cloud instance identity documents](https://smallstep.com/blog/embarrassingly-easy-certificates-on-aws-azure-gcp/), for VMs on AWS, GCP, and Azure
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- [Single-use, short-lived JWK tokens](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/provisioners#jwk) issued by your CD tool — Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Terraform, etc.
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- A trusted X.509 certificate (X5C provisioner)
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- A host certificate from your Nebula network
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- A SCEP challenge (SCEP provisioner)
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- An SSH host certificates needing renewal (the SSHPOP provisioner)
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- Learn more in our [provisioner documentation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/provisioners)
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### 🏔 Your own private ACME server
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ACME is the protocol used by Let's Encrypt to automate the issuance of HTTPS certificates. It's _super easy_ to issue certificates to any ACMEv2 ([RFC8555](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8555)) client.
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- [Use ACME in development & pre-production](https://smallstep.com/blog/private-acme-server/#local-development--pre-production)
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- Supports the most popular [ACME challenge types](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/):
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- For `http-01`, place a token at a well-known URL to prove that you control the web server
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- For `dns-01`, add a `TXT` record to prove that you control the DNS record set
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- For `tls-alpn-01`, respond to the challenge at the TLS layer ([as Caddy does](https://caddy.community/t/caddy-supports-the-acme-tls-alpn-challenge/4860)) to prove that you control the web server
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- Works with any ACME client. We've written examples for:
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- [certbot](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#certbot)
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- [acme.sh](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#acmesh)
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- [win-acme](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#win-acme)
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- [Caddy](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#caddy-v2)
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- [Traefik](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#traefik)
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- [Apache](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#apache)
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- [nginx](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#nginx)
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- Get certificates programmatically using ACME, using these libraries:
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- [`lego`](https://github.com/go-acme/lego) for Golang ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#golang))
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- certbot's [`acme` module](https://github.com/certbot/certbot/tree/master/acme) for Python ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#python))
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- [`acme-client`](https://github.com/publishlab/node-acme-client) for Node.js ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#node))
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- Our own [`step` CLI tool](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) is also an ACME client!
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- See our [ACME tutorial](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-challenge) for more
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### 👩🏽💻 An online SSH Certificate Authority
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- Delegate SSH authentication to `step-ca` by using [SSH certificates](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-ssh-certificates/) instead of public keys and `authorized_keys` files
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- For user certificates, [connect SSH to your single sign-on provider](https://smallstep.com/blog/diy-single-sign-on-for-ssh/), to improve security with short-lived certificates and MFA (or other security policies) via any OAuth OIDC provider.
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- For host certificates, improve security, [eliminate TOFU warnings](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-ssh-certificates/), and set up automated host certificate renewal.
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### 🤓 A general purpose PKI tool, via [`step` CLI](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) [integration](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/)
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- Generate key pairs where they're needed so private keys are never transmitted across the network
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- [Authenticate and obtain a certificate](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/certificate/) using any provisioner supported by `step-ca`
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- Securely [distribute root certificates](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/root/) and [bootstrap](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/bootstrap/) PKI relying parties
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- [Renew](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/renew/) and [revoke](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/revoke/) certificates issued by `step-ca`
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- [Install root certificates](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/install/) on your machine and browsers, so your CA is trusted
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- [Inspect](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/inspect/) and [lint](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/lint/) certificates
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## Installation
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See our installation docs [here](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/installation).
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## Documentation
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Documentation can be found in a handful of different places:
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1. On the web at https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca.
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2. On the command line with `step help ca xxx` where `xxx` is the subcommand
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you are interested in. Ex: `step help ca provisioner list`.
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3. In your browser, by running `step help --http=:8080 ca` from the command line
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and visiting http://localhost:8080.
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4. The [docs](./docs/README.md) folder is being deprecated, but it still has some documentation and tutorials.
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## Feedback?
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* Tell us what you like and don't like about managing your PKI - we're eager to help solve problems in this space.
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* Tell us about a feature you'd like to see! [Add a feature request Issue](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement%2C+needs+triage&template=enhancement.md&title=), [ask on Discussions](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions), or hit us up on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/smallsteplabs).
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