Effectively managing SSL/TLS certificates is crucial for securing web applications and APIs. While AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) provides seamless integration with AWS services like ELB, CloudFront, and API Gateway, there’s often a need to use these certificates on infrastructure outside of these specific services. This arises when deploying applications on EC2 instances, containers, on-premise servers, or even other cloud platforms.
For certificates issued directly by AWS ACM, the associated private key is securely managed within ACM and cannot be exported for security reasons. This design keeps the private key protected and tied to the AWS services that leverage ACM.
However, there’s a powerful capability within ACM that addresses the need for portability: importing certificates. If you acquire an SSL/TLS certificate from a third-party Certificate Authority (CA) or generate your own internal certificate, you can import the certificate body, its corresponding private key, and the certificate chain into AWS ACM.
The key advantage of importing certificates is that ACM stores all components, including the private key you provided during the import process. This makes these imported certificates exportable or, more accurately, retrievable.
To obtain the certificate files (certificate body, private key, and certificate chain) for an imported certificate from ACM, you typically use the AWS Management Console or the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI).
Using the AWS Management Console:
- Navigate to the ACM service.
- Find the specific certificate you imported.
- View the certificate details. While the console doesn’t provide a direct “export” button for the files, it serves to verify the certificate exists and is imported. The retrieval of the actual files is usually done via the CLI or API, leveraging the fact that the components were stored upon import.
Using the AWS CLI or API:
This is the primary method for programmatic retrieval. You can use commands like aws acm get-certificate.
You will need to provide the ARN (Amazon Resource Name) of the imported certificate.
The response from this command will include the certificate body, the private key, and the certificate chain (if provided during import) in a format that can be saved to files.
This ability to retrieve the certificate components for imported certificates is incredibly valuable. It allows you to use ACM as a central management point for all your certificates, including those needed for non-AWS environments. You can then securely retrieve the necessary files and deploy them wherever needed – on Nginx or Apache servers, within Docker containers, on VPN appliances, or any other system requiring a standard SSL/TLS certificate and its private key.
Remember to handle the private key with extreme care once retrieved, as it is the critical piece for securing your communications. Storing and using it securely is paramount.
Leveraging ACM with imported certificates gives you the best of both worlds: centralized certificate management, monitoring, and renewal reminders (for imported certs with a validity period) combined with the flexibility to deploy your security credentials anywhere your infrastructure resides. Unlock the power of using your SSL/TLS certificates universally by utilizing ACM’s import and retrieval capabilities for your externally sourced certificates.
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-certificate-manager-introduces-exportable-public-ssl-tls-certificates-to-use-anywhere/
