How to secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on CentOS 7

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-secure-nginx-lets-encrypt-on-centos-7

How do I secure my Nginx web server with Let’s Encrypt free ssl certificate on my CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 server? How to configure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on CentOS 7?

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority for your website or any other projects. This page shows how to use Let’s Encrypt to install a free SSL certificate for Nginx web server. You will learn how to properly deploy Diffie-Hellman on your server to get SSL labs A+ score on a CentOS/RHEL 7.

How to secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on CentOS 7

Our sample setup is as follows:

How to secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on CentOS 7

The procedure is as follows to obtaining an SSL certificate:

1. Get acme.sh software:
   git clone https://github.com/Neilpang/acme.sh.git
2. Create /.well-known/acme-challenge/ directory:
   mkdir -p /var/www/html/.well-known/acme-challenge/
3. Obtaining an SSL certificate your domain:
   acme.sh --issue -w /DocumentRootPath/ -d your-domain
4. Configure TLS/SSL on Nginx:
   vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
5. Setup cron job setup for auto renewal
6. Open port 443 (HTTPS):
   sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=https

Let us see how to install acme.sh client and use it on a CentOS/RHEL 7 to get an SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.

Step 1 – Install the required software

Install the git, wget, curl and bc packages with the yum command:
$ sudo yum install git bc wget curl

Step 2 – Install acme.sh Let’s Encrypt client

Clone the repo:
$ cd /tmp/
$ git clone https://github.com/Neilpang/acme.sh.git

Install acme.sh client on to your system, run:
$ cd acme.sh/
$ sudo -i
# ./acme.sh --install

After install, you must close current terminal and reopen again to make the alias take effect. Or simply type the following source command:
$ sudo source ~/.bashrc

Step 3 – Create acme-challenge directory

Type the following mkdir command. Make sure you set D to actual DocumentRoot path as per your needs:
# D=/usr/share/nginx/html
# mkdir -vp ${D}/.well-known/acme-challenge/
###---[ NOTE: Adjust permission as per your setup ]---###
# chown -R nginx:nginx ${D}/.well-known/acme-challenge/
# chmod -R 0555 ${D}/.well-known/acme-challenge/
Also create directory to store SSL certificate:
# mkdir -p /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/

Step 4 – Create dhparams.pem file

Run openssl command:
# cd /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/
# openssl dhparam -out dhparams.pem -dsaparam 4096

Step 5 – Obtain a certificate for domain

Issue a certificate for your domain:
acme.sh --issue -w /path/to/www/htmlRoot/ -d example.com -k 2048
sudo acme.sh --issue -w /usr/local/nginx/html -d server2.cyberciti.biz -k 2048

Step 6 – Configure Nginx

You just successfully requested an SSL Certificate from Let’s Encrypt for your CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 server. It is time to configure it. Edit default.ssl.conf:
$ sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.ssl.conf
Append the following config:

## START: SSL/HTTPS server2.cyberciti.biz ### server { #------- Start SSL config with http2 support ----# listen 10.21.136.134:443 http2; server_name server2.cyberciti.biz; ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/server2.cyberciti.biz.cer; ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/server2.cyberciti.biz.key; ssl_session_timeout 30m; ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; ssl_ciphers ECDH+AESGCM:DH+AESGCM:ECDH+AES256:DH+AES256:ECDH+AES128:DH+AES:ECDH+3DES:DH+3DES:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:RSA+3DES:!aNULL:!MD5:!DSS; ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m; ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/dhparams.pem; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;   ## Improves TTFB by using a smaller SSL buffer than the nginx default ssl_buffer_size 8k;   ## Enables OCSP stapling ssl_stapling on; resolver 8.8.8.8; ssl_stapling_verify on;   ## Send header to tell the browser to prefer https to http traffic add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=31536000;   ## SSL logs ## access_log /var/log/nginx/ssl_access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/ssl_error.log; #-------- END SSL config -------## # Add rest of your config below like document root, php and more ## location / { root /usr/share/nginx/html; index index.html index.htm; } # Allow php apps location ~ \.php$ { root /usr/share/nginx/html; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; } } ## END SSL server2.cyberciti.biz ######

Save and close the file in vi/vim text editor.

Step 7 – Install certificate

Install the issued cert to nginx server:
# acme.sh --installcert -d server2.cyberciti.biz \
--keypath /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/server2.cyberciti.biz.key \
--fullchainpath /etc/nginx/ssl/cyberciti.biz/server2.cyberciti.biz.cer \
--reloadcmd 'systemctl reload nginx'

Make sure port os open with the ss command or netstat command:
# ss -tulpn

Step 7 – Firewall configuration

You need to open port 443 (HTTPS) on your server so that clients can connect it. Update the rules as follows:
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=https
$ sudo firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Step 8 – Test it

Fire a web browser and type your domain such as:
https://server2.cyberciti.biz
Test it with SSLlabs test site:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=server2.cyberciti.biz

Step 9 – acme.sh commands

List all certificates:
# acme.sh --list
Renew a cert for domain named server2.cyberciti.biz
# acme.sh --renew -d server2.cyberciti.biz
Please note that a cron job will try to do renewal a certificate for you too. This is installed by default as follows (no action required on your part). To see job run:
# crontab -l
Sample outputs:

8 0 * * * "/root/.acme.sh"/acme.sh --cron --home "/root/.acme.sh" > /dev/null

Upgrade acme.sh client:
# acme.sh --upgrade
Getting help:
# acme.sh --help | more

This entry is 3 of 3 in the Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP (LEMP) Stack for CentOS/RHEL 7 Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

1. How to install and use Nginx on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7
2. How to install PHP 7.2 on CentOS 7/RHEL 7
3. How to configure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on CentOS 7

This entry is 4 of 4 in the Secure Web Server with Let's Encrypt Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

1. How to configure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on Debian/Ubuntu Linux
2. How to secure Lighttpd with Let's Encrypt certificate on Debian/Ubuntu
3. How to secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt certificate on Alpine Linux
4. How to configure Nginx with Let's Encrypt on CentOS 7