XAMPP: SSL Encrypt the Transmission of Passwords with https

This article is part of a series of articles about making XAMPP more secure. See the overview page for all the security measures.

If you don’t have encryption enabled on a password protected folder, the password will be sent in cleartext - meaning that it can be seen by anyone using a network sniffer. It is a good idea to encrypt the transmission of these passwords. There are 2 steps to this process, first we need to create SSL certificates, and then we need to make sure that the password protected pages are only accessed with encryption. It’s also a good idea to import your certificates into any browsers on all machines that you plan to use to access your server, otherwise you’ll get a warning about an untrusted certificate authority.

Create SSL Certificate and Server Private Key

In order to enable the encryption of your password, you must create an SSL certificiate (containing your public key) and a server private key. XAMPP provides a default certificate/key that can be used, but it is better to create a new one since the default key is available to anyone who downloads XAMPP. If someone knows your key, they can decrypt your packets.

XAMPP provides a batch file for creating a new certificate/key with random encryption keys. To execute this batch file, do the following:

1. Open a command window (Start->Run, type “cmd” and press “OK)
2. cd c:\xampp\apache
3. makecert

 

You will then see this:

 

C:\xampp\apache>newcert

loading screen into random state - done

generating data 1024 bit RSA private key

................................................+++++++++

....................................................................++++++++

writing new private key to privkey.pem

enter PEM pass phrase:

 

Enter in a pass phrase for encrypting your private server key, and press enter. write down this passphrase so you don't forget it. now you will be asked to verify it:

 

verifying - enter PDM pass phrase:

 

enter your passphrase a second time and hit enter. Now, you'll see this:

 

------

you are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated

into your certificate request.

What you're about to enter is what is called a Distinguished name or as DN.

for some fields there will be a default value,

if you enter '.', The field will be left blank.

------

Country Name  (2 letter code)  [AU]

 

enter in your 2 letter country code. You'll be asked for a few more items (shown below). enter is what you think is most appropriate, . When you are asked for "Common Name"

 

State or Province Name (full name)  [Some-State] :NY

Locality Name (eg, city) []: New York

Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgets Pty Ltd] : Rob's Great Company

Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:

Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:

 

For "Common Name", you need to enter in the DNS name or IP address of your website. The name that you enter in here will need to match the server name that is entered into the browser that is accessing the page. It is important that this common name match the address that goes into a browser, otherwise you will get extra warnings when navigating to your secure webpages. If you are running this website over the public Internet on a IP address that changes sometimes, you can use I then now make DNS service such as dyndns.org to get a free domain name that always points to your server. After you enter into "Common Name", you are asked for more information. Fill in what you think is appropriate, but it is okay to just hit enter to accept the defaults. Eventually, you will be asked for a pass phrase for privkey.pem:

 

E-mail Address []:

 

Please enter to following 'extra' attributes

to be sent with your certificate request

A challenge password []:

An optional company name []:

Enter pass phrase for privkey.pem:

 

Enter the pass phrase that you created earlier, and now you will see this:

 

writing RSA  key

loading 'screen' into random state - done 

signature ok

subject=/C=xx/ST=xx/L=XXXX/O=xxx/CN=commonname

Getting Private key

 

You are now finished creating your SSL certificate and private key. The makecert.bat script will move your server private key and certificate in their appropriate directories for you.

 

Import the certificate into the browser for each client

 

since this certificate is self signed, and is not sign by a well-known certificate authority (CA), when you browse to the protected pages you'll get a warning. To turn off this warning, this certificate should be imported as a trusted CA into any browsers that you willuse to access your server.

