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Setting Up An SSL Server With Apache2

1. To set up an SSL server with Apache2, generate or import an SSL certificate. 2. Enable the mod_ssl Apache module and configure Apache to listen on port 443 for SSL connections. 3. Modify virtual hosts to enable SSL and specify the SSL certificate file location.

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122 views

Setting Up An SSL Server With Apache2

1. To set up an SSL server with Apache2, generate or import an SSL certificate. 2. Enable the mod_ssl Apache module and configure Apache to listen on port 443 for SSL connections. 3. Modify virtual hosts to enable SSL and specify the SSL certificate file location.

Uploaded by

mathyie
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Setting up an SSL server with Apache2

Ref:https://debian-administration.org/article/349/Setting_up_an_SSL_server_with_Apache2

With the introduction of the Apache2 packages in Debian it is much simpler to create and use a
secure SSL protected webserver than in the old days ​with Apache 1.3​, here we'll show how it is done.

If you have Apache 2.x installed already then you're good to go as you don't need anything extra
installed.

If you haven't got it installed then you can do so easily:

earth:~# apt-get install apache2


Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
apache2-common apache2-mpm-worker apache2-utils openssl ssl-cert
Suggested packages:
apache2-doc ca-certificates
The following NEW packages will be installed:
apache2 apache2-common apache2-mpm-worker apache2-utils openssl ssl-cert
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2040kB of archives.
After unpacking 6218kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Once the server is installed you need to do three things to get a working SSL setup:

1. Generate, or import, a certificate.


2. Enable Apaches SSL support.
3. Configure your SSL options.

Generating A Certificate

Generating a certificate from scratch will give you something which will be used to protect the traffic
exchanged between clients and your server, however it will be signed by a untrusted certificate
authority so it will generate warnings.

Importing a paid and "trusted" certificate will avoid this problem, but that is beyond the scope of this
simple introduction.

Generating an SSL certificate for Apache2 may be accomplished using the apache2-ssl-certificate
script. This will ask you questions interactively then generate the certificate file appropriately.
Here's a sample session:

earth:~# apache2-ssl-certificate

creating selfsigned certificate


replace it with one signed by a certification authority (CA)

enter your ServerName at the Common Name prompt

If you want your certificate to expire after x days call this programm
with -days x
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
............++++++
..........................++++++
writing new private key to '/etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Scotland
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Edinburgh
Organization Name (eg, company; recommended) []:Steve Kemp
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
server name (eg. ssl.domain.tld; required!!!) []:earth
Email Address []: [email protected]
Enabling SSL Support

To use the SSL facilities of Apache2 you must enable the module mod_ssl, this can be achieved using
the helper tool a2enmod (We've previously ​discussed the Apache2 helper scripts​.)

As root run:

earth:~# a2enmod ssl


Module ssl installed; run /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload to enable.

Once this is done you'll have Apache setup to accept SSL connections, but the server will still only be
listening for incoming HTTP requests on port 80 - and not SSL connections on port 443. To fix this
you must add a line to the file /etc/apache2/ports.conf:

Listen 443

With these two steps out of the way you now have an Apache setup which will listen for and accept
SSL connections. The next step is to modify your virtualhosts to use it.

Configuring your SSL Hosts

With a certificate setup, and the server updated to load and listen for incoming SSL connections
you're almost finished. The final step is to ensure that your virtual hosts, or main host, will accept
SSL options.

I use virtual hosts upon my machine and this just means adding a couple of options to each one I
wish to use SSL:

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem

For reference here is a complete example which should be easy to modify/understand:

NameVirtualHost *:443
NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName earth.my.flat
DocumentRoot /var/www/
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName earth.my.flat

DocumentRoot /var/www/
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
</VirtualHost>

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