Ssl – Rewriting 302 App Server ReDirect URLs with Apache Proxy in the Middle

apache-2.2mod-proxyredirectssl

I have an odd setup. It looks like this:

Browser ----------> HTTPs Proxy ------> Apache HTTP -----> Tomcat AJP
           HTTPS                 HTTP                AJP

On the HTTPS proxy (a very dumb proxy), a URL comes in looking like https: //proxy.domain.com/app. It is then tunneled to Apache using HTTP as is http: //apache.domain.com/app (passing in the host proxy.domain.com). Apache then tunnels the request locally using the AJP protocol to ajp: //localhost:8009/app/.

Sometimes the app server wants to redirect the requested path. For example, redirect /app/ to /app/webapp. So, it sends a 302 back to apache redirecting the path – probably something like ajp: //localhost:8009/app/webapp. Apache then rewrites the redirect URL to http: //proxy.domain.com/app/webapp. The HTTPS proxy is dumb, so it does not analyze the redirect and change the http to https.

So, I would like to figure out if I can configure Apache to re-write the 302 redirect URL to send the user to https.

Here is the config I have so far in Apache's https.conf:

ProxyPreserveHost       on
RewriteEngine           on
RewriteRule ^/app$ /app/ [PT]
ProxyPass /app ajp://localhost:8009/app

I tried using ProxyPassReverse, but haven't been able to figure out how to force it to rewrite the 302 redirect URL with https instead of http.

Any thoughts?

Best Answer

I always wrestle with a problem for hours before giving up and posting a question - only to solve my own problem minutes after posting ...

For those interested, the solution is not to use ProxyPassReverse, but rather to use the Header directive - it' let's you mess with outbound headers. In this case, I can capture the Location response header and run a regex on it to fix the URL's protocol:

ProxyPreserveHost       on
RewriteEngine           on
RewriteRule ^/app$ /app/ [PT]
ProxyPass /app ajp://localhost:8009/app
Header edit Location ^http(\:\/\/proxy.*)$ https$1

Voila!

If apache complains, it might be that mod_headers is not yet enabled: a2enmod headers

Related Solutions

How to redirect URLs using the proxy module in Apache

From your comment on my previous answer I gather that you are using Apache as a forwarding proxy (ProxyRequests On). You can use mod_rewrite to proxy pass through specific URL's.

You probably got something like this in your Apache config:

ProxyRequests On
ProxyVia On
<Proxy *>
   Order deny,allow
   Allow from xx.xx.xx.xx
</Proxy>

Then you have to add the following in order to proxy-pass all requests from www.olddomain.com/foo to www.newdomain.com/bar:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.olddomain\.com$
RewriteRule /foo(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/bar/$1 [P,L]

What this does is:

When a request is made to the host www.olddomain.com, the RewriteRule will fire.
This rule substitutes /foo to http://www.newdomain.com/bar/.
The substitution is handed over to mod_proxy (P).
Stop rewriting (L).

Example result:

Browser is configured to use your Apache as proxy server.
It requests www.olddomain.com/foo/test.html.
Your Apache will rewrite this to www.newdomain.com/bar/test.html.
It will request this page from the responsible web server.
Return the result to the browser as www.olddomain.com/foo/test.html.

Tomcat cookies not working via the ProxyPass VirtualHost

I figured it out.

Add this to the VHost configuration:

ProxyPassReverseCookiePath /webapp /

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to redirect URLs using the proxy module in Apache

Tomcat cookies not working via the ProxyPass VirtualHost

Related Topic