4

I have a domain name with a main site and a few vhosts. I want all sites (main and vhosts) to only be accessible through HTTPS (using HSTS), and I want non-existing subdomains to be redirected to the main site.

To summarize what I want:

  • https:/example.com: no redirect (main site)
  • http:/example.com: redirected to https:/example.com
  • https:/vhost.example.com: no redirect (virtual host)
  • http:/vhost.example.com: redirected to https:/vhost.example.com
  • https:/doesntexist.example.com: redirected to https:/example.com
  • http:/doesntexist.example.com: redirected to https:/example.com

I'm very close to this, but the second to last redirection doesn't work. I'm using a certificate from Let's Encrypt, which doesn't offer wildcard certs at the moment, so the certificate is only valid for the main domain and the vhosts (that I've explicitly listed when I created the certificate). Because the certificate is invalid, browsers block the connection.

What would be the best way (if any) to circumvent this problem?

Here's my (simplified) nginx configuration if it helps:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 spdy;
    server_name _;
    # SSL settings snipped for brevity. SPDY and HSTS are enabled.
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 spdy;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com;
    index index.html index.htm;
}

server {
    listen 443 spdy;
    server_name vhost.example.com;
    root /var/www/vhost.example.com;
    index index.html index.htm;
}
2
  • "Because the certificate is invalid, [...]" Why is it invalid?
    – gxx
    Dec 7, 2015 at 0:21
  • @gf_Because it doesn't have a sAN matching the name being requested.
    – womble
    Dec 7, 2015 at 3:25

1 Answer 1

4

Practically, you can't get around the problem without a wildcard cert. If you can't present a certificate that matches up with the name being requested, you're going to get a connection error -- it's a fundamental part of the protocol.

I suppose, in theory, you could write something that, when it received an SNI header for a name not in the certificate, did a quick certificate issuance from Let's Encrypt, and sent back that newly-minted certificate in the TLS handshake, but... well, it isn't exactly a practical solution, is it?

2
  • That's what I was afraid of. :( I was hoping there would be some way to force a redirect before the browser validates the cert, or despite the fact that the cert is invalid, but it doesn't look like there is. Thanks for the suggestion though, I don't think I'll actually implement this but it's a fun out-of-the-box solution! Dec 7, 2015 at 21:40
  • 2
    Well, no, it would defeat the point of TLS if you could send (unauthenticated) commands to the client telling it to redirect to somewhere else (say, a location under the attacker's control).
    – womble
    Dec 8, 2015 at 2:31

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