this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Let's Encrypt Ending Support for Expiration Notification Emails (letsencrypt.org)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/technology
48 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Since its inception, Let’s Encrypt has been sending expiration notification emails to subscribers that have provided an email address to us. We will be ending this service on June 4, 2025. The decision to end this service is the result of the following factors:

  • Over the past 10 years more and more of our subscribers have been able to put reliable automation into place for certificate renewal.
  • Providing expiration notification emails means that we have to retain millions of email addresses connected to issuance records. As an organization that values privacy, removing this requirement is important to us.
  • Providing expiration notifications costs Let’s Encrypt tens of thousands of dollars per year, money that we believe can be better spent on other aspects of our infrastructure.
  • Providing expiration notifications adds complexity to our infrastructure, which takes time and attention to manage and increases the likelihood of mistakes being made. Over the long term, particularly as we add support for new service components, we need to manage overall complexity by phasing out system components that can no longer be justified.
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Calandar Apps have joined the chat

(Seriously, do people just not use them to set reminders?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago

I scheduled a doctor's appointment recently and they were confused when I opted out of SMS notifications. They were shocked when I whipped out my calendar to type the appointment in. 😅

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

It's more than needing a reminder: Let's Encrypt Certs are valid for a maximum of 90 days before they need to be reissued. Doing this 4 times (or more) a year, for years on end will be tedious and error prone.

Most tools that request and install Let's Encrypt Certs automatically do this without the need for human interaction (30 days prior to the expiration) . Actually, they work so well you don't notice the "behind the scenes work" that's happening.

The problem is when this renewal process "stop working". I'd been using Let's Encrypt for years w/o problems, but eventually the client I was using wasn't updating and it was using a deprecated Let's Encrypt API. Ultimately, the cert stopped updating, but I got the email reminder from Let's Encrypt and I was able to fix it w/o a disruption.

Now, this was just a server for personal use. So if the SSL cert expired, it would not be the end of the world. Plus, I would have gotten a bunch of SSL errors the next time my client was trying to sync data, and I probably would have dropped everything to fix it. But the email reminder was a convenient feature, which allowed me to fix it whenever I had time.

That said, if Let's Encrypt wants to save some money for their free service, I'm certainly not going to complain (although I will miss it).

[–] spiffpitt 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

do you not automate the renewal of your certificates?

the only time I've ever gotten the expiring cert emails is after i decommission a service that had certificates and no longer renew it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

They don't support my DNS provider and they don't support my web server.

Automated the web server isn't very hard automated the DNS providers are royal pain in the ass.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I think yeah, most people don't use calendars.My wife doesn't even use one at work.

My dad though started using it after I implemented audible announcements of them in Home Assistant. He normally doesn't use his phone or computer much, but this way anywhere he is in his house he is reminded 90min before the event and then at the event again. With this he never misses appointments at doctors and so on anymore. That was what pushed him to use a digital calendar, every missed appointment costs quite some money.

[–] Kushan 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I use uptime kuma to check my certificate isn't going to expire.

Also tells me if any of my services are down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Uptime kuma's pretty nice for such a light duty package

[–] Kushan 2 points 4 days ago

Yup it's great