From: Shannon Sterz <s.sterz@proxmox.com>
To: pbs-devel@lists.proxmox.com
Subject: [PATCH datacenter-manager/proxmox{,-backup} 00/16] TLS Certificate Rotation
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:31:42 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260730133158.418015-1-s.sterz@proxmox.com> (raw)
this series adds certificate rotation to Proxmox Backup Server and Proxmox
Datacenter Manager. currently, both products issue a certificate that is valid
for almost 1000 years (365000 days). no cryptographic key can reasonably be
considered secure for this amount of time. this series:
- allows specifying the lifetime of the certificate when creating one via
proxmox-acme-api and reduces the default to 3650 days (almost ten years).
- sends and logs reminders 30 days before a certificate expires (pdm currently
does not support the notification framework yet, so adding notifications is
left as future work here).
- refreshes a certificate at the earliest 15 days before it expires, logs
and notifies when that happens.
- warns on certificates with excessive lifetimes (>3650 days) and documents
how to manually update them.
- for pdm: exposes cert handling cli methods in proxmox-datacenter-manager-admin.
- fixes up some inconsistencies in the ui and docs in regards to pdm's
certificate location.
- adjusts the severity of acme renewal error notifications for pbs
## Testing
the easiest way to test this is to manipulate the date of the host with `date
--set` and then manually trigger the daily update binary for each product:
* PBS: `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/proxmox-backup/proxmox-daily-update`
* PDM: `/usr/libexec/proxmox/proxmox-datacenter-manager-daily-update`
you can then check the logs and the certificate itself to see what happened.
specifying the `PBS_LOG` environment variable with the parameter `trace` or
`debug` will also enable debug logging here.
## Open Questions
+ 10 years is still a long time and i'd rather reduce that further down if
possible. see the patch 02 for proxmox-tls-certificates for more info.
+ should we remove pre-existing long lasting certificates by ourselves? imo
that is too risky at the moment given that an unplanned certificate rotation
could cause backups to fail.
+ notifying every day for 15 days before the renewal might be excessive, see
the second commit for pbs.
## Future Work
- pve and pdm should be extended to allow automatically updating allowed
fingerprints before a new self-signed certificate goes into action. a series
demonstrating this for pve<->pdm has already been sent [1]. if this series gets
approved, i'll happily adapt the mechanism for pbs<->pve and pbs<->pdm.
- pdm should send notifications similar to pbs once support for notifications
is added.
## Changelog
* v1: https://lore.proxmox.com/pbs-devel/20260422124022.17952-1-s.sterz@proxmox.com/
changes since v1 (thanks @ Lukas Wagner):
+ dropped a patch for proxmox-yew-comp that got applied already
+ rebased on current master for all three repos
+ created new `proxmox-tls-certificates` crate and moved several helpers
there. reexposing functions in proxmox-acme-api to avoid breakage.
+ added unit tests and more documentation to tls helpers
+ adjusted the severity of error and renewal notifications
+ adapted the upcoming renewal template for pbs to inform about the
earliest data a renewal could happen
* rfc: https://lore.proxmox.com/pbs-devel/20260407135714.490747-1-s.sterz@proxmox.com/
changes since rfc:
+ add patches that avoid hard-coding the certificate file name in yew-comp
and use the proper filename in pdm
+ update pdm renewal docs patch to avoid confusion
+ re-base on current master
[1]: https://lore.proxmox.com/pdm-devel/20260611120327.257523-1-s.sterz@proxmox.com/
proxmox:
Shannon Sterz (4):
acme-api/tls-certificates: add new crate collecting tls realted
helpers
tls-certificates: add days_valid parameter to create_self_signed_cert
tls-certificates: add self_signed_cert_expires_in to check
certificates
acme-api: stop re-exporting create_self_signed_cert
Cargo.toml | 2 +
proxmox-acme-api/Cargo.toml | 2 +
proxmox-acme-api/src/certificate_helpers.rs | 195 ----------
proxmox-acme-api/src/lib.rs | 2 +-
proxmox-acme-api/src/types.rs | 51 +--
proxmox-tls-certificates/Cargo.toml | 41 ++
proxmox-tls-certificates/src/lib.rs | 7 +
proxmox-tls-certificates/src/types.rs | 54 +++
proxmox-tls-certificates/src/util.rs | 395 ++++++++++++++++++++
9 files changed, 503 insertions(+), 246 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 proxmox-tls-certificates/Cargo.toml
create mode 100644 proxmox-tls-certificates/src/lib.rs
create mode 100644 proxmox-tls-certificates/src/types.rs
create mode 100644 proxmox-tls-certificates/src/util.rs
backup:
Shannon Sterz (6):
config: use proxmox_tls_certificates for generating self-signed
certificates
config/server/api: add certificate renewal logic including
notifications
