I'm looking for a simple way to know if a server is using the Server Name Indication SSL extension for its HTTPS certificate on a website. A method that uses either a browser or Unix command line is fine.
Thanks!
Ssl – How to detect if a server is using SNI for HTTPS
httpssnissl
Related Solutions
Correct way in new versions of nginx
Turn out my first answer to this question was correct at certain time, but it turned into another pitfall - to stay up to date please check Taxing rewrite pitfalls
I have been corrected by many SE users, so the credit goes to them, but more importantly, here is the correct code:
server {
listen 80;
server_name my.domain.com;
return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name my.domain.com;
# add Strict-Transport-Security to prevent man in the middle attacks
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always;
[....]
}
For the most up-to-date information on Apache and SNI, including additional HTTP-Specific RFCs, please refer to the Apache Wiki
FYsI: "Multiple (different) SSL certificates on one IP" is brought to you by the magic of TLS Upgrading. It works with newer Apache servers (2.2.x) and reasonably recent browsers (don't know versions off the top of my head).
RFC 2817 (upgrading to TLS within HTTP/1.1) has the gory details, but basically it works for a lot of people (if not the majority).
You can reproduce the old funky behavior with openssl's s_client command (or any "old enough" browser) though.
Edit to add: apparently curl can show you what's happening here better than openssl:
SSLv3
mikeg@flexo% curl -v -v -v -3 https://www.yummyskin.com
* About to connect() to www.yummyskin.com port 443 (#0)
* Trying 69.164.214.79... connected
* Connected to www.yummyskin.com (69.164.214.79) port 443 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
* CAfile: /usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt
CApath: none
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server key exchange (12):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
* Server certificate:
* subject: serialNumber=wq8O9mhOSp9fY9JcmaJUrFNWWrANURzJ; C=CA;
O=staging.bossystem.org; OU=GT07932874;
OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)10;
OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R);
CN=staging.bossystem.org
* start date: 2010-02-03 18:53:53 GMT
* expire date: 2011-02-06 13:21:08 GMT
* SSL: certificate subject name 'staging.bossystem.org'
does not match target host name 'www.yummyskin.com'
* Closing connection #0
* SSLv3, TLS alert, Client hello (1):
curl: (51) SSL: certificate subject name 'staging.bossystem.org'
does not match target host name 'www.yummyskin.com'
TLSv1
mikeg@flexo% curl -v -v -v -1 https://www.yummyskin.com
* About to connect() to www.yummyskin.com port 443 (#0)
* Trying 69.164.214.79... connected
* Connected to www.yummyskin.com (69.164.214.79) port 443 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
* CAfile: /usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt
CApath: none
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server key exchange (12):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
* Server certificate:
* subject: C=CA; O=www.yummyskin.com; OU=GT13670640;
OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)09;
OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R);
CN=www.yummyskin.com
* start date: 2009-04-24 15:48:15 GMT
* expire date: 2010-04-25 15:48:15 GMT
* common name: www.yummyskin.com (matched)
* issuer: C=US; O=Equifax Secure Inc.; CN=Equifax Secure Global eBusiness CA-1
* SSL certificate verify ok.
Best Answer
SNI is initiated by the client, so you need a client that supports it. Unless you're on windows XP, your browser will do. If your client lets you debug SSL connections properly (sadly, even the gnutls/openssl CLI commands don't), you can see whether the server sends back a server_name field in the extended hello. Note that the absence of this field only means that the server didn't use the server_name in the client hello to help pick a certificate, not that it doesn't support it.
So, in practice the easiest test is to simply try connecting. For this you need to know two names that resolve to the same IP, to which an ssl connection can be made. https is easiest as you can then simply browse to both names and see if you're presented with the correct certificate.
There are three outcomes:
A slightly more complicated test which will yield more info is to have wireshark open and capturing while browsing. You can then find the relevant packets by filtering for ssl.handshake. The screenshots below are an example of a client hello/server hello pair where SNI is supported:
Again, of course the absence of a server_name field in the server hello does not indicate that SNI is not supported. Merely that the client-provided server_name was not used in deciding which certificate to use.