Certbot failed to authenticate some domains (authenticator: nginx)

Help
1

Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. crt.sh | example.com), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.

My domain is: www.vocapp.net vocapp.net

I ran this command: sudo certbot --nginx OR sudo certbot --nginx --http-01-port 5000
(neither worked)

It produced this output:
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
We recommend selecting either all domains, or all domains in a VirtualHost/server block.

1: vocapp.net
2: www.vocapp.net

Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel):
Requesting a certificate for vocapp.net and www.vocapp.net

Certbot failed to authenticate some domains (authenticator: nginx). The Certificate Authority reported these problems:
Domain: vocapp.net
Type: unauthorized
Detail: 3.220.63.192: Invalid response from Vocabulary App "<!doctype html><html lang="en"><meta charset="utf-8"/><link rel="icon" href="/vocapp-logo.png"/><meta name="viewport" cont"

Domain: www.vocapp.net
Type: unauthorized
Detail: 3.220.63.192: Invalid response from Vocabulary App "<!doctype html><html lang="en"><meta charset="utf-8"/><link rel="icon" href="/vocapp-logo.png"/><meta name="viewport" cont"

Hint: The Certificate Authority failed to verify the temporary nginx configuration changes made by Certbot. Ensure the listed domains point to this nginx server and that it is accessible from the internet.

My web server is (include version): nginx 1.14.0 (Ubuntu)

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know): yes

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): No

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you're using Certbot): 1.31.0

Thank you for your input!

1 Like
2

Hi @ht.quynhanh305, and welcome to the LE community forum :slight_smile:

Let's have a look at the full nginx configuration, with the output of:
nginx -T

2 Likes
3

Hi @rg305
Here is the result:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
# configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
        worker_connections 768;
        # multi_accept on;
}

http {

        ##
        # Basic Settings
        ##

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        # server_tokens off;

        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        ##
        # SSL Settings
        ##

        ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##

        gzip on;

        # gzip_vary on;
        # gzip_proxied any;
        # gzip_comp_level 6;
        # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
        # gzip_http_version 1.1;
        # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

        ##
        # Virtual Host Configs
        ##

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#       # See sample authentication script at:
#       # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
#
#       # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#       # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#       # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:110;
#               protocol   pop3;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:143;
#               protocol   imap;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-geoip.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-image-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_image_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-http-xslt-filter.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_xslt_filter_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-mail.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_mail_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/50-mod-stream.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_module.so;

# configuration file /etc/nginx/mime.types:

types {
    text/html                             html htm shtml;
    text/css                              css;
    text/xml                              xml;
    image/gif                             gif;
    image/jpeg                            jpeg jpg;
    application/javascript                js;
    application/atom+xml                  atom;
    application/rss+xml                   rss;

    text/mathml                           mml;
    text/plain                            txt;
    text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor      jad;
    text/vnd.wap.wml                      wml;
    text/x-component                      htc;

    image/png                             png;
    image/tiff                            tif tiff;
    image/vnd.wap.wbmp                    wbmp;
    image/x-icon                          ico;
    image/x-jng                           jng;
    image/x-ms-bmp                        bmp;
    image/svg+xml                         svg svgz;
    image/webp                            webp;

    application/font-woff                 woff;
    application/java-archive              jar war ear;
    application/json                      json;
    application/mac-binhex40              hqx;
    application/msword                    doc;
    application/pdf                       pdf;
    application/postscript                ps eps ai;
    application/rtf                       rtf;
    application/vnd.apple.mpegurl         m3u8;
    application/vnd.ms-excel              xls;
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject         eot;
    application/vnd.ms-powerpoint         ppt;
    application/vnd.wap.wmlc              wmlc;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml  kml;
    application/vnd.google-earth.kmz      kmz;
    application/x-7z-compressed           7z;
    application/x-cocoa                   cco;
    application/x-java-archive-diff       jardiff;
    application/x-java-jnlp-file          jnlp;
    application/x-makeself                run;
    application/x-perl                    pl pm;
    application/x-pilot                   prc pdb;
    application/x-rar-compressed          rar;
    application/x-redhat-package-manager  rpm;
    application/x-sea                     sea;
    application/x-shockwave-flash         swf;
    application/x-stuffit                 sit;
    application/x-tcl                     tcl tk;
    application/x-x509-ca-cert            der pem crt;
    application/x-xpinstall               xpi;
    application/xhtml+xml                 xhtml;
    application/xspf+xml                  xspf;
    application/zip                       zip;

    application/octet-stream              bin exe dll;
    application/octet-stream              deb;
    application/octet-stream              dmg;
    application/octet-stream              iso img;
    application/octet-stream              msi msp msm;

