[GRLUG] SSL

Ben DeMott ben.demott at gmail.com
Mon Oct 6 01:01:51 EDT 2008


Hi Phillip,
You are in luck, I've had to do this a lot on Red Hat and Fedora Hosts ...
(enjoy)

SSL VirtualHosts will only work with Modern Browsers, (Basically everything
except IE6) - I can't speak for versions of Safari.
If you want 1 SSL site per host, amongst a bunch of VirtualHosts this is
easier to setup.
Either way you are about to embark on a very fun journey.

Are you generating the certificate authority yourself, or are you generating
a certificate request so you can get a legitimate certificate setup on the
site?

The Apache guides are sometimes a little less useful seeing as Fedora uses
it's 'own' version of Apache called httpd, so my notes should be fairly
useful ..........

You will need to alter this configuration a bit if you want to implement an
SSL Virtualhosts configuration.

Good Luck, I hope this is helpful.

If you need more help email me, otherwise let me know how it turns out.


================== BEGIN
===============================================================


-Update the Server (if it's not in production yet)
# yum update

-Install SSL Libraries:
# yum install mod_ssl openssl

----------------------------
Setup SSL:
# Follow directions: http://lunatography.com/?p=7
# If you want to understand the relationship between Fedora's custom HTTPD
and MOD-SSL services read this:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/ch-httpd-secure-server.html
(it's the same between RED HAT and FEDORA)

A Quick overview of creating a Certificate Authority, and a self - signed
certificate.
Issue the Command:
mkdir /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key
(this is the server certificate, replace server.key with any name you want
it doesn't matter - extension must be .key)
/usr/bin/openssl genrsa -des3 1024 > /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key

now issue the command:
chmod go-rwx /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key
(where server.key is the name of the file you just created)

now issue the command:
(this is the important part)
mkdir /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key
=and then=
openssl req -new -key /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key -x509 -days 365
-out /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt

-NOTE: (replace the name server.crt with whatever your domain name is you
are making this certificate for, domain.crt -or- portal.company.us.crt for
example)
You will be asked some questions, fill them out accurately - When you are
asked for Common Name
make sure you enter the name of your FQDN (portal.company.us) or (
www.mysite.com)
the server.crt (or whatever you named it) is the certificate that the user
will see and download when they visit your site.
This is a self signed certificate SO that means that a user wil receive
extra errors in their browser when getting your certificate - unless you
change IE before hand.

You need to modify your* httpd.conf* file to create a virtual ssl directory
with ssl directives.
Your virtual ssl host should look something like this:

NOTE: In order for NAMED virtual hosts to work properly, if you do not have
DNS configured on your LAN you must edit the server HOSTS file, so when it
looks up 'mydomain.com' it points to itself.

<VirtualHost portal.company.us:443>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www
ServerName portal.company.us
ServerAdmin webmaster at company.us
ErrorLog /var/log/error_log
TransferLog /var/log/access_log
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/portal.company.us.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/companyCA.key
# SSLCACertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl/ca-bundle.crt (the default test
certificate)

SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown
</VirtualHost>

If you want to allow users to visit your site through HTTP and then be
redirected to SSL There are two ways to accomplish this, the first is with a
redirect statement, the second is with mod_rewrite - I will discuss the
simple method - redirection.

Simply create an HTTP virtual host that looks like this:

<VirtualHost portal.company.us:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/portal
ServerName portal.company.us
ServerAdmin webmaster at company.us
Redirect permanent / https://portal.company.us
</VirtualHost>


=============================================================

So all together it should look like this:

<VirtualHost portal.company.us:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/portal
ServerName portal.company.us
ServerAdmin webmaster at company.us
Redirect permanent / https://portal.company.us/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost portal.company.us:443>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/portal
ServerName portal.company.us
ServerAdmin webmaster at company.us
ErrorLog /var/log/error_log
TransferLog /var/log/access_log
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/portal.company.us.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/companyCA.key
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown
#CustomLog /var/log/ssl_request_log \"%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x
\"%r\" %b"
</VirtualHost>

=============================================================

httpd.conf - Note!:
# Your Listen statement in your httpd.conf file should look like this
(obviously replace my ip with your servers)
# Note how there is NO listen statement for :443 - the ssl.conf file handles
this, so don't place any SSL listen statements here.

# Listen for Internet traffic on this ADDRESS:
Listen 172.20.1.131:80
# Listen for Loopback traffic on this ADDRESS:
Listen 127.0.0.1:80

ssl.conf -
Your ssl.conf file that is located at /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf  IS the
mod_ssl configuration file for apache.
It contains all of the global directives for ssl - you can define your
Certificates Key and Crt files in this file, or inline in your virtual host
with the directives shown above.

All of this information and how to configure SSL for apache on a Fedora /
Red Hat server is contained in the link I proivded:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/s1-secureserver-overview-certs.html
Note: Some of the commands are not IDENTICAL - but I have provided the
commands above that work on Fedora, so if you follow my directions along
with the information contained in the help document at the link above ,this
should all make sense to you.

