Self-signed certificates

StackState Self-hosted v4.6.x

This page describes StackState version 4.6.

Go to the documentation for the latest StackState release.

Overview

StackState has several points of interaction with external systems, for example event handlers can call out to webhooks in other systems while plugins can retrieve data from external systems like Splunk or Elasticsearch. With the default configuration, StackState will not be able to communicate with these systems when they are secured with TLS using a self-signed certificate or a certificate that is not by default trusted by the JVM.

To mitigate this, StackState allows configuration of a custom trust store.

Note that self-signed certificates are not compatible with the StackState Azure integration.

Create a custom trust store

You need to have the custom TLS certificate available. If you don't have that, you will need to retrieve it via the browser.

To convert an existing TLS certificate file to the format that is needed by StackState, you will need to use the keytool tool and the cacerts file that are included in the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) installation. You can run this on any machine, regardless of the type of operating system.

If you don't have the JVM installed on your computer, you can also use a JVM docker image instead.

Using an installed JVM

With the JVM installed on your computer and the certificate saved as a file site.cert, you can create a new trust store by taking the JVM's trust store and adding the extra certificate.

1. Create a working directory workdir and copy the certificate file site.cert to this directory.

2. Change directory to the workdir and make a copy of the cacerts file from your Java installation. $JAVA_HOME is an environment variable that contains the location of your Java installation. This is normally set when installing Java.

   cd workdir
   cp $JAVA_HOME/lib/security/cacerts ./custom_cacerts

3. Run the following keytool command to add the certificate. The required password is changeit. The alias needs to be a unique alias for the certificate, for example the domain name itself without any dots.

   keytool -import -keystore custom_cacerts -alias <a-name-for-the-certificate>  -file site.cert

4. The custom_cacerts store file will now include the site.cert certificate. You can verify that by searching for the alias in the output of

   keytool -list -keystore custom_cacerts

Using a Docker JVM

If you do not have JVM installed on your computer, you can use a JVM Docker image. The certificate should be retrieved and saved as a file site.cert.

1. Create a working directory workdir and copy the certificate file site.cert to this directory.

2. Start the Java Docker container with the workdir mounted as a volume so it can be accessed:

   docker run -it -v `pwd`/workdir:/workdir  adoptopenjdk:11 bash

3. Change directory to the workdir and make a copy of the cacerts file:

   cd /workdir
   cp $JAVA_HOME/lib/security/cacerts ./custom_cacerts

4. Run the following keytool command to add the certificate. The required password is changeit. The alias needs to be a unique alias for the certificate, for example the domain name itself without any dots.

   keytool -import -keystore custom_cacerts -alias <a-name-for-the-certificate>  -file site.cert

5. The custom_cacerts store file will now include the site.cert certificate. You can verify that by searching for the alias in the output of

    keytool -list -keystore custom_cacerts

Use a custom trust store

Kubernetes

For Kubernetes installations, the trust store and the password can be specified as values. The trust store can only be specified from the helm command line as it is a file. We specify the password value in the same way, but it could also be provided via a values.yaml file.

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace stackstate \
  --values values.yaml \
  --set-file 'stackstate.java.trustStore'=custom_cacerts \
  --set 'stackstate.java.trustStorePassword'=changeit \
stackstate \
stackstate/stackstate

Note:

• The first run of the helm upgrade command will result in pods restarting, which may cause a short interruption of availability.

• Include these arguments on every helm upgrade run.

• The password and trust store are stored as a Kubernetes secret.

Base64 encoded trust stores

If needed, the Java trust store can also be configured by passing Base64 encoded strings into Helm values.

Linux

To use a base64 encoded trust store, run the following helm upgrade command:

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace stackstate \
  --values values.yaml \
  --set 'stackstate.java.trustStoreBase64Encoded'=$(cat custom_cacerts | base64 -w0) \
  --set 'stackstate.java.trustStorePassword'=changeit \
stackstate \
stackstate/stackstate

MacOs

To use a base64 encoded trust store, run the following helm upgrade command:

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace stackstate \
  --values values.yaml \
  --set 'stackstate.java.trustStoreBase64Encoded'=$(cat custom_cacerts | base64) \
  --set 'stackstate.java.trustStorePassword'=changeit \
stackstate \
stackstate/stackstate

Linux

For a Linux installation, the trust store and password need to be added to the JVM command line used to start the StackState server process.

1. Copy the new trust store into /opt/stackstate/etc.

2. Edit (or create if it does not yet exist) the file /opt/stackstate/etc/processmanager/processmanager-properties-overrides.conf and add this line:

    properties.sts-jvm-args = "-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/opt/stackstate/etc/custom_cacerts -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=jks -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=changeit"

3. Finally, restart StackState to use the new settings:

    systemctl restart stackstate

Retrieve certificate via the browser

The certificate can be directly downloaded from the Chrome browser. The steps involved may vary slightly depending on the version you are using:

1. Navigate to the URL you need the certificate from.

2. Click on the padlock icon in the location bar.

3. Click on Certificate.

4. Select Details.

5. Select Export.

6. Save using the default export file type (Base64 ASCII encoded).