    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document    docx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet          xlsx;
    application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation  pptx;

    audio/midi                            mid midi kar;
    audio/mpeg                            mp3;
    audio/ogg                             ogg;
    audio/x-m4a                           m4a;
    audio/x-realaudio                     ra;

    video/3gpp                            3gpp 3gp;
    video/mp2t                            ts;
    video/mp4                             mp4;
    video/mpeg                            mpeg mpg;
    video/quicktime                       mov;
    video/webm                            webm;
    video/x-flv                           flv;
    video/x-m4v                           m4v;
    video/x-mng                           mng;
    video/x-ms-asf                        asx asf;
    video/x-ms-wmv                        wmv;
    video/x-msvideo                       avi;
}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:
# Default server configuration
#
server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        # SSL configuration
        #
        # listen 443 ssl default_server;
        # listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
        #
        # Note: You should disable gzip for SSL traffic.
        # See: https://bugs.debian.org/773332
        #
        # Read up on ssl_ciphers to ensure a secure configuration.
        # See: https://bugs.debian.org/765782
        #
        # Self signed certs generated by the ssl-cert package
        # Don't use them in a production server!
        #
        # include snippets/snakeoil.conf;

        root /var/www/html;

        # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

        server_name 3.220.63.192 vocapp.net www.vocapp.net;

        location / {
                # First attempt to serve request as file, then
                # as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
                # proxy_http_version 1.1;
                # proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                # proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
                # proxy_set_header Host $host;
                # proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        }

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #       include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        #
        #       # With php7.0-cgi alone:
        #       fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        #       # With php7.0-fpm:
        #       fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
        #}

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        #location ~ /\.ht {
        #       deny all;
        #}
}

server {
        listen 443 ssl;

        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
        server_name 3.220.63.192 vocapp.net www.vocapp.net;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
        }
}


# Virtual Host configuration for example.com
#
# You can move that to a different file under sites-available/ and symlink that
# to sites-enabled/ to enable it.
#
#server {
#       listen 80;
#
#       server_name example.com;
#
#       root /var/www/example.com;
#       index index.html;
#
#       location / {
#               try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#       }
#}

# configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/voc-app:
server {
server_name 3.220.63.192;

# react app & front-end files
location / {
root /home/ubuntu/voc-app/frontend/build/;
try_files $uri /index.html;
}

# node api reverse proxy // the /api/ is assuming your api routes start with that i.e. www.your-site.com/api/endpoint
location /api/ {
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}
4

Please show the output of:
ls -l /var/www/html

1 Like
5

Hi @rg305 ,
Thank you for looking at this.

This is what it says:

total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10918 Oct 15 20:12 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Oct 15 18:27 index.nginx-debian.html

1 Like
6

I can't reach either of those two files.
They should be reachable via:
http://vocapp.net/index.html
http://vocapp.net/index.nginx-debian.html

I suspect that either something is in front of the nginx server:
X-Powered-By: Express
OR
This location statement isn't doing what (I think) it says:

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
        }
2 Likes
8

What is "Express" ?

Let's test the second part.
Please comment out the line:
proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
in the HTTP server block in the file:
etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
then restart nginx
Also, place a test text file in that root folder:
echo "test file" > /var/www/html/test.txt
Then show it:
ls -l /var/www/html/

1 Like
9

Hi @rg305 ,

I can open the 2 links: http://vocapp.net/index.html
http://vocapp.net/index.nginx-debian.html, but I can only see the headers, not the full page. Is this what you saw as well, or you didn't see anything at all?

I commented out the lines you mentioned and restarted nginx. Seemed to go through without a prob.

When I tried the echo command, this is the output (even with sudo):
-bash: /var/www/html/test.txt: Permission denied

This is the output of ls -l /var/www/html/:
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10918 Oct 15 20:12 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Oct 15 18:27 index.nginx-debian.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 16 05:17 test.txt

10

I think you need to change your Node server to listen on port 5000 only, because I'm believe it's listening on port 80 right now.

If nginx was listening on port 80, we'd see Server: nginx it in the response headers:

$ curl -i http://vocapp.net/index.html
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Cache-Control: public, max-age=0
Last-Modified: Sat, 15 Oct 2022 21:00:01 GMT
ETag: W/"2a9-183dd725829"
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 681
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2022 07:15:34 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Keep-Alive: timeout=5

... but it's not there.

nginx can't listen on port 80 if Node is already listening on port 80.

4 Likes
11

I can't reach that file:

curl -Ii http://vocapp.net/test.txt
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Cache-Control: public, max-age=0
Last-Modified: Sat, 15 Oct 2022 21:00:01 GMT
ETag: W/"2a9-183dd725829"
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 681
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2022 20:28:44 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Keep-Alive: timeout=5
1 Like
12

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