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https://github.com/smallstep/certificates

🛡️ A private certificate authority (X.509 & SSH) & ACME server for secure automated certificate management, so you can use TLS everywhere & SSO for SSH.
https://github.com/smallstep/certificates

acme acme-server ca certificate-authority certificates go pki security security-tools ssh tls x509

Last synced: 3 days ago
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🛡️ A private certificate authority (X.509 & SSH) & ACME server for secure automated certificate management, so you can use TLS everywhere & SSO for SSH.

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/smallstep/certificates
Owner: smallstep
License: apache-2.0
Created: 2018-11-01T03:44:28.000Z (about 6 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2024-10-29T23:49:05.000Z (about 1 month ago)
Last Synced: 2024-10-30T01:53:20.882Z (about 1 month ago)
Topics: acme, acme-server, ca, certificate-authority, certificates, go, pki, security, security-tools, ssh, tls, x509
Language: Go
Homepage: https://smallstep.com/certificates
Size: 41.9 MB
Stars: 6,723
Watchers: 77
Forks: 438
Open Issues: 195
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Security: SECURITY.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

awesome-golang-repositories - certificates

README

        # step-ca

[![GitHub release](https://img.shields.io/github/release/smallstep/certificates.svg)](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/releases/latest)

[![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/smallstep/certificates)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/smallstep/certificates)

[![Build Status](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates)

[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Apache%202.0-blue.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0)

[![CLA assistant](https://cla-assistant.io/readme/badge/smallstep/certificates)](https://cla-assistant.io/smallstep/certificates)

`step-ca` is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps.

It's the server counterpart to the [`step` CLI tool](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) for working with certificates and keys.

Both projects are maintained by [Smallstep Labs](https://smallstep.com).

You can use `step-ca` to:

- Issue HTTPS server and client certificates that [work in browsers](https://smallstep.com/blog/step-v0-8-6-valid-HTTPS-certificates-for-dev-pre-prod.html) ([RFC5280](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5280) and [CA/Browser Forum](https://cabforum.org/baseline-requirements-documents/) compliance)

- Issue TLS certificates for DevOps: VMs, containers, APIs, database connections, Kubernetes pods...

- Issue SSH certificates:

  - For people, in exchange for single sign-on identity tokens

  - For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents

- Easily automate certificate management:

  - It's an [ACME server](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/acme-basics/) that supports all [popular ACME challenge types](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/acme-basics/#acme-challenge-types)

  - It comes with a [Go wrapper](./examples#user-content-basic-client-usage)

  - ... and there's a [command-line client](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) you can use in scripts!

---

### Comparison with Smallstep's commercial product

`step-ca` is optimized for a two-tier PKI serving common DevOps use cases.

As you design your PKI, if you need any of the following, [consider our commerical CA](http://smallstep.com):

- Multiple certificate authorities

- Active revocation (CRL, OSCP)

- Turnkey high-volume, high availability CA

- An API for seamless IaC management of your PKI

- Integrated support for SCEP & NDES, for migrating from legacy Active Directory Certificate Services deployments

- Device identity — cross-platform device inventory and attestation using Secure Enclave & TPM 2.0

- Highly automated PKI — managed certificate renewal, monitoring, TPM-based attested enrollment

- Seamless client deployments of EAP-TLS Wi-Fi, VPN, SSH, and browser certificates

- Jamf, Intune, or other MDM for root distribution and client enrollment

- Web Admin UI — history, issuance, and metrics

- ACME External Account Binding (EAB)

- Deep integration with an identity provider

- Fine-grained, role-based access control

- FIPS-compliant software

- HSM-bound private keys

See our [full feature comparison](https://smallstep.com/step-ca-vs-smallstep-certificate-manager/) for more.

You can [start a free trial](https://smallstep.com/signup) or [set up a call with us](https://go.smallstep.com/request-demo) to learn more.

---

**Questions? Find us in [Discussions](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions) or [Join our Discord](https://u.step.sm/discord).**

[Website](https://smallstep.com/certificates) |

[Documentation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca) |

[Installation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/installation) |

[Contributor's Guide](./CONTRIBUTING.md)

## Features

### 🦾 A fast, stable, flexible private CA

Setting up a *public key infrastructure* (PKI) is out of reach for many small teams. `step-ca` makes it easier.

- Choose key types (RSA, ECDSA, EdDSA) and lifetimes to suit your needs

- [Short-lived certificates](https://smallstep.com/blog/passive-revocation.html) with automated enrollment, renewal, and passive revocation

- Can operate as [an online intermediate CA for an existing root CA](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/intermediate-ca-new-ca)

- [Badger, BoltDB, Postgres, and MySQL database backends](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/configuration#databases)

### ⚙️ Many ways to automate

There are several ways to authorize a request with the CA and establish a chain of trust that suits your flow.

