Load Times Under 2s: SSL Certificate & Apache Configuration

Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

Next we need to create a self-signed SSL certificate. This is very useful for testing purposes but should not be used in a production environment. That said, this will be the similar process to what needs to be done for a production, verified SSL certificate. We will take care of those later on.

First step we need to install the SSL certificate generation utility. To do this, run:
yum install -y mod_ssl;

Now we need to create a directory for the SSL certificates to go. We also need to set the correct permissions to for this directory so that only the root user can access them. This is to help secure the certificates against any hacking.
mkdir /etc/ssl/private; chmod 700 /etc/ssl/private;

No we actually need to create the certificate. To do this we’re going to run the openssl command. There are set of parameters here that will define how the certificate should be created. The important ones are the “keyout” file name and the “out” file name. These will specify where the files should be sent to once created.
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/test-selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/test-selfsigned.crt

Now we’re going to create a diffie-hellman encryption. This allows for the public key to be securely transmitted over an open channel.
openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 2048

Afterward we need to append the Diffie Hellman encryption key to the self-signed certificate.
cat /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem | sudo tee -a /etc/ssl/certs/test-selfsigned.crt;

Configuring Apache

Now we need to make some configuration changes to the Apache configuration files. This will specify that we need to have Apache listen on ports 8080 and 8081 instead of 80 and 81, respectively. We also need to change the IP address of the server update the SSL configurations to match our new self-signed certificates. You’re going to want to run:
nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

… and make the following changes:
Change “Listen 80” to “Listen 8080”
Change “ServerName” to “ServerName [[Your IP Address]]:8080”
Change the “/var/www” section’s “AllowOverride None” to “AllowOverride All”
Change the “/var/www/html” section’s “AllowOverride None” to “AllowOverride All”

… in the end, your file should look something like:
# # This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file. It contains the # configuration directives that give the server its instructions. # See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/> for detailed information. # In particular, see # <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/directives.html> # for a discussion of each configuration directive. # # 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. # # Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many # of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the # server will use that explicit path. If the filenames do *not* begin # with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so 'log/access_log' # with ServerRoot set to '/www' will be interpreted by the # server as '/www/log/access_log', where as '/log/access_log' will be # interpreted as '/log/access_log'. # # ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's # configuration, error, and log files are kept. # # Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path. If you point # ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to specify a local disk on the # Mutex directive, if file-based mutexes are used. If you wish to share the # same ServerRoot for multiple httpd daemons, you will need to change at # least PidFile. # ServerRoot "/etc/httpd" # # Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or # ports, instead of the default. See also the <VirtualHost> # directive. # # Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to # prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses. # #Listen 12.34.56.78:80 Listen 8080 # # Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support # # To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you # have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the # directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used. # Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l') do not need # to be loaded here. # # Example: # LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so # Include conf.modules.d/*.conf # # If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run # httpd as root initially and it will switch. # # User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as. # It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for # running httpd, as with most system services. # User apache Group apache # 'Main' server configuration # # The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main' # server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a # <VirtualHost> definition. These values also provide defaults for # any <VirtualHost> containers you may define later in the file. # # All of these directives may appear inside <VirtualHost> containers, # in which case these default settings will be overridden for the # virtual host being defined. # # # ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be # e-mailed. This address appears on some server-generated pages, such # as error documents. e.g. admin@your-domain.com # ServerAdmin root@localhost # # ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself. # This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify # it explicitly to prevent problems during startup. # # If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here. # ServerName [[Your IP Address]]:8080 # # Deny access to the entirety of your server's filesystem. You must # explicitly permit access to web content directories in other # <Directory> blocks below. # <Directory /> AllowOverride none Require all denied </Directory> # # Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow # particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as # you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it # below. # # # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations. # DocumentRoot "/var/www/html" # # Relax access to content within /var/www. # <Directory "/var/www"> AllowOverride All #Allow open access: Require all granted </Directory> # Further relax access to the default document root: <Directory "/var/www/html"> # # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All", # or any combination of: # Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews # # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All" # doesn't give it to you. # # The Options directive is both complicated and important. Please see # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options # for more information. # Options Indexes FollowSymLinks # # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files. # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords: # Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit # AllowOverride All # # Controls who can get stuff from this server. # Require all granted </Directory> # # DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory # is requested. # <IfModule dir_module> DirectoryIndex index.html </IfModule> # # The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being # viewed by Web clients. # <Files ".ht*"> Require all denied </Files> # # ErrorLog: The location of the error log file. # If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost> # container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be # logged here. If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost> # container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here. # ErrorLog "logs/error_log" # # LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log. # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. # LogLevel error <IfModule log_config_module> # # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with # a CustomLog directive (see below). # LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common <IfModule logio_module> # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio </IfModule> # # The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format). # If you do not define any access logfiles within a <VirtualHost> # container, they will be logged here. Contrariwise, if you *do* # define per-<VirtualHost> access logfiles, transactions will be # logged therein and *not* in this file. # #CustomLog "logs/access_log" common # # If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information # (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive. # CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined </IfModule> <IfModule alias_module> # # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client # will make a new request for the document at its new location. # Example: # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar # # Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to # access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot. # Example: # Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path # # If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will # require it to be present in the URL. You will also likely # need to provide a <Directory> section to allow access to # the filesystem path. # # ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts. # ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that # documents in the target directory are treated as applications and # run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the # client. The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias # directives as to Alias. # ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/" </IfModule> # # "/var/www/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased # CGI directory exists, if you have that configured. # <Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options None Require all granted </Directory> <IfModule mime_module> # # TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from # filename extension to MIME-type. # TypesConfig /etc/mime.types # # AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration # file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types. # #AddType application/x-gzip .tgz # # AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress # information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this. # #AddEncoding x-compress .Z #AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz # # If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you # probably should define those extensions to indicate media types: # AddType application/x-compress .Z AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz # # AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers": # actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server # or added with the Action directive (see below) # # To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories: # (You will also need to add "ExecCGI" to the "Options" directive.) # #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi # For type maps (negotiated resources): #AddHandler type-map var # # Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client. # # To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI): # (You will also need to add "Includes" to the "Options" directive.) # AddType text/html .shtml AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml </IfModule> # # Specify a default charset for all content served; this enables # interpretation of all content as UTF-8 by default. To use the # default browser choice (ISO-8859-1), or to allow the META tags # in HTML content to override this choice, comment out this # directive: # AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 <IfModule mime_magic_module> # # The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the # contents of the file itself to determine its type. The MIMEMagicFile # directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located. # MIMEMagicFile conf/magic </IfModule> # # Customizable error responses come in three flavors: # 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects # # Some examples: #ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo." #ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html #ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl" #ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html # # # EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it, # memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall may be used to deliver # files. This usually improves server performance, but must # be turned off when serving from networked-mounted # filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise # broken on your system. # Defaults if commented: EnableMMAP On, EnableSendfile Off # #EnableMMAP off EnableSendfile on # Supplemental configuration # # Load config files in the "/etc/httpd/conf.d" directory, if any. IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf

