Self-signed certificates or custom Certification Authorities

Introduced in GitLab Runner 0.7.0

GitLab Runner allows you to configure certificates that are used to verify TLS peers when connecting to the GitLab server.

This solves the x509: certificate signed by unknown authority problem when registering a runner.

For existing Runners, the same error can be shown in Runner logs when trying to check the jobs: 

Couldn't execute POST against https://hostname.tld/api/v4/jobs/request:
Post https://hostname.tld/api/v4/jobs/request: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority

Supported options for self-signed certificates

GitLab Runner supports the following options:

  • Default: GitLab Runner reads the system certificate store and verifies the GitLab server against the certificate authorities (CA) stored in the system.

  • GitLab Runner reads the PEM certificate (DER format is not supported) from a predefined file:

    • /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/hostname.crt on *nix systems when GitLab Runner is executed as root.
    • ~/.gitlab-runner/certs/hostname.crt on *nix systems when GitLab Runner is executed as non-root.
    • ./certs/hostname.crt on other systems. If running Runner as a Windows service, this will not work. Use the last option instead.

  • If your server address is: https://my.gitlab.server.com:8443/, create the certificate file at: /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/my.gitlab.server.com.crt. To verify that the file looks correct, you can use a tool like openssl. For example: 

    echo | openssl s_client -CAfile /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/gitlab-hostname.tld.crt -connect gitlab-hostname.tld:443
    Note: You may need to concatenate the intermediate and server certificate for the chain to be properly identified. For example, if you have a primary, intermediate, and root certificate, you can put all of them into one file:
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  (Your primary SSL certificate: your_domain_name.crt)
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  (Your intermediate certificate)
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  (Your root certificate)
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----

  • If you are updating the certificate for an existing Runner, restart it.

  • GitLab Runner exposes the tls-ca-file option during registration (gitlab-runner register --tls-ca-file=/path), and in config.toml under the [[runners]] section. This allows you to specify a custom certificate file. This file will be read every time the runner tries to access the GitLab server.

  • If you are using GitLab Runner Helm chart, configure custom certificates.

  • As a temporary and insecure workaround, to skip the verification of certificates, in the variables: section of your .gitlab-ci.yml file, set the CI variable GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY to true.

Note: If your GitLab server certificate is signed by your CA, use your CA certificate (not your GitLab server signed certificate). You might need to add the intermediates to the chain as well.

Git cloning

The runner injects missing certificates to build the CA chain in build containers. This allows git clone and artifacts to work with servers that do not use publicly trusted certificates.

This approach is secure, but makes the runner a single point of trust.

Trusting TLS certificates for Docker and Kubernetes executors

Trusting the certificate for user scripts

If your build script needs to communicate with peers through TLS and needs to rely on a self-signed certificate or custom Certificate Authority, you will need to perform the certificate installation in the build job, as the user scripts are run in a Docker container that doesn’t have the certificate files installed by default. This might be required to use a custom cache host, perform a secondary git clone, or fetch a file through a tool like wget, for example.

To install the certificate:

  1. Map the necessary files as a Docker volume so that the Docker container that will run the scripts can see them. Do this by adding a volume inside the respective key inside the [runners.docker] in the config.toml file, for example:

    • Linux: 

        [[runners]]
   name = "docker"
   url = "https://example.com/"
   token = "TOKEN"
   executor = "docker"

   [runners.docker]
     image = "ubuntu:latest"

     # Add path to your ca.crt file in the volumes list
     volumes = ["/cache", "/path/to-ca-cert-dir/ca.crt:/etc/gitlab-runner/certs/ca.crt:ro"]

  2. Linux-only: Use the mapped file (e.g ca.crt) in a pre_build_script that:

    1. Copies it to /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt inside the Docker container.

    2. Installs it by running update-ca-certificates --fresh. For example (commands vary based on the distribution you’re using):

      • On Ubuntu: 

          [[runners]]
    name = "docker"
    url = "https://example.com/"
    token = "TOKEN"
    executor = "docker"

    # Copy and install CA certificate before each job
    pre_build_script = """
    apt-get update -y > /dev/null
    apt-get install -y ca-certificates > /dev/null

    cp /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/ca.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt
    update-ca-certificates --fresh > /dev/null
    """

      • On Alpine: 

          [[runners]]
    name = "docker"
    url = "https://example.com/"
    token = "TOKEN"
    executor = "docker"

    # Copy and install CA certificate before each job
    pre_build_script = """
    apk update >/dev/null
    apk add ca-certificates >/dev/null
    rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

    cp /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/ca.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ca.crt
    update-ca-certificates --fresh > /dev/null
    """

Trusting the certificate for the other CI/CD stages

Introduced in GitLab 13.3.

You can map a certificate file to /etc/gitlab-runner/certs/ca.crt on Linux, or C:\GitLab-Runner\certs\ca.crt on Windows. This user-defined ca.crt file is installed by the Runner helper image at startup, and used when performing operations like cloning and uploading artifacts, for example.

  • Linux: 

      [[runners]]
   name = "docker"
   url = "https://example.com/"
   token = "TOKEN"
   executor = "docker"

   [runners.docker]
     image = "ubuntu:latest"

     # Add path to your ca.crt file in the volumes list
     volumes = ["/cache", "/path/to-ca-cert-dir/ca.crt:/etc/gitlab-runner/certs/ca.crt:ro"]

  • Windows: 

      [[runners]]
   name = "docker"
   url = "https://example.com/"
   token = "TOKEN"
   executor = "docker"

   [runners.docker]
     image = "mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:1909"

     # Add directory holding your ca.crt file in the volumes list
     volumes = ["c:\\cache", "c:\\path\\to-ca-cert-dir:C:\\GitLab-Runner\\certs:ro"]