You can issue certificates in exchange for:

- [ACME challenge responses](#your-own-private-acme-server) from any ACMEv2 client

- [OAuth OIDC single sign-on tokens](https://smallstep.com/blog/easily-curl-services-secured-by-https-tls.html), eg:

  - ID tokens from Okta, GSuite, Azure AD, Auth0.

  - ID tokens from an OAuth OIDC service that you host, like [Keycloak](https://www.keycloak.org/) or [Dex](https://github.com/dexidp/dex)

- [Cloud instance identity documents](https://smallstep.com/blog/embarrassingly-easy-certificates-on-aws-azure-gcp/), for VMs on AWS, GCP, and Azure

- [Single-use, short-lived JWK tokens](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/provisioners#jwk) issued by your CD tool — Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Terraform, etc.

- A trusted X.509 certificate (X5C provisioner)

- A host certificate from your Nebula network

- A SCEP challenge (SCEP provisioner)

- An SSH host certificates needing renewal (the SSHPOP provisioner)

- Learn more in our [provisioner documentation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/provisioners)

### 🏔 Your own private ACME server

ACME is the protocol used by Let's Encrypt to automate the issuance of HTTPS certificates. It's _super easy_ to issue certificates to any ACMEv2 ([RFC8555](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8555)) client.

- [Use ACME in development & pre-production](https://smallstep.com/blog/private-acme-server/#local-development--pre-production)

- Supports the most popular [ACME challenge types](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/):

  - For `http-01`, place a token at a well-known URL to prove that you control the web server

  - For `dns-01`, add a `TXT` record to prove that you control the DNS record set

  - For `tls-alpn-01`, respond to the challenge at the TLS layer ([as Caddy does](https://caddy.community/t/caddy-supports-the-acme-tls-alpn-challenge/4860)) to prove that you control the web server

- Works with any ACME client. We've written examples for:

  - [certbot](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#certbot)

  - [acme.sh](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#acmesh)

  - [win-acme](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#win-acme)

  - [Caddy](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#caddy-v2)

  - [Traefik](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#traefik)

  - [Apache](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#apache)

  - [nginx](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#nginx)

- Get certificates programmatically using ACME, using these libraries:

  - [`lego`](https://github.com/go-acme/lego) for Golang ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#golang))

  - certbot's [`acme` module](https://github.com/certbot/certbot/tree/master/acme) for Python ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#python))

  - [`acme-client`](https://github.com/publishlab/node-acme-client) for Node.js ([example usage](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-protocol-acme-clients#node))

- Our own [`step` CLI tool](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) is also an ACME client!

- See our [ACME tutorial](https://smallstep.com/docs/tutorials/acme-challenge) for more

### 👩🏽‍💻 An online SSH Certificate Authority

- Delegate SSH authentication to `step-ca` by using [SSH certificates](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-ssh-certificates/) instead of public keys and `authorized_keys` files

- For user certificates, [connect SSH to your single sign-on provider](https://smallstep.com/blog/diy-single-sign-on-for-ssh/), to improve security with short-lived certificates and MFA (or other security policies) via any OAuth OIDC provider.

- For host certificates, improve security, [eliminate TOFU warnings](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-ssh-certificates/), and set up automated host certificate renewal.

### 🤓 A general purpose PKI tool, via [`step` CLI](https://github.com/smallstep/cli) [integration](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/)

- Generate key pairs where they're needed so private keys are never transmitted across the network

- [Authenticate and obtain a certificate](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/certificate/) using any provisioner supported by `step-ca`

- Securely [distribute root certificates](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/root/) and [bootstrap](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/bootstrap/) PKI relying parties

- [Renew](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/renew/) and [revoke](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/ca/revoke/) certificates issued by `step-ca`

- [Install root certificates](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/install/) on your machine and browsers, so your CA is trusted

- [Inspect](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/inspect/) and [lint](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/certificate/lint/) certificates

## Installation

See our installation docs [here](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/installation).

## Documentation

* [Official documentation](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca) is on smallstep.com

* The `step` command reference is available via `step help`,

[on smallstep.com](https://smallstep.com/docs/step-cli/reference/),

or by running `step help --http=:8080` from the command line

and visiting http://localhost:8080.

## Feedback?

* Tell us what you like and don't like about managing your PKI - we're eager to help solve problems in this space. [Join our Discord](https://u.step.sm/discord) or [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions)

* Tell us about a feature you'd like to see! [Request a Feature](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement%2C+needs+triage&template=enhancement.md&title=)