Re: Virtual Hosts and SSL Puzzler (Apache Users)

Sorry, brevity is not my strong point.

Because I do not know what your certs look like as far as what domain(s) are considered CNs I'm going to guess it has something to do with the following...

SSL wraps http and you need a cert to decrypt the data sent via SSL. If you have 3 virtual hosts and you are using Name Based Virtual Hosting how does the Apache web server know which cert to use to decrypt and read the header so it can properly route the data. The short answer per my understanding is that Apache has no clue and uses the default vhost's cert (the first one in the confi file) to read the SSL. If these were all the same domain such as tuna.foo.com, seabass.foo.com and marlin.foo.com you could get away with using the same *.foo.com wildcard cert. Here is a good doc with these work arounds: https://www.switch.ch/pki/meetings/2007-01/namebased_ssl_virtualhosts.pdf

I'm guessing your problem is somewhere in this domain. I believe that Name Based Virtual Hosting is not the answer for you. Try IP Based: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/ip-based.html

or use a wildcard cert... Here is a warning about your config and a better explanation I presume:

http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/NameBasedSSLVHosts

I just ran into this. Silly me for not realizing that a Web Server that routes bases on headers would need to read the encrypted header to route it. Chicken-Egg problem.

Chris --V

>>> Dennis Putnam <dap1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 10/22/2013 8:26 AM >>>
I have 3 virtual hosts that for all I can see are configured identically
other the the obviously needed differences. The same is true of the 3
crt files.

<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerName public.mydomain.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/SSL/public.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/postfix/SSL/server.key
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerName distrib.mydomain.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/distrib
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/SSL/distrib.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/postfix/SSL/server.key
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerName mail.mydomain.com
        DocumentRoot /usr/local/squirrelmail/www
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/SSL/mail.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/postfix/SSL/server.key
</VirtualHost>

The problem is that 2 of them work perfectly and the lock shows up in
the browser. With the third (public), I get a gray globe indicating
partial encryption which does not prevent eavesdropping. I have no clue
how to debug this or even where to look. Can someone point me in the
right direction? Thanks.

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