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<!DOCTYPE document [
<!ENTITY project SYSTEM "project.xml">
]>
<document url="ssl-howto.html">
&project;
<properties>
<title>SSL/TLS Configuration How-To</title>
</properties>
<body>
<section name="Table of Contents">
<toc/>
</section>
<section name="Quick Start">
<p><em>The description below uses the variable name $CATALINA_BASE to refer the
base directory against which most relative paths are resolved. If you have
not configured Tomcat for multiple instances by setting a CATALINA_BASE
directory, then $CATALINA_BASE will be set to the value of $CATALINA_HOME,
the directory into which you have installed Tomcat.</em></p>
<p>To install and configure SSL/TLS support on Tomcat, you need to follow
these simple steps. For more information, read the rest of this How-To.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Create a keystore file to store the server's private key and
self-signed certificate by executing the following command:</p>
<p>Windows:</p>
<source>"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA</source>
<p>Unix:</p>
<source>$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA</source>
<p>and specify a password value of "changeit".</p></li>
<li><p>Uncomment the "SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector" entry in
<code>$CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml</code> and modify as described in
the <a href="#Configuration">Configuration section</a> below.</p></li>
</ol>
</section>
<section name="Introduction to SSL/TLS" anchor="Introduction_to_SSL">
<p>Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL), are technologies which allow web browsers and web servers to communicate
over a secured connection. This means that the data being sent is encrypted by
one side, transmitted, then decrypted by the other side before processing.
This is a two-way process, meaning that both the server AND the browser encrypt
all traffic before sending out data.</p>
<p>Another important aspect of the SSL/TLS protocol is Authentication. This means
that during your initial attempt to communicate with a web server over a secure
connection, that server will present your web browser with a set of
credentials, in the form of a "Certificate", as proof the site is who and what
it claims to be. In certain cases, the server may also request a Certificate
from your web browser, asking for proof that <em>you</em> are who you claim
to be. This is known as "Client Authentication," although in practice this is
used more for business-to-business (B2B) transactions than with individual
users. Most SSL-enabled web servers do not request Client Authentication.</p>
</section>
<section name="SSL/TLS and Tomcat" anchor="SSL_and_Tomcat">
<p>It is important to note that configuring Tomcat to take advantage of
secure sockets is usually only necessary when running it as a stand-alone
web server. Details can be found in the
<a href="security-howto.html">Security Considerations Document</a>.
When running Tomcat primarily as a Servlet/JSP container behind
another web server, such as Apache or Microsoft IIS, it is usually necessary
to configure the primary web server to handle the SSL connections from users.
Typically, this server will negotiate all SSL-related functionality, then
pass on any requests destined for the Tomcat container only after decrypting
those requests. Likewise, Tomcat will return cleartext responses, that will
be encrypted before being returned to the user's browser. In this environment,
Tomcat knows that communications between the primary web server and the
client are taking place over a secure connection (because your application
needs to be able to ask about this), but it does not participate in the
encryption or decryption itself.</p>
<p>Tomcat is able to use any of the cryptographic protocols that are
provided by the underlying environment. Java itself provides cryptographic
capabilities through <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/security/java-cryptography-architecture-jca-reference-guide.htm">JCE/JCA</a>
and encrypted communications capabilities through <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/security/java-secure-socket-extension-jsse-reference-guide.htm">JSSE</a>.
Any compliant cryptographic "provider" can provide cryptographic algorithms
to Tomcat. The built-in provider (SunJCE) includes support for various
SSL/TLS versions like SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1, and so on. Check the documentation
for your version of Java for details on protocol and algorithm support.</p>
<p>If you use the optional <code>tcnative</code> library, you can use
the <a href="https://www.openssl.org/">OpenSSL</a> cryptographic provider
through JCA/JCE/JSSE which may provide a different selection of cryptographic
algorithms and/or performance benefits relative to the SunJCE provider.
Check the documentation for your version of OpenSSL for details on protocol and
algorithm support.</p>
</section>
<section name="Certificates">
<p>In order to implement SSL, a web server must have an associated Certificate
for each external interface (IP address) that accepts secure connections.
The theory behind this design is that a server should provide some kind of
reasonable assurance that its owner is who you think it is, particularly
before receiving any sensitive information. While a broader explanation of
Certificates is beyond the scope of this document, think of a Certificate as a
"digital passport" for an Internet address. It states which organisation the
site is associated with, along with some basic contact information about the
site owner or administrator.</p>
<p>This certificate is cryptographically signed by its owner, and is
therefore extremely difficult for anyone else to forge. For the certificate to
work in the visitors browsers without warnings, it needs to be signed by a
trusted third party. These are called <em>Certificate Authorities</em> (CAs). To
obtain a signed certificate, you need to choose a CA and follow the instructions
your chosen CA provides to obtain your certificate. A range of CAs is available
including some that offer certificates at no cost.</p>
<p>Java provides a relatively simple command-line tool, called
<code>keytool</code>, which can easily create a "self-signed" Certificate.
