Ubuntu/Debian: Installing Nginx/Postfix/Dovecot using LibreSSL

So, let’s say you have a Ubuntu or Debian server, using one or more of Nginx, Postfix, and Dovecot, and you’d like to have them link to LibreSSL instead of the default OpenSSL. (I won’t go much into the possible reasons for it; maybe you’re bothered because modern distros are still sticking with OpenSSL 1.0.x, which is ancient and doesn’t support modern ciphers such as ChaCha20, or you trust the OpenBSD developers more than you trust the OpenSSL ones, or — and there’s nothing wrong with that — you want to do it just for fun. You could also use OpenSSL 1.1.x — check out this (very similar) post.)

So, here’s a relatively simple way, that doesn’t change the system’s default OpenSSL (believe me, that wouldn’t be a good idea, unless you recompiled everything):

Install dependencies:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get build-dep openssl nginx dovecot postfix

Install LibreSSL:

• download the latest portable source from www.libressl.org
• compile and install it with:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/libressl --with-openssldir=/usr/local/libressl && make && make install

Install Nginx:

rm -rf /usr/local/src/nginx-libressl
mkdir /usr/local/src/nginx-libressl
cd /usr/local/src/nginx-libressl
apt-get source nginx # ignore the permissions error at the end

• edit the file nginx-<versão>/debian/rules:  add

-I/usr/local/libressl/include

to the line beginning with “debian_cflags:=“, and:

-L/usr/local/libressl/lib

to the line that begins with “debian_ldflags:“. After that, enter the nginx-<version> directory and compile the packages with the command:

debuild -uc -us -b

• install the required packages in the parent directory with “dpkg -i <package names>” (do “dpkg -l | grep nginx” to see which you have installed; typically you’ll want to install the newly created versions of those);

apt-mark hold nginx* # to prevent nginx from being updated from Ubuntu / Debian updates

Done! You can now play around with the Mozilla TLS Guide to add support for modern ciphers to your Nginx’s configuration, and use SSL Labs’s SSL Server Test tool to check if they are correctly enabled.

Install Postfix:

It’s just like Nginx (replacing “nginx” with “postfix” in every command / directory name, of course), except that the changes to debian/rules are these:

• find -DHAS_SSL, add -I/usr/include/libressl/include/openssl in front of it;
• find AUXLIBS += , add -L/usr/local/libressl/lib in front of it
• find the line with dh_shlibdeps -a, add –dpkg-shlibdeps-params=–ignore-missing-info to it
• don’t forget the apt-mark hold postfix* at the end.

Install Dovecot:

Again, use the Nginx instructions, using “dovecot” instead of “nginx” everywhere, except that the changes to debian/rules should be:

• after the line:

export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS=hardening=+all

add:

export SSL_CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/libressl/include
export SSL_LIBS=-L/usr/local/libressl/lib -lssl -lcrypto

• after the section:

override_dh_makeshlibs:
# Do not add an ldconfig trigger; none of the dovecot shared libraries
# are public.
        dh_makeshlibs -n

add:

override_dh_shlibdeps:
        dh_shlibdeps --dpkg-shlibdeps-params=--ignore-missing-info

NOTE: the indentation in the second line needs to be a tab, don’t use spaces.

Again, remember to apt-mark hold dovecot* after installation.

How to check if your new installations of Postfix and/or Dovecot are using LibreSSL instead of the default OpenSSL? You could use ldd to check what SSL / TLS libraries your binaries and/or libraries link to, but the best way is probably to use a tool such as sslscan, which you can use to check what ciphers your SMTP, IMAP, etc. support (including with STARTTLS). If you see ChaCha20 in there, everything is fine. 🙂

If you ever want to go back to “normal” versions of these servers, just do apt-mark unhold nginx* (for instance).

I’ve also added /usr/local/libressl/bin to the beginning of my PATH environment variable, so that the LibreSSL binaries are used by default (e.g. to generate keys, CSRs, etc.), although this isn’t necessary for Nginx, etc. to work.