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ACME

Synapse v1.0 will require valid TLS certificates for communication between servers (port 8448 by default) in addition to those that are client-facing (port 443). If you do not already have a valid certificate for your domain, the easiest way to get one is with Synapse's new ACME support, which will use the ACME protocol to provision a certificate automatically. Synapse v0.99.0+ will provision server-to-server certificates automatically for you for free through Let's Encrypt if you tell it to.

In the case that your server_name config variable is the same as the hostname that the client connects to, then the same certificate can be used between client and federation ports without issue.

If your configuration file does not already have an acme section, you can generate an example config by running the generate_config executable. For example:

~/synapse/env3/bin/generate_config

You will need to provide Let's Encrypt (or another ACME provider) access to your Synapse ACME challenge responder on port 80, at the domain of your homeserver. This requires you to either change the port of the ACME listener provided by Synapse to a high port and reverse proxy to it, or use a tool like authbind to allow Synapse to listen on port 80 without root access. (Do not run Synapse with root permissions!) Detailed instructions are available under "ACME setup" below.

If you already have certificates, you will need to back up or delete them (files example.com.tls.crt and example.com.tls.key in Synapse's root directory), Synapse's ACME implementation will not overwrite them.

You may wish to use alternate methods such as Certbot to obtain a certificate from Let's Encrypt, depending on your server configuration. Of course, if you already have a valid certificate for your homeserver's domain, that can be placed in Synapse's config directory without the need for any ACME setup.

ACME setup

The main steps for enabling ACME support in short summary are:

  1. Allow Synapse to listen for incoming ACME challenges.
  2. Enable ACME support in homeserver.yaml.
  3. Move your old certificates (files example.com.tls.crt and example.com.tls.key out of the way if they currently exist at the paths specified in homeserver.yaml.
  4. Restart Synapse.

Detailed instructions for each step are provided below.

Listening on port 80

In order for Synapse to complete the ACME challenge to provision a certificate, it needs access to port 80. Typically listening on port 80 is only granted to applications running as root. There are thus two solutions to this problem.

Using a reverse proxy

A reverse proxy such as Apache or nginx allows a single process (the web server) to listen on port 80 and proxy traffic to the appropriate program running on your server. It is the recommended method for setting up ACME as it allows you to use your existing webserver while also allowing Synapse to provision certificates as needed.

For nginx users, add the following line to your existing server block:

location /.well-known/acme-challenge {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8009/;
}

For Apache, add the following to your existing webserver config:

ProxyPass /.well-known/acme-challenge http://localhost:8009/.well-known/acme-challenge

Make sure to restart/reload your webserver after making changes.

Now make the relevant changes in homeserver.yaml to enable ACME support:

acme:
    enabled: true
    port: 8009

Authbind

authbind allows a program which does not run as root to bind to low-numbered ports in a controlled way. The setup is simpler, but requires a webserver not to already be running on port 80. This includes every time Synapse renews a certificate, which may be cumbersome if you usually run a web server on port 80. Nevertheless, if you're sure port 80 is not being used for any other purpose then all that is necessary is the following:

Install authbind. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install authbind

Allow authbind to bind port 80:

sudo touch /etc/authbind/byport/80
sudo chmod 777 /etc/authbind/byport/80

When Synapse is started, use the following syntax:

authbind --deep <synapse start command>

Make the relevant changes in homeserver.yaml to enable ACME support:

acme:
    enabled: true

(Re)starting synapse

Ensure that the certificate paths specified in homeserver.yaml (tls_certificate_path and tls_private_key_path) do not currently point to any files. Synapse will not provision certificates if files exist, as it does not want to overwrite existing certificates.

Finally, start/restart Synapse.