 

Importing the certificate into IE 7

 

Here are dispatched to import the certificate into IE 7:

 

Tools->Internet Options

Content Tab->Certificates button

Trusted Root Certification Authorities Tab-> Import Button

 

now you see the "Certificate Import Wizard"

Click Next

Leave the default to Place all certificates in certificate store: Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and click next

click finish

 

Importing the certificate into Firefox 2 and above:

 

here are the steps to import the certificate into Firefox two and above:

 

Tools-> Options

Advanced->Encryption Tab-> View certificates button

Authorities Tab-> Import button

Select file: C:\xampp\Apache\conf\ssl.crt\server.crt, and click "Open"

Check "Trust this CA to identify web sites"

click "ok"

click "ok" in certificate manager

click "ok" in original Options window to get back into Firefox

 

 Edit Apache config for encryption only access to password-protected folders

 

now we will instruct Apache to access the password-protected folders with SSL encryption exclusively. This is done in two steps. First, we set up the Apache config files for these folders to say they can only be accessed with SSL decryption. Next, we redirect any HTTP traffic to these pages to HTTPS (this is optional).

 

Make folders accessible with SSL encryption only

 

first, we need to inform Apache that the folders you want to encrypt should always use encryption ( and never go into the clear). This is accomplished by putting an SSLrequireSSL draft of inside of each desired <directory> listing in the config files ( it is okay to put it at the end, just before the </directory>). The red text below shows what to do.

 

Alias /Web folder name "C:/xampp/folder name"

<directory "C:/xampp/foldername">

 

       ....

       ....

       SSLrequireSSL

      </directory>

 

I suggest doing this for the following folders (if you still have them):

• Config File: c:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf
  •           -c:\xampp\phpmyadmin
  •           -c:\xampp\htdocs\xampp
  •           -c:\xampp\webalizer
  •           -c:\xampp\security\htdocs
• Config File: c:\xampp\webdav
  •           -c:\xampp\webdav

Redirect “http” to “https” for certain folders

 

This next optional step is to redirect “http” requests to “https” requests for the pages we want to secure. This is more user friendly and allows you to still use http when you type in the address (and automatically switch to https:// and encryption). If you don’t do this, and you used SSLRequireSSL, you will only be able to access these pages by typing https://. This is fine and probably a little bit more secure, but is not so user friendly. To accomplish the redirection, we will use mod_rewrite so that we don’t have to use the server name in this part of the config file. This helps keep small the number of places in the config files where the server name is written (making your config files more maintainable).

First, we need to make sure that mod_rewrite is enabled. To do this, edit c:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf and get rid of the comment (# character) in this line:

 

 #Loadmodule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

 

to make it look like this:

 

Loadmodule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

 

Now, paste the following text into the top of C:\xampp\Apache\conf\extra\httpd.conf:

 

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

   RewriteEngine On

 

   #  Redirect  /xampp folder to https

   RewriteCond  %{HTTPS}  !=On

   RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI} xampp

   RewriteRule  ^(.*) https://%(SERVER_NAME)$1 [R,L]

 

   # Redirect  /phpMYAdmin folder to https

   RewriteCond  %{HTTPS}  !=On

   RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI}  phpmyadmin

   RewriteRule  ^(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [R,L]

 

    # Redirect  /security folder to https

    RewriteCond  %{HTTPS}  !=On   

    RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI} securit

    RewriteRule  ^(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [R,L]

 

    # Redirect  /webalizer folder to https

    RewriteCond  %{HTTPS}  !=On

    RewriteCond  %{REQUEST_URI} webalizer

    RewriteRule  ^(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [R,L]

</IfModule>

if you have other folders you want to redirect to a https://, add the generic text below ( but substitute your folder name):

    # Redirect /folder_name folder to https

    RewriteCond %{HTTPS}  !=On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}  folder_name

    RewriteRule  ^(*) https://%(SERVER_NAME)$1 [R,L]

If you are going to host a webdav server, it is probably best to not have this redirection and to just require https://. This way people can only use https:// when addressing your webdav folder. I tried using redirection for a webdav server and giving http:// in both XP and Mac OS X, and it didn't work when encryption was required.

One thing to keep in mind with this redirection is that if you have virtual hosts, you need to place their redirection code ( with the RewriteCond and RewriteRule) inside of your virtual host declarations, otherwise their redirection won't work.