Overview

Let's Encrypt and ACME

The Let's Encrypt project is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA) brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). The underlying foundation of the LE project -- what makes is feasible, is the introduction of a new client-server protocol named ACME, which is being developed in tandem with the launch of the initial LE project.

ACME is a protocol that defines how a client can register itself with a server, prove that it has ownership and control over a DNS domain, and then request and retrieve a PKI certificate. The ACME protocol specification is currently an IETF draft, but is on track to become an IETF standard.

ACMESharp

The ACMESharp project is a client library that implements the ACME protocol on the .NET platform.

It also includes a PowerShell module built on top of this library which can be used to implement registration, domain validation and certificate management in a PowerShell environment.

Lastly, it includes a number of Providers that implement native support for handling domain ownership validation, and certificate installation in the context of a number of different platforms, including Windows IIS, AWS and CloudFormation.