How do I configure apache to accept a client ssl certificate (if present) or authenticate using ldap (if the cert is absent)?

Question

I have an Apache server that serves up mercurial repositories and it currently authenticates using ldap credentials.

I want to permit a single user (to start with) to use a SSL client certificate, with all remaining users still able to use the ldap credentials authentication method.

I have looked through Stack Overflow and other wider (google) searches but can not find information/guidance on how to set this up.

The following vhost config only allow the client cert through. I comment out the three statemens related to SSL-client; ladp will work.

<VirtualHost hg.mydomain.com:80>

    ServerName hg.mydomain.com:80
    RedirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ https://hg.mydomain.com$1

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost hg.mydomain.com:443>

        ServerName hg.mydomain.com:443
        # ServerAdmin webmaster@yourdomain.com
        DocumentRoot "/var/hg"
        CustomLog /var/log/httpd/hg-access.log combined
        ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/hg-error.log

        ScriptAliasMatch        ^/(.*)        /var/hg/hgweb.cgi$1
  # SSL Stuff...
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCipherSuite AES+HIGH:3DES+HIGH:RC4:!MD5:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:!aNULL:!eNULL:!KRB5

        # Server Certificate:
        SSLCertificateFile ssl/hg.mydomain.com.crt
        # Server Private Key:
        SSLCertificateKeyFile ssl/hg.mydomain.com.key
        # SSL Protocol Adjustments:
        BrowserMatch ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

  <Directory /var/hg>
    Options ExecCGI FollowSymlinks
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

    AllowOverride AuthConfig
         Order deny,allow
        Allow from all

    #SSL-Client Statements
         SSLVerifyClient optional
         SSLVerifyDepth  1
         SSLRequire   %{SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN}  eq "robotuser"

     AuthName "Developers"
         AuthBasicProvider ldap
         # AuthLDAPEnabled On
         AuthLDAPUrl ldaps://ldap.applied.sec/dc=applied,dc=sec?uid
        AuthzLDAPAuthoritative On
        Require valid-user
  </Directory>

    # Taken from http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/CleanUrls#samedir
    # Used at http://ggap.sf.net/hg/
    RewriteEngine On
    #write base depending on where the base url lives
    #RewriteBase /hg
    RewriteRule ^$ hgweb.cgi  [L]
    # Send requests for files that exist to those files.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    # Send requests for directories that exist to those directories.
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    # Send requests to hgweb.cgi, appending the rest of url.
    RewriteRule (.*) /hgweb.cgi/$1  [QSA,L]

    Include repos.d/repos.*.conf

It seems like I need to somehow create an alias for the directory block and then apply logic to check for the presence/absence of the client certificate. I do not know how to do that.

If there are other ways to accimplish this. I would love the hear about it.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 11 '13 at 19:58

1

This is somewhat of a guess (I don't have any easy way to try this) but perhaps some combination of SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth and Satisfy Any will see you through?

answered Feb 11 '13 at 19:58

nickgrim

4,466
1
19
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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '14 at 18:58

I've figured out a way of doing this for both Apache 2.2 and 2.4, will need some final cleanup for whatever your needs are though, but the tricky bit should be done (or at least done enough for anyone else to figure out where to go from here).

Both configurations result in the same end goal: a client/user may supply a certificate, if none is provided they'll be prompted for LDAP credentials.

You'll need to enable mod_ssl and mod_authnz_ldap. For Apache 2.2 you'll also need to enable mod_rewrite and mod_alias.

Apache 2.4 introduces a general purpose If/ElseIf/Else directive which simplifies this task greatly: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/core.html#if

I'm not an Apache guru, so there may be something horribly wrong with what I've done, but it does seem to achieve the state purpose.

Apache 2.2:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost _default_:443>
    ServerName Dummy-testing-kbd
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    # Normal HTTPS Server Certificate Config
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key
    # End HTTPS Config

    DocumentRoot /var/www

    Alias /ldap /
    <Location /ldap/>
        # LDAP Authentication Config
        AuthType Basic
        AuthBasicProvider ldap
        AuthzLDAPAuthoritative on
        AuthName "Password Protected. Enter your AD Username and Password"
        AuthLDAPURL "ldaps://ldaps-auth.mydomain.com/OU=People,DC=mydomain"
        Require valid-user
        # End LDAP
    </Location>

    <Location />
        # Client Cert Config
        SSLRequireSSL
        SSLCACertificateFile /etc/ssl/ca/private/ca.crt
        SSLVerifyClient optional
        SSLVerifyDepth 2

        # Populate REMOTE_USER with the value from the client certificate
        SSLUserName SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN
        # End Client Cert Config

        # Hacky way to use an internal redirect to force LDAP authentication if the certificate didn't populate the REMOTE_USER variable
        RewriteEngine on
        RewriteCond %{REMOTE_USER} ^$
        RewriteRule (.*) /ldap/$1 [L]
    </Location>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/cert_or_ldap_error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel debug

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/cert_or_ldap_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Apache 2.4:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost _default_:443>
    ServerName Dummy-testing-kbd2
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    # Normal HTTPS Server Certificate Config
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key
    # End HTTPS Config

    # Client Cert Config - setup Certificate Authority
    SSLCACertificateFile /etc/ssl/ca/private/ca.crt
    # End Client Cert Config

    DocumentRoot /var/www
    <Location />
        # Client Cert Config
        SSLRequireSSL
        SSLVerifyClient optional
        SSLVerifyDepth 2

        # Populate REMOTE_USER with the value from the client certificate
        SSLUserName SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN
        # End Client Cert Config

        # Configuring LDAP:
        # If no REMOTE_USER is defined (by the certificate) then do LDAP authentication
        <If "-z %{REMOTE_USER}">
            AuthType Basic
            AuthBasicProvider ldap
            AuthName "Password Protected. Enter your AD Username and Password"
            AuthLDAPURL "ldaps://ldaps-auth.mydomain.com/OU=People,DC=mydomain"
            Require valid-user
        </If>
        # End LDAP
    </Location>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/cert_or_ldap_error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel debug

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/cert_or_ldap_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 25 '12 at 21:03

You would have to do that type of logic on a backend server, either PHP or Java or Perl. Then redirect by setting the header Location: to the actual source control.

If you want an if/then/else type logic, you have to implement that in a programming language.

I'm not sure what you mean by your statement. You said this config only allows the client cert through, and you also said LDAP will work. That makes it sound like you have everything working and you are all set!

I would change to . Directory is usually for file system specific things though they are kind of similar.

Try using two different and to allow the user to pick the URL based on the authentication they want to try.

SSLVerifyClient optional will just allow the client to present a cert, if they feel like it. You might have to change to require. The authentication will occur at the Apache level, and if they fail, they will get an server error.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslverifyclient

Put the LDAP into another and the user can go there instead. I've not used LDAP authentication module from Apache.

You could modify the error file to include a link or automatic redirect to the LDAP link if they fail the SSL link.

How do I configure apache to accept a client ssl certificate (if present) or authenticate using ldap (if the cert is absent)?

The following vhost config only allow the client cert through. I comment out the three statemens related to SSL-client; ladp will work.

3 Answers3