Terminating HTTPS on EC2 instances running Node.js
The following example configuration file extends the default nginx configuration to listen on port 443 and terminate SSL/TLS connections with a public certificate and private key.
If you configured your environment for enhanced health reporting, you need to configure nginx to generate access
logs. To do that, uncomment the block of lines under the comment that reads # For enhanced health... by removing the leading #
characters.
Example .ebextensions/https-instance.config
files:
/etc/nginx/conf.d/https.conf:
mode: "000644"
owner: root
group: root
content: |
# HTTPS server
server {
listen 443;
server_name localhost;
ssl on;
ssl_certificate /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key;
ssl_session_timeout 5m;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
# For enhanced health reporting support, uncomment this block:
#if ($time_iso8601 ~ "^(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})T(\d{2})") {
# set $year $1;
# set $month $2;
# set $day $3;
# set $hour $4;
#}
#access_log /var/log/nginx/healthd/application.log.$year-$month-$day-$hour healthd;
#access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main;
location / {
proxy_pass http://nodejs;
proxy_set_header Connection "";
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
}
}
/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-----The files key creates the following files on the instance:
/etc/nginx/conf.d/https.conf-
Configures the nginx server. This file is loaded when the nginx service starts.
/etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt-
Creates the certificate file on the instance. Replace
certificate file contentswith 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.
If you have intermediate certificates, include them in
server.crtafter your site certificate.-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----certificate file contents-----END CERTIFICATE----------BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----first intermediate certificate-----END CERTIFICATE----- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----second intermediate certificate-----END CERTIFICATE----- /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.key-
Creates the private key file on the instance. Replace
private key contentswith the contents of the private key used to create the certificate request or self-signed 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: 0.0.0.0/0For 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.
