How do you manage the distribution of internal TLS network certificates? I’m using cert-manager to generate them, but the root self-signed certificate expires monthly which makes distribution to devices outside of K8s a challenge. It’s a PITA to keep doing this for the tablet, laptop and phones. I can bump the root cert to a year, but I’m concerned that the date will sneak up on me. Are there any automated solutions?
I looked into this recently.
There’s a DNS challenge designed for this exact scenario called (from memory) DNS01, but it’s more of a faff than I’m willing to get involved with.
Basically you push proof that you own the domain into a DNS record instead of to a file on a web server. It requires a DNS provider that has an API and a client that speaks that API.
It also leaks private DNS stuff into the public domain.
I’d love it if someone devised an easier way. Maybe there is an easier way?
This is me.
In public dns, configure *.home.example.com as an A record pointing to the local IP for my traefik container.
Traefik then manages all certificates. It sets a TXT record with my dns providers API like privatesercice.home.lebowheatcroft.com, requests the cert from letsencrypt, then deletes that TXT record.
Yes the local IP of my server is leaked, but names of services are not.