Terminating HTTPS on EC2 instances running Tomcat - AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Terminating HTTPS on EC2 instances running Tomcat

For Tomcat container types, you use a configuration file to enable the Apache HTTP Server to use HTTPS when acting as the reverse proxy for Tomcat.

Add the following snippet to your configuration file, replacing the certificate and private key material as instructed, and save it in your source bundle's .ebextensions directory. The configuration file performs the following tasks:

  • The files key creates the following files on the instance:

    /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt

    Creates the certificate file on the instance. Replace certificate file contents with the contents of your certificate.

    Note

    YAML relies on consistent indentation. Match the indentation level when replacing content in an example configuration file and ensure that your text editor uses spaces, not tab characters, to indent.

    /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key

    Creates the private key file on the instance. Replace private key contents with the contents of the private key used to create the certificate request or self-signed certificate.

    /opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/post/99_start_httpd.sh

    Creates a post-deployment hook script to restart the httpd service.

Example .ebextensions/https-instance.config
files: /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt: mode: "000400" owner: root group: root content: | -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- certificate file contents -----END CERTIFICATE----- /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key: mode: "000400" owner: root group: root content: | -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- private key contents # See note below. -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY----- /opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/post/99_start_httpd.sh: mode: "000755" owner: root group: root content: | #!/usr/bin/env bash sudo service httpd restart

You must also configure your environment's proxy server to listen on port 443. The following Apache 2.4 configuration adds a listener on port 443. To learn more, see Configuring your Tomcat environment's proxy server.

Example .ebextensions/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
Listen 443 <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName server-name SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile "/etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt" SSLCertificateKeyFile "/etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key" <Proxy *> Require all granted </Proxy> ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/ retry=0 ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/ ProxyPreserveHost on ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/elasticbeanstalk-ssl-error_log </VirtualHost>

Your certificate vendor may include intermediate certificates that you can install for better compatibility with mobile clients. Configure Apache with an intermediate certificate authority (CA) bundle by adding the following to your SSL configuration file (see Extending and overriding the default Apache configuration — Amazon Linux AMI (AL1) for the location):

  • In the ssl.conf file contents, specify the chain file:

    SSLCertificateKeyFile "/etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key" SSLCertificateChainFile "/etc/pki/tls/certs/gd_bundle.crt" SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH
  • Add a new entry to the files key with the contents of the intermediate certificates:

    files: /etc/pki/tls/certs/gd_bundle.crt: mode: "000400" owner: root group: root content: | -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- First intermediate certificate -----END CERTIFICATE----- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- Second intermediate certificate -----END CERTIFICATE-----
Note

Avoid committing a configuration file that contains your private key to source control. After you have tested the configuration and confirmed that it works, store your private key in Amazon S3 and modify the configuration to download it during deployment. For instructions, see Storing private keys securely in Amazon S3.

In a single instance environment, you must also modify the instance's security group to allow traffic on port 443. The following configuration file retrieves the security group's ID using an AWS CloudFormation function and adds a rule to it.

Example .ebextensions/https-instance-single.config
Resources: sslSecurityGroupIngress: Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroupIngress Properties: GroupId: {"Fn::GetAtt" : ["AWSEBSecurityGroup", "GroupId"]} IpProtocol: tcp ToPort: 443 FromPort: 443 CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0

For a load-balanced environment, you configure the load balancer to either pass secure traffic through untouched, or decrypt and re-encrypt for end-to-end encryption.