Sudden UTF-8 parsing error with Certbot

Help
1

Hi,

I host multiple domains on a server.
I successfully had certbot running with certbot renew for years.

Suddenly I get

Attempting to renew cert (u-rte.com) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/u-rte.com.conf produced an unexpected error: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xf6 in position 1: invalid start byte. Skipping.

Errors for some domains, but not all.

I have not touched those files and UTF-8 0xf6 (German ö) does not appear in the files:

# renew_before_expiry = 30 days
version = 0.40.0
archive_dir = /etc/letsencrypt/archive/u-rte.com
cert = /etc/letsencrypt/live/u-rte.com/cert.pem
privkey = /etc/letsencrypt/live/u-rte.com/privkey.pem
chain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/u-rte.com/chain.pem
fullchain = /etc/letsencrypt/live/u-rte.com/fullchain.pem

# Options used in the renewal process
[renewalparams]
account = c9cbf332e7fa4987867262a1cee515ad
authenticator = apache
installer = apache
server = https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory

Log is:

2023-08-15 16:24:31,372:INFO:certbot.renewal:Cert not yet due for renewal
2023-08-15 16:24:31,373:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:Requested authenticator standalone and installer None
2023-08-15 16:24:31,378:DEBUG:certbot.storage:Should renew, less than 30 days before certificate expiry 2023-09-08 07:23:08 UTC.
2023-08-15 16:24:31,379:INFO:certbot.renewal:Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing...
2023-08-15 16:24:31,379:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:Requested authenticator apache and installer apache
2023-08-15 16:24:31,469:DEBUG:certbot_apache.configurator:Apache version is 2.4.41
2023-08-15 16:24:31,766:WARNING:certbot.renewal:Attempting to renew cert (u-rte.com) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/u-rte.com.conf produced an unexpected error: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xf6 in position 1: invalid start byte. Skipping.
2023-08-15 16:24:31,767:DEBUG:certbot.renewal:Traceback was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/renewal.py", line 462, in handle_renewal_request
    main.renew_cert(lineage_config, plugins, renewal_candidate)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/main.py", line 1202, in renew_cert
    installer, auth = plug_sel.choose_configurator_plugins(config, plugins, "certonly")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 226, in choose_configurator_plugins
    installer = pick_installer(config, req_inst, plugins, installer_question)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 30, in pick_installer
    return pick_plugin(
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 105, in pick_plugin
    verified.prepare()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 252, in prepare
    return [plugin_ep.prepare() for plugin_ep in six.itervalues(self._plugins)]
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 252, in <listcomp>
    return [plugin_ep.prepare() for plugin_ep in six.itervalues(self._plugins)]
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 130, in prepare
    self._initialized.prepare()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 260, in prepare
    self.vhosts = self.get_virtual_hosts()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 895, in get_virtual_hosts
    new_vhost = self._create_vhost(path)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 871, in _create_vhost
    self._add_servernames(vhost)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 821, in _add_servernames
    servername, serveraliases = self._get_vhost_names(host.path)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/configurator.py", line 803, in _get_vhost_names
    serveralias = self.parser.get_arg(alias)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_apache/parser.py", line 660, in get_arg
    value = self.aug.get(match)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/augeas.py", line 147, in get
    return dec(value.value)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/augeas.py", line 65, in dec
    return st.decode(AUGENC)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xf6 in position 1: invalid start byte

Apache 2.4.41 @ Ubuntu 20.04.6; Certbot 0.40.0

Thanks for your time!

2

Hi @ThomasBarth, and welcome to the LE community forum :slight_smile:

I would replace the file:

with the clean contents shown:

And also test against the staging environment until this is resolved.

3

One of your Apache configuration files contains a non-valid, non-UTF character. Most likely the first character of one of the files looking at the error message.

Maybe grep can help:

grep -RP "\xf6" /etc/apache2/

(Not sure if your Apache dir is called apache2 tho, please change the directory if applicable.)

4

Yep, that was the issue. Grep did not show me the file but knowing what I had to look for I found the apache config file with the 0xf6 a.k. ö in it.

Thanks!