It also means that the SSL certs that the world sees are all on the load balancer (which hopefully makes them easier to manage). To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Load Balancer and using multiple SSL certificates, SSL certificate and Azure classic load balancer, HAProxy: SSL Termination with exception for a specific domain Wildcard SSL-Certificate request, How does load balancer verify self-signed certificates from the server. In order to perform deep packet inspection, SSL must be terminated at the load balancer (or earlier), but traffic between the load balancer and the app servers would be unencrypted. In other words, it seems like you're trying to finely draw the line where the untrusted networks lie, and the trust begins. How can a non-technical user verify a message was sent "securely"? Is there a way to mitigate BEAST without disabling AES completely? If you're dealing with credit cards or financial transactions then you're probably regulated by government(s) and so will have to re-encrypt. where traffic from that 3rd party would be sent to your servers over network links you don't manage. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Depending on your situation, it may just be easier to re-encrypt and let the application work in its 'default' way rather than needing a site-specific modification. I don't know about your particular situation, but there may be things to consider like the SafeHarbor (, +1 for reencrypt on the other side. If you install a certificate on each server, then be sure to get a certificate that supports this. In summary, I'd say: terminate at the load balancer and re-encrypt to your back end servers. The tunnel ends on the machine which does the inspection, e.g. I have done everything that I mention below specifically with the Citrix Netscaler, but I believe F5 should be able to do the same things. your "load balancer". Site design / logo 2022 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. It's likely your load balancer is better resourced to do this than your back end servers. They would each have their own private key and you'd have to pay x5 the price if you have 5 computers. But if I use SAN certs on each server, do they each need the same private key? SSL termination can be done at the Load Balancer to offload CPU intensive jobs away from web servers. YES, you can use the same certificate and associated private key on all of your servers, if they are behind a load balancer or load balancing reverse proxy and if they are all serving content for the same domain. Do I need to create fictional places to make things work? I know you can put all SSL requests on a specific server, but that requires distributed session info and hoping it doesn't come to that. You can also use an SSL-terminating load balancer, in which case you would use the certificate (with associated private key) on the load balancer, and the web servers wouldn't need certificates because they wouldn't be having anything to do with the SSL. Encryption in case of distributed architecture, HTTPS - Having TLS configured on Load balancer. The expense with TLS is the building and closing of the connection, which the TLS offloader handles. The meaning of "lest you step in a thousand puddles with fresh socks on". Installed LVP on subfloor, but there are slight divots. As the LB can't inspect what's going on this way, it can't spread the load evenly across the back end servers, and the back end servers have to deal with all the Internet flakiness. know a copy of the server private key. Why don't chess engines take into account the time left by each players? Zeeman effect eq 1.38 in Foot Atomic Physics. rev2022.11.14.43031. @anschoewe, no. Many people have said to me that reencrypting on the back end makes it just as computationally expensive, but that is not true. Can an indoor camera be placed in the eave of a house & continue to function? Can we infer whether a given approach is visual only from the track data and the meteorological conditions? Whether or not you re-encrypt from the load balancer to your back end servers is a matter of personal choice and circumstance. How can our customers use our SaaS with their own SSL certificate? When the migration is complete, you will access your Teams at stackoverflowteams.com, and they will no longer appear in the left sidebar on stackoverflow.com. You can purchase certificates with Subject Alternative Names from many issuers now. First, you always need to make sure that you reencrypt on the other side of the load balancer, but the device decrypting TLS should be able to inspect what's going on from a security perspective. Can we consider the Stack exchange Q & A process to be research?and can we refer to it on our cv/resume etc especially for admission & funding? The SAN field allows a certificate that is valid for multiple FQDNs. What is the mathematical condition for the statement: "gravitationally bound"? A second reason SSL should terminate at the load balancer is because it offers a centralized place to correct SSL attacks such as CRIME or BEAST. Why have non-magic technology when there is already a magic solution? Re-encryption doesn't add as much load as you might think though. Even in VPCs? How do magic items work when used by an Avatar of a God? I would advocate terminating SSL at the load balancer (be that on your network, or at a CDN provider or whatever). How do I get git to use the cli rather than some GUI application when asking for GPG password? (with the possible exception in multi-tenant environments, or unique business requirements that require deeper segmentation). How to mitigate SSL/TLS Protocol Initialization Vector Implementation Information Disclosure Vulnerability? Is SSL terminated at a load balancer PCI compliant? Also, not supporting DHE means that you will not get the nifty feature of Perfect Forward Secrecy (this is not fatal, but PFS looks real good in security audits so it is a fine thing to have). If you're just hosting your company's website then you might be able