[Koha] Enabling SSL for Koha staff view

Randall Rowe r.rowe at lincolnlibraries.org
Fri May 13 23:40:22 NZST 2011 

Direct from Apache.org SSL FAQ

Why is it not possible to use Name-Based Virtual Hosting to identify different SSL virtual hosts? 

Name-Based Virtual Hosting is a very popular method of identifying different virtual hosts. It allows you to use the same IP address and the same port number for many different sites. When people move on to SSL, it seems natural to assume that the same method can be used to have lots of different SSL virtual hosts on the same server. 

It comes as rather a shock to learn that it is impossible. 

The reason is that the SSL protocol is a separate layer which encapsulates the HTTP protocol. So the SSL session is a separate transaction, that takes place before the HTTP session has begun. The server receives an SSL request on IP address X and port Y (usually 443). Since the SSL request does not contain any Host: field, the server has no way to decide which SSL virtual host to use. Usually, it will just use the first one it finds, which matches the port and IP address specified. 

You can, of course, use Name-Based Virtual Hosting to identify many non-SSL virtual hosts (all on port 80, for example) and then have a single SSL virtual host (on port 443). But if you do this, you must make sure to put the non-SSL port number on the NameVirtualHost directive, e.g. 

 NameVirtualHost 192.168.1.1:80   

Other workaround solutions include:  

Using separate IP addresses for different SSL hosts. Using different port numbers for different SSL hosts. 

Randy Rowe
 Lincoln City Libraries I.T.

 -----Original Message-----
 From: "Martin Renvoize" <martin.renvoize at ptfs-europe.com>
 Sent 5/13/2011 3:33:09 AM
 To: "Mizst Audens" <mizstik at gmail.com>
 Cc: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
 Subject: Re: [Koha] Enabling SSL for Koha staff view

 You could however,  

Use Name based Virtualhosts (like kohaapoc.yourlibrary.com and kohastaff.yourlibrary.com) and run both on port 443 for secure.  To do this you'll either need two certificates (one for each domain) or a SAN shared certificate with both domain names in it. 

An example http.conf might look like (assuming the two certificate approach); 

## OPAC Default Access 

<VirtualHost 127.0.1.1:80> 

   DocumentRoot /home/koha/kohaclone/koha-tmpl 

   ServerName kohalibrary.halton.gov.uk  

   . . .  

</VirtualHost> 

## OPAC Secure 

<VirtualHost 127.0.1.1:443> 

   DocumentRoot /home/koha/kohaclone/koha-tmpl 

   ServerName kohalibrary.halton.gov.uk  

   . . . 

# SSL Setup 

# CA Root and Intermediate Certificates 

   SSLEngine On 

   SSLCACertificatePath /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/ 

   SSLCACertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/gs_combined_ca.crt 

   SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/kohalibrary.crt 

   SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/kohalibrary.key 

</VirtualHost>  

## Intranet Secure 

<VirtualHost 109.75.173.120:443> 

   DocumentRoot /home/koha/kohaclone/koha-tmpl 

   ServerName kohastaff.halton.gov.uk  

   . . .  

# SSL Setup 

# CA Root and Intermediate Certificates 

   SSLEngine On 

   SSLCACertificatePath /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/ 

   SSLCACertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/gs_combined_ca.crt 

   SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/kohastaff.crt 

   SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/certs/kohastaff.key 

</VirtualHost>  

2011/5/8 Mizst Audens <mizstik at gmail.com>

No, it's not possible due to the limitation of the architecture. A port can serve only http or https but not both at the same time. 

The transparency of http/https in normal websites is due to the standardization of port 80 and 443. (port 80 runs http, and port 443 runs https, so each port only runs one type of connection) When you don't use these standard ports, you will need to specify the correct combination of protocol and port in order to reach a service. 

--Mizst  

On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Altaf Mahmud <altaf.mahmud at gmail.com> wrote:
  Is it possible to use port 8080 for both purposes (HTTP and HTTPS)? Actually, I just wanted to secure port 8080, can I do that?

 Thanks a lot! 

On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Mizst Audens <mizstik at gmail.com> wrote:
 You must create another virtual host at another port (for example, 8081) for the staff area and enable SSL for that virtual host, and it will require another SSL certificate. Your staff will need to use (example) https://127.0.1.1:8081 if they want to use SSL, and http://127.0.1.1:8080 if they don't want to use SSL. 

Note that https://127.0.1.1 is in fact an alias for https://127.0.1.1:443. You already used 443 for the OPAC, so you'll need another port for the staff.

--Mizst

2011/5/7 Altaf Mahmud <altaf.mahmud at gmail.com>

 Hello,

 I'm trying to implement SSL in my Koha server running on Debian 6.0 (squeeze). I've implemented it for my OPAC view, I've created another file 'koha-ssl' in ../apache2/sites-available/ directory and enabled it. I've edited ../apache2/sites-available/koha like following:

 NameVirtualHost *:80
 <VirtualHost 127.0.1.1:80>

     .....
     .....

 </VirtualHost>

 And ../apache2/sites-available/koha-ssl like following:

 NameVirtualHost *:443
 <VirtualHost 127.0.1.1:443>
     .....

    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile    /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

     .....
 </VirtualHost>

 Now https://127.0.1.1/ is showing the OPAC. But I can't figure it out how to implement it for staff-view <VirtualHost 127.0.1.1:8080> 
 Request for port 80 is redirecting to port 443, how can I do that for port 8080? In fact, I don't have any prior idea on doing this; a descriptive suggestion is appropriate for me.

 Thanks.

 -- 
 Altaf Mahmud
 System Programmer
 Ayesha Abed Library
 BRAC University
 Bangladesh.

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 Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
 Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
 http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

 -- 
 Altaf Mahmud
 System Programmer
 Ayesha Abed Library
 BRAC University
 Bangladesh.

 _______________________________________________
 Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org
 Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
 http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

 -- 

Martin Renvoize 

Software Developer, PTFS Europe Ltd 

Content Management and Library Solutions 

martin.renvoize at ptfs-europe.com 

skype: Martin Renvoize 

http://www.ptfs-europe.com 

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