Apache – How to Redirect from HTTPS to HTTP Before Server Error

.htaccessapache-2.2httphttpsweb-server

I used to operate a website with an SSL certificate, but have stopped using the SSL certificate. The problem is that most of the external links to the website use the https:// prefix.

I have tried the https:// to http:// redirect in the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

But it seems, as has been pointed out elsewhere, that the server is trying to retrieve the certificate before activating the redirect. Hence, an error is shown before the redirect is ever accomplished. The error is either a warning that the certificate is expired, or if I delete the certificate signing request, then an error that SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

Is there any way to allow the incoming links to be redirected properly?

Best Answer

The difference between http and https is that https requests are sent over an ssl-encrypted connection. The ssl-encrypted connection must be established between the browser and the server before the browser sends the http request.

Https requests are in fact http requests that are sent over an ssl encrypted connection. If the server rejects to establish an ssl encrypted connection then the browser will have no connection to send the request over. The browser and the server will have no way of talking to each other. The browser will not be able to send the url that it wants to access and the server will not be able to respond with a redirect to another url.

So this is not possible. If you want to respond to https links, then you need an ssl certificate.

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; 

       [....]
}

Redirect apache to http requests to https except for when request is a POST

Add a new RewriteCond line:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !^POST$
RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https:// %{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]

Best Answer

Related Solutions

NGINX Redirect – How to Rewrite All HTTP Requests to HTTPS While Maintaining Sub-Domain

Correct way in new versions of nginx

Redirect apache to http requests to https except for when request is a POST

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