Setting up SSL on a Raspbian Apache Server

Question

I have a domain and SSL bought from godaddy. I successfully pointed the domain to my Raspberry Pi's ip address. However, the SSL is having some issues. When I download the SSL from godaddy I get two.crt files and one.pem file. Godaddy's instructions only mention a.key file and two.crt's.

in my apache config file I put in a VirtualHost tag following the format from godaddy with all appropriate info replaced:

<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.x.x:443>
DocumentRoot /var/www/coolexample
ServerName coolexample.com www.coolexample.com
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /path/to/coolexample.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/privatekey.key
    SSLCertificateChainFile /path/to/intermediate.crt
</VirtualHost>

However, as you can see this requires a private key. When launching my apache server the error log tells me the private key cannot be found. My question is, within the VirtualHost tag how can I properly set up my SSL with the files given to me by godaddy?

Answer 1

Here is an implementation of TLS 1.2 that can go in your vhost:

    SSLEngine On 
    SSLCertificateFile  /etc/ssl/localcerts/xxxxxxx.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/localcerts/mysite.key
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/localcerts/bundle.crt
    SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
    SSLHonorCipherOrder On
    SSLCipherSuite "EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384 EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+SHA384 EECDH+aRSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+RC4 EECDH EDH+aRSA RC4 !aNULL !eNULL !LOW !3DES !MD5 !EXP !PSK !SRP !DSS"

Further, you must ensure that mod_ssl is enabled. In the corresponding configuration file, you can do something like this (which is mostly stock)

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>

    # 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 builtin
    SSLRandomSeed startup file:/dev/urandom 512
    SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
    SSLRandomSeed connect file:/dev/urandom 512

    ##
    ##  SSL Global Context
    ##
    ##  All SSL configuration in this context applies both to
    ##  the main server and all SSL-enabled virtual hosts.
    ##

    #
    #   Some MIME-types for downloading Certificates and CRLs
    #
    AddType application/x-x509-ca-cert .crt
    AddType application/x-pkcs7-crl .crl

    #   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/share/apache2/ask-for-passphrase

    #   Inter-Process Session Cache:
    #   Configure the SSL Session Cache: First the mechanism 
    #   to use and second the expiring timeout (in seconds).
    #   (The mechanism dbm has known memory leaks and should not be used).
    #SSLSessionCache         dbm:${APACHE_RUN_DIR}/ssl_scache
    SSLSessionCache     shmcb:${APACHE_RUN_DIR}/ssl_scache(512000)
    SSLSessionCacheTimeout  300

    #   Semaphore:
    #   Configure the path to the mutual exclusion semaphore the
    #   SSL engine uses internally for inter-process synchronization. 
    #   (Disabled by default, the global Mutex directive consolidates by default
    #   this)
    #Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR}/ssl_mutex ssl-cache


    #   SSL Cipher Suite:
    #   List the ciphers that the client is permitted to negotiate. See the
    #   ciphers(1) man page from the openssl package for list of all available
    #   options.
    #   Enable only secure ciphers:
    SSLCipherSuite HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5

    # SSL server cipher order preference:
    # Use server priorities for cipher algorithm choice.
    # Clients may prefer lower grade encryption.  You should enable this
    # option if you want to enforce stronger encryption, and can afford
    # the CPU cost, and did not override SSLCipherSuite in a way that puts
    # insecure ciphers first.
    # Default: Off
    #SSLHonorCipherOrder on

    #   The protocols to enable.
    #   Available values: all, SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2
    #   SSL v2  is no longer supported
    SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3

    #   Allow insecure renegotiation with clients which do not yet support the
    #   secure renegotiation protocol. Default: Off
    #SSLInsecureRenegotiation on

    #   Whether to forbid non-SNI clients to access name based virtual hosts.
    #   Default: Off
    #SSLStrictSNIVHostCheck On
</IfModule>

These changes should get you going with TLS 1.2.

It is incredibly important that you research your configuration files and vhosts if your server is for production "business use".