Acme and Dyn

mcury

I had the dns managed express with a domain there in Dyndns.
But gave up dyndns, not using it anymore.

As my objective was just to get a SSL certificate for my GUI, I created a duckdns.org account and it`s working just fine so far.

The example below is just valid for your FQDN duckdns account.
It’s useful if you don’t have a domain in the Internet, and if you just want a certificate for a FQDN. (off course not valid for the domain)!!

By doing this way, you won’t need to disable any security feature, won’t need to buy a domain anywhere, and will need only one entry into your DNS server (which can be local).
It’s perfect for setting your Pfsense management to HTTPS without having certificate warnings.
You can also export those certificates and use in another server, but there are other methods that you can use that are better for this purpose.

How it’s working here

My local domain: local.lan
My certificate is valid for myhost.duckdns.org

For that to work without disabling any security feature as DNS rebind check when you connect to PFsense management using that new ACME duckdns certificate, you can do the following:

Configure it to be your GUI SSL certificate and set in that same page
System > advanced settings > admin access > Alternate Hostname:
Set the same FQDN configured into your certificate.

Go into your DNS resolver (or the DNS server you use), and point the FQDN of the ACME certificate pointing to your Pfsense LAN IP.

If you don’t have a WAN static IP or just want that to be reachable from outside, you can also set Pfsense Dynamic DNS feature to update your IP to the same FQDN configured into the certificate.

EDIT: Use VPN to reach your PFsense from outside, don`t leave the managament port open on WAN!

Gil

Hi,

has there been any further developments on the acme dyndns?

taius

I know, I know... replying to an ancient thread. But this was the ONLY information that got up and working.

For those of you trying to issue ACME certs through Let's Encrypt on pfSense this should help. I too considered moving to another dynamic DNS provider but got lazy just thinking about updating all the DDNS clients I have out there...

@piperspace Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. I was going nuts trying to get this to work.

I had to make the following edits in /usr/local/pkg/acme/dnsapi/dns_nsupdate.sh:

nsupdate -k "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}" <<EOF

becomes

nsupdate <<EOF

then added:

zone <your domain in DynDNS>
key <DynDNS TSIG Key Name> <DynDNS TSIG Key HMAC>

(THE SPACE IN BETWEEN THE KEY VALUE IS IMPORTANT!!!)

I also added a "quit" after the "send" statement, dunno if it is needed, but it's working for me.

Make sure you update the dns_nsupdate_add() and dns_nsupdate_rm() functions as well.

Be patient when you renew/issue, the script sleeps for 120 seconds to allow DNS updates to show.

Hope this helps someone.

piperspace

@taius You are welcome. I am glad my research helped you.

FWIW - I noticed in August that the then current version of Acme no longer required my hack. But now I am on Acme 0.3.2_4 and the hack is again necessary. Are we having fun yet?

BearTM

@piperspace, @taius ... Thank you both.

Background: I was unfortunately not able to use the webserver/port 80 method, as I need to forward the port to an internal webserver, on which I can't/won't use the FTP method. Also, the Dyn.com built-in provider does not work with a Standard DNS account at Dyn.com, which meant using the nsupdate method was the only one left available to me. Without this helpful post, I would have given up in despair!

Because I prefer to have my setup configurable through the webGUI, I decided to attack the dns_nsupdate.sh file to allow configuration through the existing webGUI fields. For this I have explicitly checked for "update.dyndns.com" as the target, and therefore used the "KEY" textarea to provide the necessary ZONE and KEY lines required.

First, replace the dns_nsupdate.sh file with the one attached.
Then configure your domains in the webGUI as usual, with the server specified as "update.dyndns.com", and the Key as:

zone example.com
key [Key Name] [Key HMAC]

This way you can use multiple domains/keys/etc. all from the webGUI.

The changes/additions I made to the file are as follows:

  _info "adding ${fulldomain}. 60 in txt \"${txtvalue}\""
  if [ "${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER}"="update.dyndns.com" ]; then
    THISNSUPDATE_DATA=`awk -F '"' 'BEGIN{RS=";"}NR>1{print $2}' "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}"`
    nsupdate <<EOF
${THISNSUPDATE_DATA}
server ${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER} ${NSUPDATE_SERVER_PORT}
update add ${fulldomain}. 60 in txt "${txtvalue}"
send
quit
EOF    
  else
    nsupdate -k "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}" <<EOF
server ${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER} ${NSUPDATE_SERVER_PORT}
update add ${fulldomain}. 60 in txt "${txtvalue}"
send
EOF
  fi

and

  _info "removing ${fulldomain}. txt"
  if [ "${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER}"="update.dyndns.com" ]; then
    THISNSUPDATE_DATA=`awk -F '"' 'BEGIN{RS=";"}NR>1{print $2}' "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}"`
    nsupdate <<EOF
${THISNSUPDATE_DATA}
server ${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER} ${NSUPDATE_SERVER_PORT}
update delete ${fulldomain}. txt
send
quit
EOF    
  else
    nsupdate -k "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}" <<EOF
server ${THISNSUPDATE_SERVER} ${NSUPDATE_SERVER_PORT}
update delete ${fulldomain}. txt
send
EOF
  fi

Other than the "cryptic" awk command to extract the text out of the generated key file - everything else is very self explanatory.

Thanks again ... very helpful, and very timely info!

Cheers.

0_1539932589907_dns_nsupdate.sh.txt

Gil

I still have issues with this.
It fails on adding _acme-challenge.....
error updating domain

The TSIG is correct.
Perhaps a couple of screenshots?

