Documentation AEM 6.4 Administering Guide

SSL By Default ssl-by-default

Last update: Wed May 03 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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Administering

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Admin

CAUTION

AEM 6.4 has reached the end of extended support and this documentation is no longer updated. For further details, see our technical support periods. Find the supported versions here.

In an effort to continously improve the security of AEM, Adobe has introduced a feature called SSL By Default. The purpose is to encourage the use of HTTPS to connect to AEM instances.

Enabling SSL By Default enabling-ssl-by-default

You can start configuring SSL By Default by clicking the relevant Inbox message from your AEM home screen. To reach the Inbox, press the bell icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Then, click on View All. This will bring up a list of all alerts ordered in a list view.

In the list, select and open the Configure HTTPS alert:

chlimage_1-341

[NOTE!]

If the Configure HTTPS alert is not present in the Inbox, you can navigate directly to the HTTPS Wizard by going to http://serveraddress:serverport/libs/granite/security/content/sslConfig.html?item=configuration%2Fconfiguressl&_charset_=utf-8

A service user called ssl-service has been created for this feature. Once you open the alert, you will be guided through the follwing configuration wizard:

First, set up the Store Credentials. These are the credentials for the ssl-service system user’s key store that will contain the private key and trust store for the HTTPS listener.

Once you enter the credentials, click Next in the upper right corner of the page. Then, upload the associated private key and certificate for the SSL connection.

chlimage_1-343

note note
NOTE
For info on how to generate a private key and a certificate to use with the wizard, see this procedure below.

Lastly, specify the HTTPS hostname and the TCP port for the HTTPS listener.

Automating SSL By Default automating-ssl-by-default

There are three ways of automating SSL By Default.

Via HTTP POST via-http-post

The first method involves posting to the SSLSetup server that is being used by the configuration wizard:

POST /libs/granite/security/post/sslSetup.html

You can use the following payload in your POST to automate configuration:

------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="keystorePassword"

test
------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="keystorePasswordConfirm"
test
------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="truststorePassword"
test
------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="truststorePasswordConfirm"
test
------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="privatekeyFile"; filename="server.der"
Content-Type: application/x-x509-ca-cert

------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="certificateFile"; filename="server.crt"
Content-Type: application/x-x509-ca-cert

------WebKitFormBoundaryyBO4ArmGlcfdGDbs
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="httpsPort"
8443

The servlet, like any sling POST servlet, will respond with 200 OK or an error HTTP status code. You can find details about status in the response’s HTML body.

Below are examples for both a successful response and an error.

SUCCESS EXAMPLE (status = 200):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<title>OK</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>OK</h1>
<dl>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-status-code'>Status</dt>
<dd>200</dd>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-status-message'>Message</dt>
<dd>SSL successfully configured</dd>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-title'>Title</dt>
<dd>OK</dd>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-description'>Description</dt>
<dd>HTTPS has been configured on port 8443. The private key and
certificate were stored in the key store of the user ssl-service.
Please take note of the key store password you provided. You will need
it for any subsequent updating of the private key or certificate.</dd>
</dl>
<h2>Links</h2>
<ul class='foundation-form-response-links'>
<li><a class='foundation-form-response-redirect' href='/'>Done</a></li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

ERROR EXAMPLE (status = 500):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<title>Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Error</h1>
<dl>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-status-code'>Status</dt>
<dd>500</dd>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-status-message'>Message</dt>
<dd>The provided file is not a valid key, DER format expected</dd>
<dt class='foundation-form-response-title'>Title</dt>
<dd>Error</dd>
</dl>
</body>
</html>

Via Package via-package

Alternatively, you can automate the SSL setup by uploading a package that already contains these required items:

The ssl-service user’s keystore. This is located under /home/users/system/security/ssl-service/keystore in the repository.
The GraniteSslConnectorFactory configuration

Generating a Private Key/Certificate Pair to Use with the Wizard generating-a-private-key-certificate-pair-to-use-with-the-wizard

Below you will find an example for creating a self-signed certificate in DER format that the SSL Wizard can use.

NOTE

The use of a self-signed certificate is for example purposes only and should not be used in production.

First, create the private key:

code language-shell
`openssl genrsa -aes256 -out localhostprivate.key 4096 openssl rsa -in localhostprivate.key -out localhostprivate.key`

Then, Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) using private key:

code language-shell
`openssl req -sha256 -new -key localhostprivate.key -out localhost.csr -subj '/CN=localhost'`

Generate the SSL certificate and sign it with the private key. In this example, will expire one year from now:

code language-shell
`openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in localhost.csr -signkey localhostprivate.key -out localhost.crt`

Convert the Private Key to DER format. This is because the SSL wizard requires key to be in DER format:

openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -outform DER -in localhostprivate.key -out localhostprivate.der -nocrypt

Finally, upload the localhostprivate.der as the Private Key and localhost.crt as the SSL Certificate in step 2 of the graphical SSL Wizard described at the beginning of this page.

Updating the SSL Configuration Via cURL updating-the-ssl-configuration-via-curl

NOTE

See Using cURL with AEM for a centralized list of useful cURL commands in AEM.

You can also automate the SSL configuration by using the cURL tool. You can do this by posting the configuration parameters to this URL:

https://<serveraddress>:<serverport>/libs/granite/security/post/sslSetup.html

Below are the parameters you can use in order to change the various settings in the configuration wizard:

-F "keystorePassword=password" - the keystore password;
-F "keystorePasswordConfirm=password" - confirm the keystore password;
-F "truststorePassword=password" - the truststore password;
-F "truststorePasswordConfirm=password" - confirm the truststore password;
-F "privatekeyFile=@localhostprivate.der" - specify the private key;
-F "certificateFile=@localhost.crt" - specify the certificate;
-F "httpsHostname=host.example.com"- specify the hostname;
-F "httpsPort=8443" - the port the HTTPS listener will work on.

NOTE

The fastest way of running cURL to automate the SSL configuration is from the folder where the DER and CRT files are. Alternatively, you can specify the full path in the privatekeyFile and certificateFile arguments.

You also need to be authenticated in order to perform the update, so make sure you append the cURL command with the -u user:passeword parameter.

A correct cURL post command should look like this:

curl -u user:password -F "keystorePassword=password" -F "keystorePasswordConfirm=password" -F "truststorePassword=password" -F "truststorePasswordConfirm=password" -F "privatekeyFile=@localhostprivate.der" -F "certificateFile=@localhost.crt" -F "httpsHostname=host.example.com" -F "httpsPort=8443" https://host:port/libs/granite/security/post/sslSetup.html

Multiple certificates using cURL multiple-certificates-using-curl

You can send the servlet a chain of certificates by repeating the certificateFile parameter like this:

-F "certificateFile=@root.crt" -F "certificateFile=@localhost.crt"..

Once you have executed the command, verify that all the certificates made it to the keystore. Check the keystore from:
http://localhost:4502/libs/granite/security/content/userEditor.html/home/users/system/security/ssl-service

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