Self-signed Certificates are simply user generated Certificates which have not
been signed by a well-known CA and are, therefore, not really guaranteed to be
authentic at all. While self-signed certificates can be useful for some testing
scenarios, they are not suitable for any form of production use.</p>
</section>
<section name="General Tips on Running SSL">
<p>When securing a website with SSL it's important to make sure that all assets
that the site uses are served over SSL, so that an attacker can't bypass
the security by injecting malicious content in a JavaScript file or similar. To
further enhance the security of your website, you should evaluate to use the
HSTS header. It allows you to communicate to the browser that your site should
always be accessed over https.</p>
<p>Using name-based virtual hosts on a secured connection requires careful
configuration of the names specified in a single certificate or Tomcat 8.5
onwards where Server Name Indication (SNI) support is available. SNI allows
multiple certificates with different names to be associated with a single TLS
connector.</p>
</section>
<section name="Configuration">
<subsection name="Prepare the Certificate Keystore">
<p>Tomcat currently operates only on <code>JKS</code>, <code>PKCS11</code> or
<code>PKCS12</code> format keystores. The <code>JKS</code> format
is Java's standard "Java KeyStore" format, and is the format created by the
<code>keytool</code> command-line utility. This tool is included in the JDK.
The <code>PKCS12</code> format is an internet standard, and can be manipulated
via (among other things) OpenSSL and Microsoft's Key-Manager.
</p>
<p>Each entry in a keystore is identified by an alias string. Whilst many
keystore implementations treat aliases in a case insensitive manner, case
sensitive implementations are available. The <code>PKCS11</code> specification,
for example, requires that aliases are case sensitive. To avoid issues related
to the case sensitivity of aliases, it is not recommended to use aliases that
differ only in case.
</p>
<p>To import an existing certificate into a <code>JKS</code> keystore, please read the
documentation (in your JDK documentation package) about <code>keytool</code>.
Note that OpenSSL often adds readable comments before the key, but
<code>keytool</code> does not support that. So if your certificate has
comments before the key data, remove them before importing the certificate with
<code>keytool</code>.
</p>
<p>To import an existing certificate signed by your own CA into a <code>PKCS12</code>
keystore using OpenSSL you would execute a command like:</p>
<source>openssl pkcs12 -export -in mycert.crt -inkey mykey.key
-out mycert.p12 -name tomcat -CAfile myCA.crt
-caname root -chain</source>
<p>For more advanced cases, consult the
<a href="https://www.openssl.org/" rel="nofollow">OpenSSL documentation</a>.</p>
<p>To create a new <code>JKS</code> keystore from scratch, containing a single
self-signed Certificate, execute the following from a terminal command line:</p>
<p>Windows:</p>
<source>"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA</source>
<p>Unix:</p>
<source>$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA</source>
<p>(The RSA algorithm should be preferred as a secure algorithm, and this
also ensures general compatibility with other servers and components.)</p>
<p>This command will create a new file, in the home directory of the user
under which you run it, named "<code>.keystore</code>". To specify a
different location or filename, add the <code>-keystore</code> parameter,
followed by the complete pathname to your keystore file,
to the <code>keytool</code> command shown above. You will also need to
reflect this new location in the <code>server.xml</code> configuration file,
as described later. For example:</p>
<p>Windows:</p>
<source>"%JAVA_HOME%\bin\keytool" -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA
-keystore \path\to\my\keystore</source>
<p>Unix:</p>
<source>$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA
-keystore /path/to/my/keystore</source>
<p>After executing this command, you will first be prompted for the keystore
password. The default password used by Tomcat is "<code>changeit</code>"
(all lower case), although you can specify a custom password if you like.
You will also need to specify the custom password in the
<code>server.xml</code> configuration file, as described later.</p>
<p>Next, you will be prompted for general information about this Certificate,
such as company, contact name, and so on. This information will be displayed
to users who attempt to access a secure page in your application, so make
sure that the information provided here matches what they will expect.</p>
<p>Finally, you will be prompted for the <em>key password</em>, which is the
password specifically for this Certificate (as opposed to any other
Certificates stored in the same keystore file). The <code>keytool</code> prompt
will tell you that pressing the ENTER key automatically uses the same password
for the key as the keystore. You are free to use the same password or to select
a custom one. If you select a different password to the keystore password, you
will also need to specify the custom password in the <code>server.xml</code>
configuration file.</p>
<p>If everything was successful, you now have a keystore file with a
Certificate that can be used by your server.</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Edit the Tomcat Configuration File">
<p>
Tomcat can use two different implementations of SSL:
</p>
<ul>
<li>JSSE implementation provided as part of the Java runtime</li>
<li>JSSE implementation that uses OpenSSL</li>
</ul>
<p>
The exact configuration details depend on which implementation is being used.