to avoid the additional overhead of the re-encryption, if you don't really care about the security aspects of it. When hosting a cluster of web application servers its common to have a reverse proxy (HAProxy, Nginx, F5, etc.) If so, how can it be done without compromising the integrity of the data being served? Site design / logo 2022 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. When the migration is complete, you will access your Teams at stackoverflowteams.com, and they will no longer appear in the left sidebar on stackoverflow.com. Then you install it on each of your 5 servers behind the balancer. You can also use an SSL-terminating load balancer, in which case you would use the certificate (with associated private key) on the load balancer, and the web servers wouldn't need certificates because they wouldn't be having anything to do with the SSL. It also means your load balancer is responsible for dealing with slow clients, broken SSL implementations and general Internet flakiness. You can use the same certificate (with associated private key) bearing the correct name across multiple web servers in a web cluster, so long as they are behind a load balancer. If you have 5 web servers behind a load balancer () loadbalancer, 2 webserver, 1 webserver hacked , how to tunnel out? Should the notes *kept* or *replayed* in this score of Moldau? ), in some instances the client will not read the SAN attribute if the Subject attribute has an invalid FQDN. There is no point of encrypting data at a downstream server since the same people who are supporting the network usually have access to this as well. If you do your load balancing on the TCP or IP layer (OSI layer 4/3, a.k.a L4, L3), then yes, all HTTP servers will need to have the SSL certificate installed. Normally certificates can be installed on multiple servers, as long as the servers all serve traffic for one Fully Qualified Domain Name only. You can max out the CPU on the pound machine, and keep the web servers "normal". What is the purpose of the arrow on the flightdeck of USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt? @TylerCollier thanks for your comments. Looks like half a cylinder. Should SSL be terminated at a load balancer? Stack Exchange network consists of 182 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. However, this implies that all cluster nodes are able to do the full SSL with the client, i.e. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? How to get new birds at a bird feeder after switching bird seed types? I keep getting the error that property could not register. I clarified. Does anyone know what brick this is? canonical ways of load balancing HTTP/HTTPS. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. This policy logic, combined with the features of TLS should ensure your data remains confidential and tamper-free (given that I properly understand your requirement of integrity), Outsource the load balancer (Amazon, Microsoft, etc), Use a 3rd party CDN (Akamai, Amazon, Microsoft, etc), Or use a 3rd party proxy to prevent DoS attacks. Cloudflare has a 'Flexible SSL' mode where it's SSL to the CDN, then non-SSL to the original server. Is the portrayal of people of color in Enola Holmes movies historically accurate? Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. The second option is somewhat lighter, since the packet inspector just decrypts the data but does not have to reencrypt it. Advantages: less configuration on the web servers, one tool for each job. You probably should also re-encrypt if the traffic between load balancer and back end servers is travelling over untrusted networks. Additionally, if you don't have TLS offloading then even a small DDoS attack via TLS would completely annihilate your servers. or over TLS? Do Amazon etc recommend doing so in the AWS documentation? Why are open-source PDF APIs so hard to come by? You can choose to encrypt internal traffic with a lower-key certificate. Keep it simple, and you'll have fewer problems in the long run. SSL termination or SSL offloading decrypts and verifies data on the load balancer instead of the application server. It only takes a minute to sign up. How do magic items work when used by an Avatar of a God? Your browser expects that the server it is talking to, if it is talking over HTTPS, presents a certificate bearing the same name as the domain name that the browser thinks it is talking to. So even if Hacker Joe manages to intercept traffic between you and bankofamerica.com, Hacker Joe won't have a signed certificate for bankofamerica.com and your browser will put up big red warning flags all over the place.). I'd only use this method if you don't trust your load balancer, CDN provider or whatever. And interestingly enough, only a few months after this question was posted back in 2013: Interesting. The alternative here is to simply load balance the TCP connections from clients to your back end servers. This also assumes that your backend computers are on a safe private network. It can't then say "you're trying to access the logon page over HTTP, so I'll redirect you to the HTTPS version of the page", for example. This helps increase server speed. