[ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The \"data\" argument must be of type string or an instance of Buffer, TypedArray, or DataView

[nick-bull]

Getting the following errors:

{"level":50,"time":1595942893309,"pid":16805,"hostname":"ip-xxx-xx-xxx-xx","name":"redbird","code":"ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE","msg":"Error registering LetsEncrypt certificates","stack":"TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The \"data\" argument must be of type string or an instance of Buffer, TypedArray, or DataView. Received undefined\n    at writeFile (fs.js:1385:5)\n    at internal/util.js:297:30\n    at new Promise (<anonymous>)\n    at writeFile (internal/util.js:296:12)\n    at Object.stageAsync (/home/ubuntu/proxy/node_modules/safe-replace/index.js:65:14)\n    at Object.writeFileAsync (/home/ubuntu/proxy/node_modules/safe-replace/index.js:57:18)\n    at /home/ubuntu/proxy/node_modules/le-store-certbot/index.js:288:19","type":"Error","v":1}
{"level":30,"time":1595942893309,"pid":16805,"hostname":"ip-xxx-xx-xxx-xx","name":"redbird","msg":"Could not get any certs for api.someurl.com","v":1}

from the following configuration:

const redbird = require('redbird');
const proxy = redbird({
  port: 80,
  letsencrypt: {
    path: __dirname + '/certs',
    port: 9999
  },
  ssl: {
    http2: true,
    port: 443,
  },
});

proxy.register('api.someurl.com', 'http://localhost:3002', {
  ssl: {
    letsencrypt: {
      email: 'xxxxxx@xxxxx.com',
      production: true,
    }
  }
});

What is the data argument? Why is it undefined? Am I meant to create the certificates manually? The certs directory exists, and looks as I'd expect for ACME.

---

node: v14.5.0
npm: 6.14.5
package.json:

{
  "name": "proxy",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.17.1",
    "redbird": "^0.10.0"
  }
}

Tested with node 10.22.0, 12.18.3, and latest. No success

[Dotrar]

I had this same issue and did some digging

turns out the error is on line 288 of le-store-certbot.

If I comment out the following lines:

/*   ............ around line 288 ................. */
var privkeyArchive = path.join(archiveDir, 'privkey' + checkpoints + '.pem'); 
//var bundleArchive = path.join(archiveDir, 'bundle' + checkpoints + '.pem'); //no longer used

return mkdirpAsync(archiveDir).then(function () { 
 return PromiseA.all([ 
   sfs.writeFileAsync(certArchive, pems.cert, 'ascii') 
 , sfs.writeFileAsync(chainArchive, pems.chain, 'ascii') 
 , sfs.writeFileAsync(fullchainArchive, [ pems.cert, pems.chain ].join('\n'), 'ascii') 
 , sfs.writeFileAsync(privkeyArchive, pems.privkey, 'ascii') 
//, sfs.writeFileAsync(bundleArchive, pems.bundle, 'ascii') // <-- comment this line
 ]); 
}).then(function () { 
 return mkdirpAsync(liveDir); 
}).then(function () { 

it works as expected.

furthermore I saw that this certbot store is deprecated, but le-store-fs is a drop in replacement.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/le-store-certbot

I would imagine it's just a case that le-store-certbot hasn't been touched in years, and the world of https has changed, and bundles are now a null response, which trips up the certbot-store.

I haven't checked if changing redbird over to le-store-fs will fix the issue, so if you want to check it and put in a pull request I'll let you have the claim to fame

for reference, redbird now registers https for me and is working as expected :)

[vastamaki]

I faced the exactly same issue, thanks a lot @Dotrar for the fix 🙏 However, I believe that this issue should be fixed...

[wrongbad]

Just hit this issue as well. Looks like there's an old MR here: #280 needs some minor updates. Though it looks like redbird has been semi inactive for a while

[manast]

@wrongbad as there has been a lot of code changes since this issue was posted, do you mind to create a new issue with code that reproduces it?

[manast]

@wrongbad for the record, I use redbird in a quite important project for me so I do want to keep it updated.

[wrongbad]

Repro is a bit tricky, since it only happens when LE decides it's time to update one of your certs. I guess I could try wiping my cert cache and doing fresh npm installs to see if the issue exists in latest versions, but I'm not sure when I'll have time for that.

For more context my cert refreshes started failing out of the blue a few weeks ago (haven't changed proxy code in years). Maybe something about LE API changed that causes pems.bundle to come back null.

[manast]

@wrongbad ok, so then you are in an older version of Redbird. On the new one, among other fixes we have upgraded its dependencies. But make sure to test it thoroughly before upgrading prod, as there are a lot of changes.