I've hunted around on Google etc. but I can't find anywhere that tells
me how to enable SSL on Slackware 11.

Surely it must just be a simple configuration change or something.

--
Chris Green

tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:

> I've hunted around on Google etc. but I can't find anywhere that tells
> me how to enable SSL on Slackware 11.
>
> Surely it must just be a simple configuration change or something.

It would be the same as setting up SSL with any other Apache-1.3
installation, assuming the installation has provided for mod-ssl (which
I believe is true with Slackware, at least in versions < 11).

I've never used the pre-packaged Apache, I'm afraid, but the steps you
need to follow are those that are documented for Apache itself:

- Obtain a signed certificate for your web server (whether you use a
commercially signed certificate or a self-signed certificate is a
choice you need to make based on the purpose of the web server).

- Configure Apache with the location of the server certificate, the CA
certificate, and to enable SSL, listening on port 443, etc. I
normally tend to use a virtual host for the SSL service, but that
isn't strictly necessary.

- Restart Apache. You should be able to have it just re-read the
configuration file, but you do want to know that it will start
correctly from scratch after such a major change.

Now with all of that said, ideally you should be running a web server
under a very carefully controlled chroot(2) environment, which suggests
you may want to rethink using the prepackaged apache (or at least use
the package and those it depends on to create a chroot environment
within your system).

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems and Network analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sylvain Robitaille <syl@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote:
> tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:
>
> > I've hunted around on Google etc. but I can't find anywhere that tells
> > me how to enable SSL on Slackware 11.
> >
> > Surely it must just be a simple configuration change or something.
>
> It would be the same as setting up SSL with any other Apache-1.3
> installation, assuming the installation has provided for mod-ssl (which
> I believe is true with Slackware, at least in versions < 11).
>
> I've never used the pre-packaged Apache, I'm afraid, but the steps you
> need to follow are those that are documented for Apache itself:
>
> - Obtain a signed certificate for your web server (whether you use a
> commercially signed certificate or a self-signed certificate is a
> choice you need to make based on the purpose of the web server).
>
> - Configure Apache with the location of the server certificate, the CA
> certificate, and to enable SSL, listening on port 443, etc. I
> normally tend to use a virtual host for the SSL service, but that
> isn't strictly necessary.
>
> - Restart Apache. You should be able to have it just re-read the
> configuration file, but you do want to know that it will start
> correctly from scratch after such a major change.
>
> Now with all of that said, ideally you should be running a web server
> under a very carefully controlled chroot(2) environment, which suggests
> you may want to rethink using the prepackaged apache (or at least use
> the package and those it depends on to create a chroot environment
> within your system).
>
Thanks for the above, I had done most of it.

The bit missing was that you need to edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd to change

/usr/sbin/apachectl start

to:-

/usr/sbin/apachectl startssl

Once I did that I got a secure connection. I only want it to encrypt the
connection for my own use, I have no need to verify the site or anything.

--
Chris Green