Node.js+express proxy ssl

Question

I'm trying to write a reverse proxy in node.js using express, and it works fine for http requests. The problem is that when requesting https it never responds, and the browser states that the proxy refused to connect. Here is the working code for http requests:

var   app = express(),
      http=require('http');

app.configure(function(){ /* express stuff to log and use routes and the like */ });

http.createServer(app).listen(8000, function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + 8000);
});

app.all('*', proxy);
var request=require('request');

var proxy=function(req,resp){
    var data={
        url:req.url,
        headers: {
            'Connection': 'keep-alive'
        }
    }
    var proxy=request(req.url);
    proxy.pipe(resp);
}

Now, as for SSL, i am currently trying with:

var https=require('https'),
    fs=require('fs');

https.createServer({
        key: fs.readFileSync(__dirname+'/ssl/server.key', 'utf8'),
        cert: fs.readFileSync(__dirname+'/ssl/server.crt', 'utf8')
      },app).listen(8001, function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + 8001);
});

The proxy can be used from anywhere requiring 50.56.195.215:8000 for HTTP and 50.56.195.215:8001 for SSL. It has no security whasoever, so don't log in to anything important =D

I'm using a self signed SSL Certificate, and i guess it's kind of silly of me to try to do such a thing, but i don't have any ideas left :P

Answer 1

My suggestion is use the great existing library node-http-proxy from Nodejitsu. If you want to write your own, at least study their source code academically.

Some notes on your approach above:

• You aren't handling HTTP methods other than GET (POST, PUT, DELETE, etc). These exist. You must handle them if you want your proxy to actually work. Every time you call request(req.url) , request is making a GET request by default.

Answer 2

For HTTPS, you need to be able to handle HTTP Connects and also impersonate the destination server. You will need to have a Certificate for this.

You can try using this. https://github.com/noeltimothy/noelsproxy

Copy the directory "magical" that contains a certificate as well as a key and then use noelsproxy. Remember to add the ca.pem to your trusted root store on your system.

If you are using windows, do this: certutil -addstore -enterprise -f \\"Root\\" ./magical/ca.pem

Let me know if you have any issues. I'm willing to fix them immediately.