If you configured Connector by specifying generic
<code>protocol="HTTP/1.1"</code> then the implementation used by Tomcat is
chosen automatically.
</p>
<p>
Auto-selection of implementation can be avoided if needed. It is done by specifying a classname
in the <b>protocol</b> attribute of the <a href="config/http.html">Connector</a>.</p>
<p>To define a Java (JSSE) connector, regardless of whether the APR library is
loaded or not, use one of the following:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<!-- Define an HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443, JSSE NIO implementation -->
<Connector protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
sslImplementationName="org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSEImplementation"
port="8443" .../>
<!-- Define an HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443, JSSE NIO2 implementation -->
<Connector protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Nio2Protocol"
sslImplementationName="org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSEImplementation"
port="8443" .../>]]></source>
<p>The OpenSSL JSSE implementation can also be configured explicitly if needed.
If the Tomcat Native library or Java 22 is installed, using the
<code>sslImplementationName</code>
attribute allows enabling it. When using the OpenSSL JSSE implementation, the
configuration can use either the JSSE attributes or the OpenSSL attributes, but
must not mix attributes from both types in the same SSLHostConfig or Connector
element.</p>
<p>With Tomcat Native:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<!-- Define an HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443, JSSE NIO implementation and OpenSSL -->
<Connector protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" port="8443"
sslImplementationName="org.apache.tomcat.util.net.openssl.OpenSSLImplementation"
.../>]]></source>
<p>With Java 22 FFM API:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<!-- Define an HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443, JSSE NIO implementation and OpenSSL -->
<Connector protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" port="8443"
sslImplementationName="org.apache.tomcat.util.net.openssl.panama.OpenSSLImplementation"
.../>]]></source>
<p>Alternately a listener can be added to the <code>Server</code> to enable
OpenSSL on all connectors without having to add the
<code>sslImplementationName</code> attribute on each.</p>
<p>With Tomcat Native:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener"/>]]></source>
<p>With Java 22 FFM API:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.OpenSSLLifecycleListener"/>]]></source>
<p>
The <code>SSLRandomSeed</code> attribute of the listeners allows specifying a
source of entropy.
Productive system needs a reliable source of entropy but entropy may need a lot
of time to be collected therefore test systems could use no blocking entropy
sources like "/dev/urandom" that will allow quicker starts of Tomcat.
</p>
<p>The final step is to configure the Connector in the
<code>$CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml</code> file, where
<code>$CATALINA_BASE</code> represents the base directory for the
Tomcat instance. An example <code><Connector></code> element
for an SSL connector is included in the default <code>server.xml</code>
file installed with Tomcat. To configure an SSL connector that uses JSSE with
the JSSE configuration style, you will need to remove the comments and edit it
so it looks something like this:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<!-- Define an SSL Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443 -->
<Connector
protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
port="8443"
maxThreads="150"
SSLEnabled="true">
<SSLHostConfig>
<Certificate
certificateKeystoreFile="${user.home}/.keystore"
certificateKeystorePassword="changeit"
type="RSA"
/>
</SSLHostConfig>
</Connector>]]></source>
<p>
The OpenSSL configuration style uses different attributes for many SSL settings,
particularly keys and certificates. An example of an APR configuration style
is:</p>
<source><![CDATA[<!-- Define an SSL Coyote HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443 -->
<Connector
protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
port="8443"
maxThreads="150"
SSLEnabled="true" >
<SSLHostConfig>
<Certificate
certificateKeyFile="conf/localhost-rsa-key.pem"
certificateFile="conf/localhost-rsa-cert.pem"
certificateChainFile="conf/localhost-rsa-chain.pem"
type="RSA"
/>
</SSLHostConfig>
</Connector>]]></source>
<p>The configuration options and information on which attributes
are mandatory, are documented in the SSL Support section of the
<a href="config/http.html#SSL_Support">HTTP connector</a> configuration
reference. Tomcat supports either configuration style (JSSE or OpenSSL) with all
TLS connectors.</p>
<p>The <code>port</code> attribute is the TCP/IP
port number on which Tomcat will listen for secure connections. You can
change this to any port number you wish (such as to the default port for