daily update: warn about excessive self-signed certificate lifetime
docs: document force refreshing long-lived certificates
backup-manager cli: `cert update` can create auth and csrf key
notifications: use `Severity::Error` for acme renewal failures
Cargo.toml | 3 +
debian/control | 2 +
debian/proxmox-backup-server.install | 6 ++
docs/certificate-management.rst | 31 ++++++
src/api2/node/certificates.rs | 9 +-
src/bin/proxmox-daily-update.rs | 43 ++++++++-
src/bin/proxmox_backup_manager/cert.rs | 2 +
src/config/mod.rs | 96 ++-----------------
src/server/notifications/mod.rs | 58 ++++++++++-
src/server/notifications/template_data.rs | 11 +++
templates/Makefile | 68 +++++++------
templates/default/cert-err-body.txt.hbs | 7 ++
templates/default/cert-err-subject.txt.hbs | 1 +
templates/default/cert-refresh-body.txt.hbs | 8 ++
.../default/cert-refresh-subject.txt.hbs | 1 +
.../cert-upcoming-refresh-body.txt.hbs | 10 ++
.../cert-upcoming-refresh-subject.txt.hbs | 1 +
17 files changed, 237 insertions(+), 120 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-err-body.txt.hbs
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-err-subject.txt.hbs
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-refresh-body.txt.hbs
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-refresh-subject.txt.hbs
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-upcoming-refresh-body.txt.hbs
create mode 100644 templates/default/cert-upcoming-refresh-subject.txt.hbs
datacenter-manager:
Shannon Sterz (6):
certs: use proxmox-tls-certificates directly, add days_valid paramter
api/auth/bin: add certificate renewal logic
cli: expose certificate management endpoints via the cli
daily-update: warn about certificates with excessive lifetimes
docs: add section on forcing a new self-signed certificate
docs/certificates: use correct certificate file name
Cargo.toml | 2 +
cli/admin/Cargo.toml | 2 +
cli/admin/src/cert.rs | 86 +++++++++++++++++++
cli/admin/src/main.rs | 2 +
debian/control | 2 +
docs/certificate-management.rst | 32 +++++++
server/Cargo.toml | 1 +
server/src/api/nodes/certificates.rs | 19 ++--
server/src/auth/certs.rs | 19 +++-
...proxmox-datacenter-manager-daily-update.rs | 38 ++++++++
10 files changed, 190 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 cli/admin/src/cert.rs
Summary over all repositories:
36 files changed, 930 insertions(+), 379 deletions(-)
--
Generated by murpp 0.12.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-07-30 13:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-07-30 13:31 Shannon Sterz [this message]
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox 01/16] acme-api/tls-certificates: add new crate collecting tls realted helpers Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox 02/16] tls-certificates: add days_valid parameter to create_self_signed_cert Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox 03/16] tls-certificates: add self_signed_cert_expires_in to check certificates Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox 04/16] acme-api: stop re-exporting create_self_signed_cert Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 05/16] config: use proxmox_tls_certificates for generating self-signed certificates Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 06/16] config/server/api: add certificate renewal logic including notifications Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 07/16] daily update: warn about excessive self-signed certificate lifetime Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 08/16] docs: document force refreshing long-lived certificates Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 09/16] backup-manager cli: `cert update` can create auth and csrf key Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH proxmox-backup 10/16] notifications: use `Severity::Error` for acme renewal failures Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 11/16] certs: use proxmox-tls-certificates directly, add days_valid paramter Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 12/16] api/auth/bin: add certificate renewal logic Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 13/16] cli: expose certificate management endpoints via the cli Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 14/16] daily-update: warn about certificates with excessive lifetimes Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 15/16] docs: add section on forcing a new self-signed certificate Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:31 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager 16/16] docs/certificates: use correct certificate file name Shannon Sterz
2026-07-30 13:44 ` [PATCH datacenter-manager/proxmox{,-backup} 00/16] TLS Certificate Rotation Shannon Sterz
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260730133158.418015-1-s.sterz@proxmox.com \
--to=s.sterz@proxmox.com \
--cc=pbs-devel@lists.proxmox.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.