Install the client:
apt-get install git
git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt
cd letsencrypt
Generate certificates using manual mode:
service nginx stop
./letsencrypt-auto --server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory -d www.yoursite.com auth
./letsencrypt-auto --server https://acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org/directory -d yoursite.com auth
service nginx start
Generate a dhparams key:
openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/private/dhparams_4096.pem 4096
Nginx config:
server {
server_name yoursite.com;
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
return 301 https://www.yoursite.com$request_uri;
}
server {
server_name yoursite.com;
listen 443 ssl;
listen [::]:443 ssl;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yoursite.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yoursite.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yoursite.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparam.pem;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES128-GCM-SHA256:kEDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:AES:CAMELLIA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!RC4:!MD5:!PSK:!aECDH:!EDH-DSS-DES-CBC3-SHA:!EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:!KRB5-DES-CBC3-SHA';
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=15768000;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
return 301 https://www.yoursite.com$request_uri;
}
server {
server_name www.yoursite.com;
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;
return 301 https://www.yoursite.com$request_uri;
}
server {
server_name www.yoursite.com;
listen 443 ssl default_server;
listen [::]:443 ssl default_server ipv6only=on;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.yoursite.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.yoursite.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.yoursite.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparam.pem;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES128-GCM-SHA256:kEDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:AES:CAMELLIA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!RC4:!MD5:!PSK:!aECDH:!EDH-DSS-DES-CBC3-SHA:!EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:!KRB5-DES-CBC3-SHA';
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=15768000;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
root /usr/share/nginx/www.yoursite.com;
index index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
You can see more configurations at Mozilla's SSL Config Generator.
Once you're done, test everything is working using SSLTest: it should give you a A+ rating :)
Note that the certificates are only valid 90 days at a time.