If you wish to PURCHASE a certificate, you can do so by visiting:
http://www.instantssl.com/
As browsers are updated (IE7) more and more trusted CA's exist, so the price
of SSL Certificates from a Certificate Authority is much less than it was
even several years ago.

A Note about virtual hosts and HTTPS - Technically a virtual ssl host is not
supported by IE6 so do not assume that you will be able to host many
different SSL websites on a single server and have IE6 be able to 'view'
them all.

A few more Notes about SSL and PHP:
If you use the CURL library, by default CURL will not follow SSL
transactions if it can't verify the ssl keys, a curl request should look
like this to make sure it ALWAYS works (it is probably a bad idea to do this
if you work for the NSA, or another government organization that is
concerned with super security)
 $post = curl_init('index.php');
 curl_setopt ($post, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
 curl_setopt ($post, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "var=text");
 curl_setopt ($post, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);  // This is the
important option.
 curl_setopt ($post, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false); // and here too.
 curl_exec ($post);
 curl_close ($post);


============== END
====================================================================

Now here is an example ssl.conf file ..

============== BEGIN SSL.CONF
==========================================================


#
# This is the Apache server configuration file providing SSL support.
# It contains the configuration directives to instruct the server how to
# serve pages over an https connection. For detailing information about
these
# directives see <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html>
#
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do.  They're here only as hints or reminders.  If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.
#

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so

#
# When we also provide SSL we have to listen to the
# the HTTPS port in addition.
#
Listen 443

##
##  SSL Global Context
##
##  All SSL configuration in this context applies both to
##  the main server and all SSL-enabled virtual hosts.
##

#
#   Some MIME-types for downloading Certificates and CRLs
#
AddType application/x-x509-ca-cert .crt
AddType application/x-pkcs7-crl    .crl

#   Pass Phrase Dialog:
#   Configure the pass phrase gathering process.
#   The filtering dialog program (`builtin' is a internal
#   terminal dialog) has to provide the pass phrase on stdout.
SSLPassPhraseDialog  builtin

#   Inter-Process Session Cache:
#   Configure the SSL Session Cache: First the mechanism
#   to use and second the expiring timeout (in seconds).
#SSLSessionCache        dc:UNIX:/var/cache/mod_ssl/distcache
SSLSessionCache         shmcb:/var/cache/mod_ssl/scache(512000)
SSLSessionCacheTimeout  300

#   Semaphore:
#   Configure the path to the mutual exclusion semaphore the
#   SSL engine uses internally for inter-process synchronization.
SSLMutex default

#   Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG):
#   Configure one or more sources to seed the PRNG of the
#   SSL library. The seed data should be of good random quality.
#   WARNING! On some platforms /dev/random blocks if not enough entropy
#   is available. This means you then cannot use the /dev/random device
#   because it would lead to very long connection times (as long as
#   it requires to make more entropy available). But usually those
#   platforms additionally provide a /dev/urandom device which doesn't
#   block. So, if available, use this one instead. Read the mod_ssl User
#   Manual for more details.
SSLRandomSeed startup file:/dev/urandom  256
SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
#SSLRandomSeed startup file:/dev/random  512
#SSLRandomSeed connect file:/dev/random  512
#SSLRandomSeed connect file:/dev/urandom 512

#
# Use "SSLCryptoDevice" to enable any supported hardware
# accelerators. Use "openssl engine -v" to list supported
# engine names.  NOTE: If you enable an accelerator and the
# server does not start, consult the error logs and ensure
# your accelerator is functioning properly.
#
SSLCryptoDevice builtin
#SSLCryptoDevice ubsec

##
## SSL Virtual Host Context
##

<VirtualHost _default_:443>

# General setup for the virtual host, inherited from global configuration
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/portal"
ServerName portal.company.us:443

# Use separate log files for the SSL virtual host; note that LogLevel
# is not inherited from httpd.conf.
ErrorLog logs/ssl_error_log
TransferLog logs/ssl_access_log
LogLevel warn

#   SSL Engine Switch:
#   Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.
SSLEngine on

#   SSL Protocol support:
# List the enable protocol levels with which clients will be able to
# connect.  Disable SSLv2 access by default:
SSLProtocol all -SSLv2

#   SSL Cipher Suite:
# List the ciphers that the client is permitted to negotiate.
# See the mod_ssl documentation for a complete list.
SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW

#   Server Certificate:
# Point SSLCertificateFile at a PEM encoded certificate.  If
# the certificate is encrypted, then you will be prompted for a
# pass phrase.  Note that a kill -HUP will prompt again.  A new
# certificate can be generated using the genkey(1) command.
#SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt
SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/portal.company.us.crt

#   Server Private Key:
#   If the key is not combined with the certificate, use this
#   directive to point at the key file.  Keep in mind that if
#   you've both a RSA and a DSA private key you can configure
#   both in parallel (to also allow the use of DSA ciphers, etc.)
#SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key
# Note in this configuration I am keeping my ssl keys in a directory called
ssl.key
# This if for simplicity to locate and manage the key.
# You can keep your key wherever you want on your webserver.
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/companyCA.key

