Topic: Apache WSS Secure WebSocket

[jArden]

Hello,
I made a WebSocket service in Apache under CentOs with PHP and JS that works great if the protocol is ws:// . The problem is that the site is served through https:// so I must use wss protocol (cause mixed content policy). I have tried many approaches to make it work and any idea would really help.

First I tried to bind the socket of the WS (WebSocket) Server to 443 , but I got permission denied. The next thing was trying to alternate httpd.conf through include file to make every communication made in this server IP though a certain port e.g. 9100 to use a certain crt key and cabundle files. I made it copying the VirtualHost entry for the domain when it uses https , port 443 . But I am stack , I cant find a way to make Apache treat the communication to a certain IP and port (for a single domain or not) with the same ssl encode and decode files as the one used in the domain https 443 port.

Any idea in the way I am searching it , or in an alternate way would be great. Thank you in advance

[James Blond]

reverse proxy on the whole thing or reverse proxy for some paths where you need that. Then the browser will only see https://
Maybe you need the combination with mod_proxy_html to rewrite so stuff in the html

[jArden]

Hello James ,
I am not Apache expert and it is the first time i am disappointed about Apache . I thought that it should be something rather simple , to make a server use certain ssl credentials when a certain port is used. But it isn't. I have rewrite all the core of the application (the inner framework) to make PHP decode and encode the communication with a pem file (crt+key). Although I got it work I strongly feel that this something the web server should do and not a language.

Thank you for your response I made a lot of tests with mod_proxy_wstunnel and certain reverse proxy techniques , but those are suited in old systems in my opinion , because the server burden is even greater than using PHP (the C modules that runs in back) to encode and decode the SSL communication.

[James Blond]

Server burden? For sure we can help you with with that config. So you really need ssl for ws:// ?

Why not

User <-- HTTPS -->apache_with_vhost<-- http + ws -->backend server

in that case apache will handle all the SSL stuff easy.