# Step Certificates

Step Certificates is a self-hosted online certificate authority (CA) server that automates TLS certificate issuance and management for services, devices, and internal APIs. It is open source and self-hosted, installable on Kubernetes (Helm).

Canonical page: https://ourlocalhost.com/app/7308/step-certificates

## Description

Step Certificates is a self-hosted online certificate authority (CA) server that automates TLS certificate issuance and management for services, devices, and internal APIs.

## Platform availability

Available on 1 of 9 platforms: Helm.

## Health score

76/100 (Good), based on 3 of 4 factors.
- Maintained: 100 (last commit 2 days ago)
- Popular: 79 (8,993 GitHub stars)
- Easy to install: 25 (1 install platform, install notes)

## Links

- Kubernetes (Helm): https://artifacthub.io/packages/helm/smallstep/step-certificates
- GitHub: https://github.com/smallstep/certificates
- Official website: https://smallstep.com/certificates

## Common questions

### Can Step Certificates be used for SSH authentication instead of public keys?

It can delegate SSH authentication by issuing SSH certificates instead of using public keys and authorized_keys files. User certificates can also connect SSH to an OAuth OIDC single sign-on provider for short-lived certificates and MFA.

### Does Step Certificates support ACME and Yubikey use in a homelab?

A community setup describes using step-ca as a homelab CA with ACME support and a Yubikey.

### How do I generate certificates for individual services after installing Step CA?

After the PKI is ready, use step help ca to see the commands for generating certificates for individual services.

### How can a home-lab certificate authority like Step Certificates reduce CRL and OCSP problems?

CRLs and OCSP rely on clients to actively check validity and can cause performance issues in certain contexts. Very short-lived certificates can eliminate the need for those revocation mechanisms.

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Source: Our Local Host (https://ourlocalhost.com/app/7308/step-certificates), the self-hosted and open-source app directory.