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File 020 — a certificate is issued and never collected; close Phase 1

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Against a real ACME server the proxy orders, the challenge is answered
at the name on port 80 through the proxy itself, the authorisation goes
valid, finalisation is accepted, and the authority issues a certificate.
The client then posts to an empty URL to collect it, and never does.

Read from the authority's own log rather than inferred. Across one run
it issued two certificates and accepted finalise three times: the client
reaches issuance every attempt and fails at the same step after it.

Ruled out and recorded, so nobody repeats it: the directory is complete;
the authority's API certificate covers the address; the challenge path
works. A hand-written server config was suspected and was wrong —
replacing it with the server's own default, changing only the challenge
port, gives the identical error.

Filed rather than pursued because what remains is interop between two
libraries against a server that exists to be a test server, and may say
nothing about a real authority. What the mesh needed to show, it showed:
a routed name gets a certificate ordered from a configured authority,
and an unrouted one gets nothing — that second assertion passes.

Phase 1 closes with this one item partly open. Two of its four tasks
needed no code at all, the network shape was built, and the next thing
to learn comes from moving a module rather than a fourth lab run.
This commit is contained in:
jschoubben
2026-08-31 21:40:03 +02:00
parent f4347e2f14
commit acd5a0d80b
2 changed files with 101 additions and 1 deletions
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03-DESIGN/01-to-be/00-work-breakdown.md
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@@ -60,11 +60,18 @@ Found by taking real modules and asking what they would require. Each is a gap i
| ~~1.1~~ | ~~An **object-store provision**~~ — **done 2026-08-31**, and it needed no change to the mesh: see below | seven assertions against a real store |
| ~~1.2~~ | ~~**A session as a consumer of a licence**~~ — **done 2026-08-31**, and it also needed no change: see below | two sessions on one machine, different licences, each its own key |
| ~~1.3~~ | ~~A **network** shape, and ordering within a module~~ — **done 2026-08-31** | the shape is created and removed; ordering was already there, and is now asserted |
| 1.4 | **Public certificate issuance** | a name reachable from outside is served with a certificate from a public authority, obtained against a **staging** endpoint unless told otherwise ([`04-ISSUES/004`](../../04-ISSUES/004-certificate-issuance-targets-production/00-report.md)) |
| 1.4 | **Public certificate issuance** — **built; one gap** | ordering, the challenge and issuance are proven against a real authority; **collecting the issued certificate is not** ([`04-ISSUES/020`](../../04-ISSUES/020-a-certificate-is-issued-and-never-collected/00-report.md)) |
**1.3 and 1.4 block later ones** and are listed now so they are not met as surprises. 1.3 is what
a mail system needs and nothing else so far does.
**Phase 1 is closed with 1.4 partly open**, deliberately. Two of its four items needed no code at
all; the network shape was built; and certificates are configured correctly, order correctly, and
are issued correctly — the client does not collect what the authority issued, against a server
that exists to be a test server. That is filed rather than chased, because the remainder may say
nothing about a real authority and the next thing to learn comes from moving a module rather than
from a fourth lab run.
**Checkpoint:** each is demonstrated in the lab before the module needing it is attempted.
### 1.2, and the same surprise twice