Apache-SSL's Directives (Apache: The Definitive Guide)

13.7. Apache-SSL's Directives

Apache-SSL's directives follow, with a small section at the end of the chapter concerning CGIs.

13.7.1. SSLDisable

SSLDisable
Server config, virtual host

Disable SSL. This directive is useful if you wish to run both secure and nonsecure hosts on the same server. Conversely, SSL can be enabled with SSLEnable.

13.7.2. SSLEnable

SSLEnable
Server config, virtual host

Enable SSL. The default; but if you've used SSLDisable in the main server, you can enable SSL again for virtual hosts using this directive.

13.7.3. SSLRequireSSL

SSLRequireSSL
Server config, .htaccess, virtual host, directory

Require SSL. This can be used in <Directory> sections (and elsewhere) to protect against inadvertently disabling SSL. If SSL is not in use when this directive applies, access will be refused. This is a useful belt-and-suspenders measure for critical information.

13.7.4. SSLCacheServerPath

SSLCacheServerPath filename
Server config

This directive specifies the path to the global cache server, gcache. It can be absolute or relative to the server root.

13.7.5. SSLCacheServerRunDir

SSLCacheServerRunDir directory
Server config

Sets the directory in which gcache runs, so that it can produce core dumps during debugging.

13.7.6. SSLCacheServerPort

SSLCacheServerPort file|port
Server config

The cache server can use either TCP/IP or Unix domain sockets. If the file or port argument is a number, then a TCP/IP port at that number is used; otherwise, it is assumed to be the path to use for a Unix domain socket.

13.7.7. SSLSessionCacheTimeout


SSLSessionCacheTimeout time_in_seconds
Server config, virtual host

A session key is generated when a client connects to the server for the first time. This directive sets the length of time in seconds that the session key will be cached locally. Lower values are safer (an attacker then has a limited time to crack the key before a new one will be used) but also slower, because the key will be regenerated at each timeout. If client certificates are being requested by the server, they will also be required to be re-presented at each timeout. For many purposes, timeouts measured in hours are perfectly safe, for example:

SSLSessionCacheTimeout 3600

13.7.8. SSLCACertificatePath

SSLCACertificatePath directory
Server config, virtual host

This directive specifies the path to the directory where you keep the certificates of the certification authorities whose client certificates you are prepared to accept. They must be PEM encoded.

13.7.9. SSLCACertificateFile

SSLCACertificateFile filename
Server config, virtual host

If you only accept client certificates from a single CA, then you can use this directive instead of SSLCACertificatePath to specify a single PEM-encoded (according to SSLeay) certificate file.

13.7.10. SSLCertificateFile

SSLCertificateFile filename
Config outside <Directory> or <Location> blocks

This is your PEM-encoded certificate. It is encoded with distinguished encoding rules (DER), and is ASCII-armored so it will go over the Web. If the certificate is encrypted, you are prompted for a passphrase.

13.7.11. SSLCertificateKeyFile

SSLCertificateKeyFile filename
Config outside <Directory> or <Location> blocks

This is the private key of your PEM-encoded certificate. If the key is not combined with the certificate, use this directive to point at the key file. If the filename starts with "/", it specifies an absolute path; otherwise, it is relative to the default certificate area, which is currently defined by SSLeay to be either /usr/local/ssl/private or <wherever you told ssl to install>/private. Examples:

SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/apache/certs/my.server.key.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile certs/my.server.key.pem

13.7.12. SSLVerifyClient

SSLVerifyClient level
Default: 0
Server config, virtual host

This directive defines what you require of clients:

0: No certificate required.
1: The client may present a valid certificate.
2: The client must present a valid certificate.
3: The client may present a valid certificate, but not necessarily from a certification authority for which the server holds a certificate.

13.7.13. SSLVerifyDepth

SSLVerifyDepth depth
Server config, virtual host

In real life, the certificate we are dealing with was issued by a CA, who in turn relied on another CA for validation, and so on, back to a root certificate. This directive specifies how far up or down the chain we are prepared to go before giving up. What happens when we give up is determined by the setting given to SSLVerifyClient. Normally, you only trust certificates signed directly by a CA you've authorized, so this should be set to 1.

13.7.14. SSLFakeBasicAuth

SSLFakeBasicAuth
Server config, virtual host

This directive makes Apache pretend that the user has been logged in using basic authentication (see Chapter 5, "Authentication"), except that instead of the username you get the one-line X509, a version of the client's certificate. If you switch this on, along with SSLVerifyClient, you should see the results in one of the logs. The code adds a predefined password.

13.7.15. CustomLog


CustomLog nickname
Server config, virtual host

CustomLog is a standard Apache directive (see Chapter 11, "What's Going On?" ) to which Apache-SSL adds some extra categories that can be logged:

{cipher}c: The name of the cipher being used for this connection.
{clientcert}c: The one-line version of the certificate presented by the client.
{errcode}c: If the client certificate verification failed, this is the SSLeay error code. In the case of success, a "-" will be logged.
{errstr}c: This is the SSLeay string corresponding to the error code.
{version}c: The version of SSL being used. If you are using SSLeay versions prior to 0.9.0, then this is simply a number: 2 for SSL2 or 3 for SSL3. For SSLeay version 0.9.0 and later, it is a string, currently one of "SSL2," "SSL3," or "TLS1."

13.7.16. SSLLogFile

Obsolete -- do not use.