Certbot for domain failed: The Certificate Authority failed to verify the temporary nginx configuration changes made by Certbot

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: http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/

I ran this command: sudo certbot --nginx

It produced this output:

Certbot failed to authenticate some domains (authenticator: nginx). The Certificate Authority reported these problems:
  Domain: kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
  Type:   unauthorized
  Detail: 2400:8904::f03c:93ff:fea4:6653: Invalid response from http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/.well-known/acme-challenge/qxTaF_3k2T8UgPlQdOveE12xh3n8RA3P18TmxuCjJAE: 404

  Domain: www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
  Type:   unauthorized
  Detail: 2400:8904::f03c:93ff:fea4:6653: Invalid response from http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/.well-known/acme-challenge/n0Z95md64CpgBMzgYn6HbRLV1ZIialEqVkkIE1DYdss: 404

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.

Some challenges have failed.
Ask for help or search for solutions at https://community.letsencrypt.org. See the logfile /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log or re-run Certbot with -v for more details.

My web server is (include version): nginx 1.8

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): ubuntu 2..04

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: linode

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): certbot 2.6.0

this is my server config output after nginx -T


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;
	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 TLSv1.3; # 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-geoip2.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip2_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/modules-enabled/70-mod-stream-geoip2.conf:
load_module modules/ngx_stream_geoip2_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:
##
# You should look at the following URL's in order to grasp a solid understanding
# of Nginx configuration files in order to fully unleash the power of Nginx.
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/
# https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/config_pitfalls/
# https://wiki.debian.org/Nginx/DirectoryStructure
#
# In most cases, administrators will remove this file from sites-enabled/ and
# leave it as reference inside of sites-available where it will continue to be
# updated by the nginx packaging team.
#
# This file will automatically load configuration files provided by other
# applications, such as Drupal or Wordpress. These applications will be made
# available underneath a path with that package name, such as /drupal8.
#
# Please see /usr/share/doc/nginx-doc/examples/ for more detailed examples.
##

# Default server configuration
#
server {
	listen 80 default_server;
	listen [::]:80 default_server;

	# 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 _;

	location / {
		# First attempt to serve request as file, then
		# as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
		try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
	}

	# pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server
	#
	#location ~ \.php$ {
	#	include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
	#
	#	# With php-fpm (or other unix sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
	#	# With php-cgi (or other tcp sockets):
	#	fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
	#}

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


# 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;
#	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/kalyani_technoforge:
server_tokens               off;
access_log                  /var/log/nginx/kalyani_technoforge.access.log;
error_log                   /var/log/nginx/kalyani_technoforge.error.log;

# This configuration will be changed to redirect to HTTPS later
server {
  server_name               kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
  listen                    80;

  location / {
    proxy_pass          http://localhost:8000;
    proxy_set_header    Host $host;
    proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  }

  location /static {
    autoindex on;
    alias /var/www/kalyani_technoforge/static/;
  }


}
server {
    server_name  www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
    rewrite ^(.*) http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud$1 permanent;
}



You need to add a listen statement for IPv6 too like you have in your default server block.

Like this one

UPDATE:
You will need to add both explicit listen clauses in your server block for the www subdomain too. I didn't see that one at first. You could just add the www as another name with your root domain. Then remove the server block with the redirect. Combining names in one server block is a common way to handle this.

server_name kalyanitechnoforge.cloud www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
5 Likes

That server block has no listen statement - so, it might not get used at all.

3 Likes
curl -Ii http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 03:03:47 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 612
Last-Modified: Sat, 23 Sep 2023 17:13:50 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
ETag: "650f1cce-264"
Accept-Ranges: bytes

Looks like it did not get used.

3 Likes

Looks like IPv6 and IPv4 don't agree:

curl -Ii6 www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 03:05:49 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 612
Last-Modified: Sat, 23 Sep 2023 17:13:50 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
ETag: "650f1cce-264"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
curl -Ii4 www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Server: nginx
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 03:05:54 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 162
Connection: keep-alive
Location: http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/
3 Likes

It does on IPv4 because that is the default. It does not on IPv6 which I pointed out earlier

curl -I4 http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Server: nginx
Location: http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/

curl -I6 http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
3 Likes

Looks like make chnages to all bove suggestions has worked.

this is the final file.


# This configuration will be changed to redirect to HTTPS later
server {
        server_name               kalyanitechnoforge.cloud www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
        listen                    80;
        listen                    [::]:80;

        location /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
                root /some-unique-path/;
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

        location / {
                proxy_pass          http://localhost:8000;
                proxy_set_header    Host $host;
                proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        }

        location /static {
                autoindex on;
                alias /var/www/kalyani_technoforge/static/;
        }

    listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/kalyanitechnoforge.cloud/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}

server {
  server_name  www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
  listen       80;
  return 301 http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud$request_uri;
}

Some suggestions by chatGPT has helped me get it.
Chat GPT QnA Link: Nginx IPv6 and WWW

Thank You So much Guys.

chatGPT has given you bad advice

You should remove the two lines for listen on port 80 in the server block that also has listen for port 443. While it is technically possible to mix 80 and 443 it often leads to errors. And, it is creating problems for you right now. Your redirects are not all working correctly.

Then, fix your other server block so it looks like this. Note the changed server_name, adding listen for IPv6, and the change to HTTPS in your return statement.

server {
  server_name  kalyanitechnoforge.cloud www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud;
  listen       80;
  listen       [::]:80;
  return 301 https://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud$request_uri;
}

After making those changes and restarting nginx, make sure your cert renewal works with this

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Let us know how it goes

4 Likes

Have we ever seen good advice from ChatGPT?

I haven't..

4 Likes

This went well. All redirectes working fine. and good.
Ur suggestion help me a lot.

Huge respect man. :saluting_face:

Dry run success image below:

1 Like

I don't think you completed all the changes I suggested. Or, you did not restart nginx.

Because neither of your HTTP domains redirect.

This returns data directly as if you still have a listen for port 80 in your main server block
curl -I http://kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx

this does not redirect and for some odd reason gets 502
curl -I http://www.kalyanitechnoforge.cloud
HTTP/1.1 502 Bad Gateway
Server: nginx
3 Likes

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