Obtain a wildcard certificate (e.g. *.example.com) via the DNS-01 challenge using a Certbot DNS plugin, using certbot-dns-cloudflare as the worked example (other providers have their own dns-* plugins).
domain: certbot-dns-cloudflare.readthedocs.io · 8 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
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Documented steps
DNS-01 is required for wildcards: per Let's Encrypt's docs, http-01 'cannot be used to issue wildcard certificates' while dns-01 'allows you to issue wildcard certificates'.
Install the DNS plugin separately — it is not bundled with a default Certbot install; pick 'Wildcard' on https://certbot.eff.org for your system to get install instructions (available via OS package managers, Docker images, and snaps). For Cloudflare specifically the plugin is certbot-dns-cloudflare.
Create a Cloudflare API Token (recommended over the legacy Global API Key) scoped to Zone:DNS:Edit for the zone(s) you need, and save it to a credentials file, e.g. ~/.secrets/certbot/cloudflare.ini containing: dns_cloudflare_api_token = <token>
Restrict the credentials file permissions: chmod 600 ~/.secrets/certbot/cloudflare.ini (Certbot warns 'Unsafe permissions on credentials configuration file' if it's readable by others).
If your DNS provider is slow to propagate TXT record updates, increase the wait with: --dns-cloudflare-propagation-seconds 60 (plugin default is 10 seconds).
For other DNS providers, swap in the matching plugin (dns-route53, dns-google, dns-digitalocean, dns-ovh, dns-rfc2136, etc.) — each has its own --dns-<provider>-credentials style flags documented on its own plugin page.
Official docs: https://eff-certbot.readthedocs.io/en/stable/using.html, https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/, https://certbot-dns-cloudflare.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
Known gotchas
Wildcard certs are ONLY obtainable via DNS-01 — Let's Encrypt's challenge-types docs explicitly state HTTP-01 cannot issue wildcard certificates and TLS-ALPN-01 also cannot validate wildcard domains.
Certbot's DNS plugins (including dns-cloudflare) are not installed by default and must be added separately per https://certbot.eff.org.
Storing full DNS API credentials on a web server is risky per Let's Encrypt's own guidance — prefer narrowly-scoped API tokens (e.g. Cloudflare's Zone:DNS:Edit token) over full account keys, or run DNS validation from a separate host.
DNS propagation delay can cause validation failures if it's shorter than your provider's actual propagation time; the cloudflare plugin's default wait is only 10 seconds and may need to be raised.
Using the Cloudflare Token auth method requires at least version 2.3.1 of the underlying 'cloudflare' Python module; older auto-installed versions may force falling back to the (not recommended) Global API Key.
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