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    Some advice regarding certificates

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved ACME
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    • JeGrJ
      JeGr LAYER 8 Moderator @jimp
      last edited by

      That won't be viable. They randomize/vary these on purpose to avoid people deliberately allowing or blocking just their own requests. It sounds counter-intuitive but if an attacker can divert just LE connections they could hijack someone else's domain in a stealthy way with an intrusion in just the right place.

      Right of course, that's why I was writing "try". There are lists flying around with LE IPs spotted in the wild, but I'd recommend against those and just use my second point if DNS validation is no viable solution.

      Don't forget to upvote ๐Ÿ‘ those who kindly offered their time and brainpower to help you!

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        Or just use your own CA and trust it... I mean really how many freaking people will need access to your firewall gui? Isn't it just easier to trust the CA and hand that out to the support crew that should be very limited that have access to pfsense gui..

        Set the cert for 10 years and be done with it..

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
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        • wgstarksW
          wgstarks @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz said in Some advice regarding certificates:

          Or just use your own CA and trust it... I mean really how many freaking people will need access to your firewall gui? Isn't it just easier to trust the CA and hand that out to the support crew that should be very limited that have access to pfsense gui..

          Set the cert for 10 years and be done with it..

          I agree that this would be much simpler (at least for my use case). Does this also work for the OpenVPN server? The main reason I setup Acme/LE was because I was under the impression (very possibly mistaken) that the certificate would be needed for remote clients connecting to my pfsense OpenVPN server.

          Box: SG-4200

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          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            You should always use an internal CA with OpenVPN. Never use a public CA with it.

            The way CA validation works, any certificate signed by that CA will be valid. You don't want anyone else to be accepted onto your VPN unless you signed their certs, not LE. Then anyone with an LE cert could connect, which is not secure.

            Now for Mobile IPsec with EAP-MSCHAPv2 it could be useful since it's only used to validate the server identity and not client identity, but LE doesn't put in the IKE Intermediate oid so it can't be used for that anyhow.

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            • wgstarksW
              wgstarks @jimp
              last edited by

              @jimp
              So, as I posted earlier, I know next to nothing about certificates and just want to be sure I understand correctly.

              I should ditch the LE certificate completely and create a CA in pfsense? Then use that CA to create self signed certificates for OpenVPN clients and the webUI?

              Box: SG-4200

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              • jimpJ
                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                last edited by

                You can use the LE cert for the GUI, just don't try to use it for a VPN. If you don't want to bother with LE, then use a self-signed GUI cert, or one from your self-signed CA. This doesn't matter a ton, really.

                Use your own self-signed CA for OpenVPN (and IPsec if you use it).

                Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                • wgstarksW
                  wgstarks
                  last edited by

                  Looking at the certificate manager in pfsense I see that I already have a CA (Private_CA) which shows in use by OpenVPN Server, so I think Iโ€™m ok there. In the certificates tab I have the LE certificate which also shows that it is in use by OpenVPN Server. Iโ€™m not sure how to correct this?

                  Box: SG-4200

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                  • DerelictD
                    Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                    last edited by

                    Look at the configuration(s) for your OpenVPN Server(s) and see where that certificate is selected for use.

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                    DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
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                    • wgstarksW
                      wgstarks @Derelict
                      last edited by

                      @derelict
                      Peer CA is set to Private_CA
                      Server certificate is set to LE_cert

                      Can I just create a new certificate using Private_CA and use that for Server Certificate without creating problems? Thereโ€™s only a couple of clients configured so not really a big deal if I have to export new client certificates.

                      Box: SG-4200

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                      • DerelictD
                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                        last edited by Derelict

                        Yeah. Create a server certificate signed by the Private_CA and change the OpenVPN server to use that. You will need to export new client configs.

                        https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/book/openvpn/using-the-openvpn-server-wizard-for-remote-access.html#creating-a-certificate-authority

                        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                        Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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                        • wgstarksW
                          wgstarks
                          last edited by

                          Great. Thanks to everyone for your help.

                          Box: SG-4200

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