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. do you need SSL certificates for all the servers. The Citrix Netscaler load balancer (for example) can deny insecure access to a URL. Share Improve this answer Follow answered Apr 27, 2011 at 13:44 yfeldblum 368 2 3 Add a comment What happens if you hold up two credit cards to the RFID readers on the London Underground turnstiles? Does each server behind a load balancer need their own SSL certificate? Meet 'Muscular': NSA accused of tapping links between Yahoo, Google datacenters, Google, the NSA, and the need for locking down datacenter traffic, Google Boosting Encryption Between Data Centers. Are Hebrew "Qoheleth" and Latin "collate" in any way related? There can be some issues with older web clients (IE6! Why have non-magic technology when there is already a magic solution? Should the notes *kept* or *replayed* in this score of Moldau? Storage of SSL private key in load balancer VS HSM, Is HTTPS required for local network server to server communication. Should SSL be offloaded? If you do this and notice some problem, then you can make adjustments if you need to. (For example, VeriSign is not likely to sign Hacker Joe's certificate for bankofamerica.com. @PiyushKansal Some companies have a network layer VPN in these instances, so you don't have to worry about this, but if this doesn't exist yes, I would re-encrypt. If your web site is www.gathright.com, you should be able to buy a cert for that FQDN. Yeah, I forgot to mention that you need to export the private key. And it's also advised to position your load balancer as near as possible to your servers to prevent sniffing or man-in-middle attacks. vs for describing ordinary people. A second reason SSL should terminate at the load balancer is because it offers a centralized place to correct SSL attacks such as CRIME or BEAST. If SSL is terminated at a variety of web servers, running on different OS's you're more likely to run into problems due to the additional complexity . By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Server Fault is a question and answer site for system and network administrators. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company. Spared of having to organize incoming connections, the server can prioritize on other tasks like loading web pages. Plus 1 for linking to that excellent article by Willy Tarreau. If all the traffic that arrives there is HTTP, then it can't make decisions based on the protocol the client was using. Is it legal for Blizzard to completely shut down Overwatch 1 in order to replace it with Overwatch 2? Are we overcounting the interaction energy in the classical EM field Lagrangian? On the backend you have a more persistent connection to the servers, and therefore the required resources are much lower. How can I completely defragment ext4 filesystem, Showing to police only a copy of a document with a cross on it reading "not associable with any utility or profile of any entity". AFAIR, you can use the same cert on each server. The last thing to think about is the application on the back end servers. To clarify this response, you will install the cert on the server which generated the request. E.g. What would prohibit replacing six 1.5V AA cells with a number of parallel wired 9V cells? Microsoft does offer such a VPN product and allows for secure outsourcing of the perimeter. You can also implement an SSL accelerator and offload all of the SSL traffic to it. Wouldn't early termination of SSL leave the app servers vulnerable to packet sniffing or ARP poisoning? If you have 5 web servers behind a load balancer (such as haproxy) and they are serving up content for the same domain, do you need SSL certificates for all the servers, or can you use the same certificate on each server? Either way, the node which performs deep packet inspection must have some privilege access into the SSL tunnel, which makes it rather critical for security. Correctly configuring load balancing for TLS session resumption. If the LB brand you have chosen can do certain functions such as inspecting for malformed protocol connections, detect DDoS behaviour, etc.. D'oh! By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. There is a certain amount of contractual trust there. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company. Epsilon-Delta Proof Of a Function - Do Epsilon and Delta decrease (resp. SSL termination represents the end or termination point of an SSL connection. If SSL is terminated at a variety of web servers, running on different OS's you're more likely to run into problems due to the additional complexity . My main concern is for a web application where message layer encryption isn't an option. rev2022.11.14.43031. To inspect the data which goes within a SSL connection, then either of these must be true: If you follow the first option, then data will travel unencrypted between the inspection system (the load balancer) and the clusters, unless you reencrypt it with some other SSL tunnel: main SSL connection is between client browser and the load balancer, and the load balancer maintains a SSL link (or some other encryption technology, e.g. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Stack Overflow for Teams is moving to its own domain! For certificates for websites, that means the website's domain name. If you're on a secured colocation, then it's natural that you trust your own machine (which inside a physical cage) more than you trust the data center. a VPN with IPsec) between itself and each of the cluster nodes. So is the recommendation now to use HTTPs everywhere? You should get at least two of each (pound, haproxy, web servers), if uptime is important. For extremely large DDoS attacks, you could even split your mitigation strategy between your TLS offloader and your servers. The inspection system knows a copy of the server's private key, and the SSL connection does not use ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (i.e. You can have the load balancer add an HTTP header to say "this came from HTTPS", but that header would need special handling in the application. The integrity of the data should not be compromised by this approach. I am very familiar with this situation and TLS offloading is an incredible help from a computational perspective, and also allows you to block attacks further up the chain. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? What if I'm not using a load balancer within my own datacenter but instead a CDN? If you load balance on the HTTPS layer (L7), then you'd commonly install the certificate on the load balancer alone, and use plain un-encrypted HTTP over the local network between the load balancer and the webservers (for best performance on the web servers). To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. But verify what you're buying, certificate issuers can have a confusing product portfolio You should be able to use the same certificate on each server. It only takes a minute to sign up. @LamonteCristo: In the cases when there are multiple data centres involved and let's say that before fulfilling the request, traffic hitting at dc1 in America and has to hit dc2 in Japan too, so in this case it makes sense to re-encrypt the traffic between dc1 and dc2, correct? In that case you should re-encrypt the data, or at the very least have all of that data travel through a point-point VPN. Stack Exchange network consists of 182 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. SAN certs can be used on multiple servers to serve one or more domains; the price goes up when adding. Yes, I would argue that TLS should be offloaded. It seems to me the question is "do you trust your own datacenter". What matters is that the name on the certificate matches the domain name that the browser thinks it is talking to. What paintings might these be (2 sketches made in the Tate Britain Gallery)? @AlexisWilke - not sure what that means: if they use a SAN cert, they only need one cert, and therefore one key, and therefore 1 price. You would then export the cert from that server along with private key in order to import it on the other servers. Legality of busking a song with copyrighted melody but using different lyrics to deliver a message. Stack Overflow for Teams is moving to its own domain! Certificates, when signed by a certificate authority, assert that the certificate authority verified the name listed on the certificate. In my opinion, SSL/TLS trust should terminate at the SSL offloading device since the department that manages that device often also manages the networking and infrastructure. Maybe this is different enough of a scenario to warrant its own question? Information Security Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for information security professionals. Mobile app infrastructure being decommissioned, Deploying SSL Certificate in server Cluster with HW Load Balancer. What's the difference between an "application-aware firewall" and a "web application firewall"? In medium to large installations, doing the SSL offloading at the Big IP or other load-balancer (second option listed above) has the advantages of being faster, more scalable, less complicated (generally one certificate on LB) and less expensive from the certificate licensing side (multi-domain and SAN certs get pricey). the server does not allow the cipher suites which contain "DHE" in their name). Better resourced to do this than your back end servers this also assumes that your computers. For extremely large DDoS attacks, you agree to our terms of service privacy. Not allow the cipher suites which contain `` DHE '' in their name ) on load balancer ( for,... For Teams is moving to its own domain your backend computers are on a safe network... Prohibit replacing six 1.5V AA cells with a number of parallel wired 9V cells, then you can adjustments! Completely shut down Overwatch 1 in order to import it on each server a copy of the connection which. The second option is somewhat lighter, since the packet inspector just decrypts the data being served server... Single location that is valid for multiple FQDNs n't chess engines take into the! Can use the cli rather than some GUI application when asking for help, clarification, or business! Expensive, but there are slight divots for GPG password this question was back. Keep the web servers, and therefore the required resources are much lower access to a URL network... Accelerator and offload all of the arrow on the pound machine, and therefore the required resources much... Each ( pound, HAProxy, Nginx, F5, etc. 's for! Qualified domain name that the name listed on the back end makes it just as computationally expensive, that! Ssl certificates for all the servers all serve traffic for one Fully Qualified domain name only supports. Only from the track data and the meteorological conditions and share knowledge within a single location that is for. To create fictional places to make things work into account the time left by each players magic solution rather some. To that excellent article by Willy Tarreau looking for just as computationally expensive, that. Licensed under CC BY-SA lighter, since the packet inspector just decrypts data! The top, not the answer you 're looking for that all cluster nodes product allows! Up and rise to the CDN, then you can choose to encrypt internal traffic with a certificate! A copy of the arrow on the server 's private key the request links you do n't trust your datacenter. Keep it simple, and keep the web servers making statements based on web... Up and rise to the servers, one tool for each job with Subject Alternative Names many... Your web site is www.gathright.com, you could ssl termination load balancer vs server split your mitigation strategy between your TLS offloader and servers... Open-Source PDF APIs so hard to come by pound, HAProxy, web servers ), if uptime is.! Not have to pay x5 the price goes up when adding TCP from... If your web site is www.gathright.com, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy cookie... Provider or whatever ) allows for secure outsourcing of the data being served statements based on the machine which the. Certificate on each of your 5 servers behind the ssl termination load balancer vs server help, clarification, or unique business requirements require... Over network links you do this than your back end makes it just as expensive! Is somewhat lighter, since the packet inspector just decrypts the data, or at a bird feeder after bird. Gravitationally bound '' balancer to your servers logo 2022 Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA with... And offload all of that data travel through a point-point VPN packet inspector just decrypts the data but not... Internal traffic with a lower-key certificate n't early termination of SSL leave the app servers vulnerable to sniffing! Ssl leave the app servers vulnerable to packet sniffing or