In ssl.conf…
nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

… you need to make the following modifications:
Set: Listen 8081 https
Change: to
Set: DocumentRoot “/var/www/html”
Set: ServerName [[Your IP Address]]
Comment out ‘SSLProtocol’ and ‘SSLCipherSuite’
Change: SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/test-selfsigned.crt
Change: SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/test-selfsigned.key

… and add the following to the end of the file:
SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 SSLHonorCipherOrder On

… in the end, your file should look something like:
# # When we also provide SSL we have to listen to the # the HTTPS port in addition. # Listen 8081 https ## ## SSL Global Context ## ## All SSL configuration in this context applies both to ## the main server and all SSL-enabled virtual hosts. ## # 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 exec:/usr/libexec/httpd-ssl-pass-dialog # Inter-Process Session Cache: # Configure the SSL Session Cache: First the mechanism # to use and second the expiring timeout (in seconds). SSLSessionCache shmcb:/run/httpd/sslcache(512000) SSLSessionCacheTimeout 300 # 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 *:8081> # General setup for the virtual host, inherited from global configuration DocumentRoot /var/www/html ServerName [[Your IP Address]] # 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 HIGH:MEDIUM:!aNULL:!MD5:!SEED:!IDEA # Speed-optimized SSL Cipher configuration: # If speed is your main concern (on busy HTTPS servers e.g.), # you might want to force clients to specific, performance # optimized ciphers. In this case, prepend those ciphers # to the SSLCipherSuite list, and enable SSLHonorCipherOrder. # Caveat: by giving precedence to RC4-SHA and AES128-SHA # (as in the example below), most connections will no longer # have perfect forward secrecy - if the server's key is # compromised, captures of past or future traffic must be # considered compromised, too. #SSLCipherSuite RC4-SHA:AES128-SHA:HIGH:MEDIUM:!aNULL:!MD5 #SSLHonorCipherOrder on # 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/ssl/certs/test-selfsigned.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/ssl/private/test-selfsigned.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. #BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-5]" \ # 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> # Begin copied text # from https://cipherli.st/ # and https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Strong_SSL_Security_On_Apache2.html SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 SSLHonorCipherOrder On

Once these files have been updated, restart apache.
systemctl restart httpd;

If you have SELinux, you’ll need to enable ports 8080 and 8081, as well as open ports 80 and 443 on the firewall. To do this, run:

Now, restart Apache. If there aren’t any error messages, this should indicate that everything is loading properly.
systemctl restart httpd;

Now at this point, if you go to http://[[Your IP Address]]:8080 you should see the default Apache notification page and if you go to your http://[[Your IP Address]]:8080/phpmyadmin you should see the phpmyadmin page. You should be able to log in to. Now if you go to https://[[Your IP Address]]:8081 you should see an SSL warning. This is fine it’s just indicating that it cannot independently verify your SSL certificate. Allow your browser to continue past this error message and you should see the default Apache page.

If you run into connection issues, you may have to temporarily flush your iptables (they should be back when you restart your server):
iptables --flush

Automatic Installation?

If you like the result of the tutorial, but run into problems or would just like to have the work done automatically, we can help you with that. We have an automated script that can SSH into your server and run this tutorial from beginning to end (as long as it’s running CentOS 7). If you would like this done for you ($100), please contact us using the form below.