This is so convoluted for a major dyndns provider.

piperspace

I am now having some Acme success with DynDNS on Pfsense 2.4.4-p2 with Acme package 0.5.4_1. I no longer need to engage in script hacking.

Below is a screenshot of my Amce config.

Gil

I reset the script back to the original.

My settings:

Error message:

I probably need to get a better understanding of how this process works, can i use a DynDNS as the Zone?

piperspace

No. DynDns.net is not your zone. The parameter you are using for that looks ok. But you are using additional parameters I don’t know about.

I have DynDns Standard DNS which lacks a proper API thus requiring nsupdate. There is also DynDns Pro which may have an API. It’s confusing. Which service do you have? If you have DynDns Pro you are probably barking up wrong tree here.

Also, you can test parameters by connecting to your router and running nsupdate from the command line.

Gil

The additional parameters auto-filled, so I don't know where they came from and I can't seem to edit them. Perhaps, as you point out, I have a dyndns pro service.

piperspace

You might want to delete your config and start over using the DNS-Manual method.

piperspace

So I upgraded Acme to version 0.5.7_1 and this is busted again.

In /tmp/acme/[mycertname] there is a .key file where my parameters have been stored. Except there is a period mysteriously appends to my key name.
When I edit this key file, remove the period and then feed it to nsupdate it works.

I am vexed that Dyn compatibility seems to come and go. Would be willing to beta test new versions if that would be well taken.

clazarowitz

Just wanted to update things. This is still broken in 0.58!
I suspect this is because the team thinks the dyn support is in the dyn section. Well, I know I for one, cannot get a dynid. So I'm stuck with the nsupdate method. Why can't I get a dynid? NO CLUE! I put in my "old" credentials, which I had just logged in with, and it says invalid. I suspect many of us are in the same boat, so PLEASE people, just because you support the new DynID, doesn't mean you've left a bunch of us high and dry!

So, I basically used the script posted above, but for somereason it didn't pull out the keyname. So I added this right below his awk magic
THISNSUPDATE_KEYNAME=awk '{if (NR == 1){ key=substr($2,2,length($2)-3); print key}}' "${THISNSUPDATE_KEY}"
Then, it also didn't include the zone. I'm not sure of the "right way" to get the zone, so here's what I did: ZONE=echo ${fulldomain} | sed 's/_acme-challenge\.//g'
Then I changed the dnsupdate command to dnsupdate -d and added key $THISNSUPDATE_KEYNAME $THISNSUPDATE_KEY
zone $ZONE
This allowed everything to work.

Posting this to help others and provide "cloud" backup of my work :)

piperspace

Recently I got a notice from Oracle. The DYN Standard service I have is being phased out next spring. My option at that time is to migrate to an alternate Oracle product.

My plan is to use up the remaining time on my DYN Standard subscription and then migrate to CloudFlare.

clazarowitz

I got the notice as well, but I have paid domain registrations as well as dyn pro (though I’m not sure I use it anymore...I had originally obtained it so I could do things like device.mysubdomain.dyndns.org...maybe I should audit that.

Regardless, they said it would be “migrated” to an oracle product line. Do they do dns? Or do they mean “rebranded”. Either way, I expect little to change other than eventually...maybe....they’ll fix their dynid bugs :)

piperspace

Just FYI - I have completed migration to Cloudflare’s free service. It includes a DNS which works with Pfsense to handle IP address changes and ACME certificate renewal. No hacking required.

icepic

This may be OBE in a few months, but I just set this up and wanted to pull everything together for Dyn.com ACME updates as I just got it working with info from a number of posts in this thread.

I'm using Version 0.6.5 of the ACME client on 2.4.4-RELEASE-p3 of PFSense.

Dyn.com has 3 products https://help.dyn.com/dyn-dns-products-compared/

Managed DNS - you log in at https://portal.dynect.net/
** "Professional DNS Solution"
Standard DNS - you log in at https://account.dyn.com/
** mange domains, the domain registration recently was migrated to name.com
DynDNS Pro, now just called Dynamic DNS - also at https://account.dyn.com/
** get up to 30 hostnames in prepopulated domains.
The new Oracle Cloud DNS service is completely different.

The "Dyn.com" method only works with Managed DNS.

The nsupdate method works with Standard DNS

server = update.dyndns.com
keyname = see below
Key Algorithm = HMAC-MD5
Key = see below
Zone = your zone to use

You have to get a TSIG key for the keyname and key. The directions are at https://dyn.com/updater/tsig/ and the key itself can be created or updated at https://account.dyn.com/profile/tsig.html

I suspect this will not work for DynDNS Pro as there seems to be no way to create a TXT entry.

Fenil

Hello I am using the pfsense version 2.6.0. I am having still having issue in renewing my dyndns certificate. I am trying to use nsupdate but this what I am having the issue with acme error.PNG acme error1.PNG
I have try all the method that have been post earlier but no luck
I am using dyndns pro service.
Can anyone can write the full script of nsupdate that would be really help full ?

Gertjan

@fenil said in Acme and Dyn:

I am using dyndns pro service.
Can anyone can write the full script of nsupdate that would be really help full ?

dyndns.org pro did : https://help.dyn.com/tsig/

Instead of
update add $HOST.$ZONE 60 A 10.0.0.1
the acme API plugin dns_nsupdate.sh uses :
update add ${fulldomain}. 60 in txt "${txtvalue}"

to add this :

Fenil

@gertjan
Hey man I have contact dyndns pro tech people also and they are saying they cannot accept TXT or API method but they gave me is TSIG key. They only use is nsupdate and I am not able to understand where to make changes property in order to make it work with pfsense.

can we bypass TXT method in pfsense acme ?