<code>https</code> communications, which is 443). However, special setup
(outside the scope of this document) is necessary to run Tomcat on port
numbers lower than 1024 on many operating systems.</p>
<p><em>If you change the port number here, you should also change the
value specified for the <code>redirectPort</code> attribute on the
non-SSL connector. This allows Tomcat to automatically redirect
users who attempt to access a page with a security constraint specifying
that SSL is required, as required by the Servlet Specification.</em></p>
<p>After completing these configuration changes, you must restart Tomcat as
you normally do, and you should be in business. You should be able to access
any web application supported by Tomcat via SSL. For example, try:</p>
<source>https://localhost:8443/</source>
<p>and you should see the usual Tomcat splash page (unless you have modified
the ROOT web application). If this does not work, the following section
contains some troubleshooting tips.</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Installing a Certificate from a Certificate Authority">
<p>To obtain and install a Certificate from a Certificate Authority (like verisign.com, thawte.com
or trustcenter.de), read the previous section and then follow these instructions:</p>
<subsection name="Create a local Certificate Signing Request (CSR)">
<p>In order to obtain a Certificate from the Certificate Authority of your choice
you have to create a so called Certificate Signing Request (CSR). That CSR will be used
by the Certificate Authority to create a Certificate that will identify your website
as "secure". To create a CSR follow these steps:</p>
<ul>
<li>Create a local self-signed Certificate (as described in the previous section):
<source>keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA
-keystore <your_keystore_filename></source>
Note: In some cases you will have to enter the domain of your website (i.e. <code>www.myside.org</code>)
in the field "first- and lastname" in order to create a working Certificate.
</li>
<li>The CSR is then created with:
<source>keytool -certreq -keyalg RSA -alias tomcat -file certreq.csr
-keystore <your_keystore_filename></source>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Now you have a file called <code>certreq.csr</code> that you can submit to the Certificate Authority (look at the
documentation of the Certificate Authority website on how to do this). In return you get a Certificate.</p>
</subsection>
<subsection name="Importing the Certificate">
<p>Now that you have your Certificate you can import it into you local keystore.
First of all you have to import a so called Chain Certificate or Root Certificate into your keystore.
After that you can proceed with importing your Certificate.</p>
<ul>
<li>Download a Chain Certificate from the Certificate Authority you obtained the Certificate from.<br/>
For Verisign.com commercial certificates go to:
http://www.verisign.com/support/install/intermediate.html<br/>
For Verisign.com trial certificates go to:
http://www.verisign.com/support/verisign-intermediate-ca/Trial_Secure_Server_Root/index.html<br/>
For Trustcenter.de go to:
http://www.trustcenter.de/certservices/cacerts/en/en.htm#server<br/>
For Thawte.com go to:
http://www.thawte.com/certs/trustmap.html<br/>
</li>
<li>Import the Chain Certificate into your keystore
<source>keytool -import -alias root -keystore <your_keystore_filename>
-trustcacerts -file <filename_of_the_chain_certificate></source>
</li>
<li>And finally import your new Certificate
<source>keytool -import -alias tomcat -keystore <your_keystore_filename>
-file <your_certificate_filename></source>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Each Certificate Authority tends to differ slightly from the others. They may
require slightly different information and/or provide the certificate and
associated certificate chain in different formats. Additionally, the rules that
the Certificate Authorities use for issuing certificates change over time. As a
result you may find that the commands given above may need to be modified. If
you require assistance then help is available via the
<a href="http://tomcat.apache.org/lists.html#tomcat-users">Apache Tomcat users
mailing list</a>.</p>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Using OCSP Certificates">
<p>Tomcat supports the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) to verify the
status of client provided certificates for a sub-set of connector
configurations.</p>
<p>To use OCSP, you require the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>OCSP-enabled certificates</li>
<li>Tomcat with an OCSP enabled connector</li>
<li>Configured OCSP responder</li>
</ul>
<p>OCSP is currently implemented for the following connector configurations:</p>
<ul>
<li>NIO or NIO2 HTTP connector with the
<code>org.apache.tomcat.util.net.openssl.OpenSSLImplementation</code>,
a Tomcat Native build where OCSP is enabled and using the OpenSSL style
configuration.</li>
<li>NIO or NIO2 HTTP connector with the
<code>org.apache.tomcat.util.net.openssl.panama.OpenSSLImplementation</code>,
