Using a self-signed SSL cert for an HTTPS-based internal APT repository

Question

I've set up a Debian repository (Ubuntu actually) for internal use with some private packages, and now want to make it available over the web to some specific servers. I would like apt-get / aptitude to connect to it using HTTPS, and because I don't want to spend any money am using a self-signed certificate.

I've tried following the apt.conf man page on pointing apt-get to use my own root CA certificate to validate the host, but it does not seem to work.

My apt.conf file looks like this:

#Acquire::https::repo.mydomain.com::Verify-Peer "false";
Acquire::https::repo.mydomain.com::CaInfo      "/etc/apt/certs/my-cacert.pem";
Acquire::https::repo.mydomain.com::SslCert     "/etc/apt/certs/my-cert.pem";
Acquire::https::repo.mydomain.com::SslKey      "/etc/apt/certs/my-key.pem";

I also use a client certificate, but it does not seem to be a problem because when I set Verify-Peer to "false" (commented above) everything works.

Using the same CA certificate, client cert and key works well with curl.

I enabled apt debugging (Debug::Acquire::https "true") but it offers very little information.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Answer 1

I don't use client authentication, only HTTPS, but I only got it to work using this:

Acquire::https {
        Verify-Peer "false";
        Verify-Host "false";
}

I put this on a file under /etc/apt/apt.conf.d.

Answer 2

Hopefully this helps others - I have not been able to solve this directly.

As a workaround, I am now using stunnel4 to create a tunnel to my HTTPS repository. Self-signed certs and the client certificate I have work very well with stunnel4.

I've set up stunnel to listen on localhost:8888 for incoming connections, and direct them to my repo (repo.mydomain.com:443). I've set up apt to look for my repository at http://localhost:8888/.

So far this has been working well, although it seems like an unnecessary hack.