SSL certificate for AllStarLink

What is SSL

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a security technology that establishes an encrypted connection between a web server (host) and a web browser (client). This encryption ensures that all data exchanged between the two remains private and secure, protecting against hackers, identity theft, and cyberattacks.

What you need

You will need a FQDN configured on your Raspberry Pi or your Router. I am using a Unify USG Ultra, and a free DDNS thru freemyip.com site.

FQDN setup

Go to [freemyip.com free my IP] website and register your domain name, which will be something like my_domain_name.freemyip.com

Save the generated token, there is no way te recover it if you loose it.

It will look like:

https://freemyip.com/update?token=your_unique_password&domain=my_domain_name.freemyip.com

USG Ultra DDNS setup

Go to Settings > Internet > Primary (WAN1) > Dynamic DNS > Create New Dynamic DNS and input the following data.

New Dynamic DNS
Interface	WAN
Service	freemyip
Host Name	Any Name
User Name	my_domain_name
Password	your_unique_password
Server	freemyip.com

Next, go to Settings > Application Firewall > Port Forwarding > Add Rule and forward port 443 Protocol TCP to your AllStarLink node Raspberry Pi IP address.

SSL certificate setup

First edit the file 000-default.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

and add the following code at the end of it.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
    #ServerName www.example.com

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
    #ServerName www.example.com

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

In this case we will use Certbot which is free but requieres snapd and core. On your AllStarLink node type:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
sudo reboot
sudo snap install core
sudo snap install hello-world

Test the core running the hello world program.

hello-world

If succeeded, now install certbot.

sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

And now, lets get a certificate.

sudo certbot --apache

It will ask you to input your previously generated FQDN at frremyip.com and your email and to select a conf file which will be 000-default.conf.

Final Test

You can use https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html to get a test results report.

Thats it, now you can go to your node website using your https address.

https://my_domain_name.freemyip.com/allmon3