#   Server Certificate Chain:
#   Point SSLCertificateChainFile at a file containing the
#   concatenation of PEM encoded CA certificates which form the
#   certificate chain for the server certificate. Alternatively
#   the referenced file can be the same as SSLCertificateFile
#   when the CA certificates are directly appended to the server
#   certificate for convinience.
#SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server-chain.crt

#   Certificate Authority (CA):
#   Set the CA certificate verification path where to find CA
#   certificates for client authentication or alternatively one
#   huge file containing all of them (file must be PEM encoded)
#SSLCACertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

#   Client Authentication (Type):
#   Client certificate verification type and depth.  Types are
#   none, optional, require and optional_no_ca.  Depth is a
#   number which specifies how deeply to verify the certificate
#   issuer chain before deciding the certificate is not valid.
#SSLVerifyClient require
#SSLVerifyDepth  10

#   Access Control:
#   With SSLRequire you can do per-directory access control based
#   on arbitrary complex boolean expressions containing server
#   variable checks and other lookup directives.  The syntax is a
#   mixture between C and Perl.  See the mod_ssl documentation
#   for more details.
#<Location />
#SSLRequire (    %{SSL_CIPHER} !~ m/^(EXP|NULL)/ \
#            and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_O} eq "Snake Oil, Ltd." \
#            and %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_OU} in {"Staff", "CA", "Dev"} \
#            and %{TIME_WDAY} >= 1 and %{TIME_WDAY} <= 5 \
#            and %{TIME_HOUR} >= 8 and %{TIME_HOUR} <= 20       ) \
#           or %{REMOTE_ADDR} =~ m/^192\.76\.162\.[0-9]+$/
#</Location>

#   SSL Engine Options:
#   Set various options for the SSL engine.
#   o FakeBasicAuth:
#     Translate the client X.509 into a Basic Authorisation.  This means
that
#     the standard Auth/DBMAuth methods can be used for access control.  The
#     user name is the `one line' version of the client's X.509 certificate.
#     Note that no password is obtained from the user. Every entry in the
user
#     file needs this password: `xxj31ZMTZzkVA'.
#   o ExportCertData:
#     This exports two additional environment variables: SSL_CLIENT_CERT and
#     SSL_SERVER_CERT. These contain the PEM-encoded certificates of the
#     server (always existing) and the client (only existing when client
#     authentication is used). This can be used to import the certificates
#     into CGI scripts.
#   o StdEnvVars:
#     This exports the standard SSL/TLS related `SSL_*' environment
variables.
#     Per default this exportation is switched off for performance reasons,
#     because the extraction step is an expensive operation and is usually
#     useless for serving static content. So one usually enables the
#     exportation for CGI and SSI requests only.
#   o StrictRequire:
#     This denies access when "SSLRequireSSL" or "SSLRequire" applied even
#     under a "Satisfy any" situation, i.e. when it applies access is denied
#     and no other module can change it.
#   o OptRenegotiate:
#     This enables optimized SSL connection renegotiation handling when SSL
#     directives are used in per-directory context.
#SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData +StrictRequire
<Files ~ "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php3?)$">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Files>
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
</Directory>

#   SSL Protocol Adjustments:
#   The safe and default but still SSL/TLS standard compliant shutdown
#   approach is that mod_ssl sends the close notify alert but doesn't wait
for
#   the close notify alert from client. When you need a different shutdown
#   approach you can use one of the following variables:
#   o ssl-unclean-shutdown:
#     This forces an unclean shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. no
#     SSL close notify alert is send or allowed to received.  This violates
#     the SSL/TLS standard but is needed for some brain-dead browsers. Use
#     this when you receive I/O errors because of the standard approach
where
#     mod_ssl sends the close notify alert.
#   o ssl-accurate-shutdown:
#     This forces an accurate shutdown when the connection is closed, i.e. a
#     SSL close notify alert is send and mod_ssl waits for the close notify
#     alert of the client. This is 100% SSL/TLS standard compliant, but in
#     practice often causes hanging connections with brain-dead browsers.
Use
#     this only for browsers where you know that their SSL implementation
#     works correctly.
#   Notice: Most problems of broken clients are also related to the HTTP
#   keep-alive facility, so you usually additionally want to disable
#   keep-alive for those clients, too. Use variable "nokeepalive" for this.
#   Similarly, one has to force some clients to use HTTP/1.0 to workaround
#   their broken HTTP/1.1 implementation. Use variables "downgrade-1.0" and
#   "force-response-1.0" for this.
SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \
         nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
         downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

#   Per-Server Logging:
#   The home of a custom SSL log file. Use this when you want a
#   compact non-error SSL logfile on a virtual host basis.
CustomLog logs/ssl_request_log \
          "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

</VirtualHost>
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