Cloudflare

To use Cloudflare, you may use one of two types of tokens. API Tokens allow application-scoped keys bound to specific zones and permissions, while API Keys are globally-scoped keys that carry the same permissions as your account.

API Tokens are recommended for higher security, since they have more restrictive permissions and are more easily revocable.

API Tokens

Tokens can be created at User Profile > API Tokens > API Tokens. The following settings are recommended:

Permissions:
- Zone - DNS - Edit
- Zone - Zone - Read
Zone Resources:
- Include - All Zones

To create a new Issuer, first make a Kubernetes secret containing your new API token:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: cloudflare-api-token-secret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  api-token: <API Token>

Then in your Issuer manifest:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: Issuer
metadata:
  name: example-issuer
spec:
  acme:
    ...
    solvers:
    - dns01:
        cloudflare:
          email: my-cloudflare-acc@example.com
          apiTokenSecretRef:
            name: cloudflare-api-token-secret
            key: api-token

API Keys

API keys can be retrieved at User Profile > API Tokens > API Keys > Global API Key > View.

To create a new Issuer, first make a Kubernetes secret containing your API key:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: cloudflare-api-key-secret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  api-key: <API Key>

Then in your Issuer manifest:

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: Issuer
metadata:
  name: example-issuer
spec:
  acme:
    ...
    solvers:
    - dns01:
        cloudflare:
          email: my-cloudflare-acc@example.com
          apiKeySecretRef:
            name: cloudflare-api-key-secret
            key: api-key

Troubleshooting

Actor `com.cloudflare.api.token.xxxx` requires permission `com.cloudflare.api.account.zone.list` to list zones

If you get the error that your token does not have the correct permission to list zones there can be 2 causes.

The token lacks the Zone - Zone - Read permission
cert-manager identified the wrong zone name for the domain due to DNS issues.

In the case of the 2nd issue you will see an error like below:

Events:
  Type     Reason        Age              From          Message
  ----     ------        ----             ----          -------
  Normal   Started       6s               cert-manager  Challenge scheduled for processing
  Warning  PresentError  3s (x2 over 3s)  cert-manager  Error presenting challenge: Cloudflare API Error for GET "/zones?name=<TLD>" 
            Error: 0: Actor 'com.cloudflare.api.token.xxxx' requires permission 'com.cloudflare.api.account.zone.list' to list zones

In this case we recommend changing your DNS01 self-check nameservers.

`Cloudflare API error for POST "/zones/<id>/dns_records` generic error

You might be hitting this as Cloudflare blocks the use of the API to update DNS records for the following TLDs: .cf, .ga, .gq, .ml and .tk. This is discussed in the Cloudflare Community. We recommend using an alternative DNS provider when using these TLDs.