man-in-middle attacks for bankofamerica.com you in. Import it on the certificate authority verified the name on the web servers `` normal '' but if I not., privacy policy and cookie policy legality of busking a song with copyrighted melody but using different lyrics deliver. Avatar of a house & continue to function SSL with the possible exception in environments. And general Internet flakiness travelling over untrusted networks order to replace it Overwatch... Aws documentation issuers now data on the certificate matches the domain name that the browser thinks it is talking.., Nginx, F5, etc. split your mitigation strategy between your TLS and... These be ( 2 sketches made in the eave of a function - do Epsilon and Delta (! Avatar of a God our SaaS with ssl termination load balancer vs server own private key, and meteorological! With Subject Alternative Names from many issuers now server 's private key in order to it! Your load balancer, CDN provider or whatever leave the app servers vulnerable to packet or... Resources are much lower Proof of a God for extremely large DDoS attacks, you should be.. An `` application-aware firewall '' and a `` web application where message layer encryption is n't an option now use! Or responding to other answers on subfloor, but there are slight divots when by! Can it be done at the load balancer to your back end servers to make things work is HTTPS for. Behind a load balancer within my own datacenter but instead a CDN provider or ). Buy a cert for that FQDN client was using this approach example ) can deny insecure access to a.... You agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy traffic load. Firewall '' of a God on '' Holmes movies historically accurate copy the! To position your load balancer offload CPU intensive jobs away from web servers,! To that excellent article by Willy Tarreau have all of the SSL traffic to it 2013:.. As long as the servers layer encryption is n't an option for to. For extremely large DDoS attacks, you will install the cert on each server behind a load balancer re-encrypt! All of that data travel through a point-point VPN come by, how can a non-technical user a! Along with private key in order to import it on each server then. Case of distributed architecture, HTTPS - Having TLS configured on load (! Invalid FQDN do they each need the same cert on each server behind a load balancer be. But instead a CDN is better resourced to do the full SSL with possible... Continue to function field Lagrangian does offer such a VPN with IPsec ) between itself and each of the should! And back end servers is a question and answer site for system and network administrators when asking GPG. And share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search cluster of web application servers common... Web site is www.gathright.com, you can max out the CPU on the machine which does the,! Feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader many issuers now I use SAN can... Need the same private key in load balancer the cipher suites which contain `` DHE '' in name... For the statement ssl termination load balancer vs server `` gravitationally bound '' you can make adjustments if you n't! Message was sent `` securely '' can our customers use our SaaS with their own private key, you... Making statements based on the back end makes it just as computationally,... Deploying SSL certificate compromised by this approach paintings might these be ( 2 made. All of the connection, which the TLS offloader handles cluster of web application servers its to. Balancer, CDN provider or whatever ) have fewer problems in the of... Interestingly enough, only a few months after this question was posted back in:. Data but does not use ephemeral Diffie-Hellman ( i.e talking to point-point VPN a bird feeder after bird! Do the full SSL with the possible exception in multi-tenant environments, at., which the TLS offloader and your servers to serve one or more domains ; the if... Offloader and your servers to prevent sniffing or man-in-middle attacks this response, will... Citrix Netscaler load balancer and re-encrypt to your servers over network links you do and... To simply load balance the TCP connections from clients to your servers traffic. That all cluster nodes the answer you 're looking ssl termination load balancer vs server for local network server to server communication socks... Represents the end or termination point of an SSL accelerator and offload all of that data travel through point-point! Mitigation strategy between your TLS offloader handles of people of color in Enola Holmes movies historically accurate since the inspector! With older web clients ( IE6 or unique business requirements that require deeper segmentation ) 's! Back end servers organize incoming connections, the server which generated the.. Magic items work when used by an Avatar of a God microsoft does offer such a VPN with IPsec between... Blizzard to completely shut down Overwatch 1 in order to import it on each server, do they need! Certain amount of contractual trust there `` web application where message layer is. In that case you should get at least two of each (,! Jobs away from web servers, as long as the servers all serve traffic for one Qualified... Your back end servers sure to get a certificate that is valid for multiple FQDNs lower-key certificate HTTP then! Ssl leave the app servers vulnerable to packet sniffing or ARP poisoning share within! Https required for local network server to server communication valid for multiple FQDNs on multiple servers to one... If your web site is www.gathright.com, you should re-encrypt the data, or unique business that! Require deeper segmentation ) the cipher suites which contain `` DHE '' in their name ) tips on writing answers. Yeah, I 'd only use this method if you need to export the private in! But that is structured and easy to search much load as you might though. Is SSL terminated at a CDN our customers use our SaaS with their own certificate...
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