and using the OpenSSL style configuration. This uses FFM so Java 22 or
later is also required.</li>
</ul>
<p>OCSP is not supported if the
<code>org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSEImplementation</code> is used or if
the JSSE configuraton style is used.</p>
<subsection name="Generating OCSP-Enabled Certificates">
<p>Apache Tomcat requires the OCSP-enabled certificate to have the OCSP
responder location encoded in the certificate. The basic OCSP-related
certificate authority settings in the <code>openssl.cnf</code> file could look
as follows:</p>
<source>
#... omitted for brevity
[x509]
x509_extensions = v3_issued
[v3_issued]
subjectKeyIdentifier=hash
authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
# The address of your responder
authorityInfoAccess = OCSP;URI:http://127.0.0.1:8088
keyUsage = critical,digitalSignature,nonRepudiation,keyEncipherment,dataEncipherment,keyAgreement,keyCertSign,cRLSign,encipherOnly,decipherOnly
basicConstraints=critical,CA:FALSE
nsComment="Testing OCSP Certificate"
#... omitted for brevity
</source>
<p>The settings above encode the OCSP responder address
<code>127.0.0.1:8088</code> into the certificate. Note that for the following
steps, you must have <code>openssl.cnf</code> and other configuration of
your CA ready. To generate an OCSP-enabled certificate:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Create a private key:
<source>openssl genrsa -aes256 -out ocsp-cert.key 4096</source>
</li>
<li>
Create a signing request (CSR):
<source>openssl req -config openssl.cnf -new -sha256 \
-key ocsp-cert.key -out ocsp-cert.csr</source></li>
<li>
Sign the CSR:
<source>openssl ca -openssl.cnf -extensions ocsp -days 375 -notext \
-md sha256 -in ocsp-cert.csr -out ocsp-cert.crt</source>
</li>
<li>
You may verify the certificate:
<source>openssl x509 -noout -text -in ocsp-cert.crt</source>
</li>
</ul>
</subsection>
</section>
<section name="Troubleshooting">
<p>Additional information may be obtained about TLS handshake failures by
configuring the dedicated TLS handshake logger to log debug level messages by
adding the following to <code>$CATALINA_BASE/conf/logging.properties</code>:
<source>org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint.handshake.level=FINE</source>
or
<source>org.apache.tomcat.util.net.Nio2Endpoint.handshake.level=FINE</source>
depending on the <strong>Connector</strong> being used.
</p>
<p>Here is a list of common problems that you may encounter when setting up
SSL communications, and what to do about them.</p>
<ul>
<li>When Tomcat starts up, I get an exception like
"java.io.FileNotFoundException: {some-directory}/{some-file} not found".
<p>A likely explanation is that Tomcat cannot find the keystore file
where it is looking. By default, Tomcat expects the keystore file to
be named <code>.keystore</code> in the user home directory under which
Tomcat is running (which may or may not be the same as yours :-). If
the keystore file is anywhere else, you will need to add a
<code>certificateKeystoreFile</code> attribute to the
<code><Certificate></code>
element in the <a href="#Edit_the_Tomcat_Configuration_File">Tomcat
configuration file</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>When Tomcat starts up, I get an exception like
"java.io.FileNotFoundException: Keystore was tampered with, or
password was incorrect".
<p>Assuming that someone has not <em>actually</em> tampered with
your keystore file, the most likely cause is that Tomcat is using
a different password than the one you used when you created the
keystore file. To fix this, you can either go back and
<a href="#Prepare_the_Certificate_Keystore">recreate the keystore
file</a>, or you can add or update the <code>keystorePass</code>
attribute on the <code><Connector></code> element in the
<a href="#Edit_the_Tomcat_Configuration_File">Tomcat configuration
file</a>. <strong>REMINDER</strong> - Passwords are case sensitive!</p>
</li>
<li>When Tomcat starts up, I get an exception like
"java.net.SocketException: SSL handshake error javax.net.ssl.SSLException: No
available certificate or key corresponds to the SSL cipher suites which are
enabled."
<p>A likely explanation is that Tomcat cannot find the alias for the server
key within the specified keystore. Check that the correct
<code>certificateKeystoreFile</code> and <code>certificateKeyAlias</code>
are specified in the <code><Certificate></code> element in the
<a href="#Edit_the_Tomcat_Configuration_File">Tomcat configuration file</a>.
<strong>REMINDER</strong> - <code>keyAlias</code> values may be case
sensitive!</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are still having problems, a good source of information is the
<strong>TOMCAT-USER</strong> mailing list. You can find pointers to archives
of previous messages on this list, as well as subscription and unsubscription
information, at
<a href="https://tomcat.apache.org/lists.html">https://tomcat.apache.org/lists.html</a>.</p>
</section>
<section name="Using the SSL for session tracking in your application">
<p>This is a new feature in the Servlet 3.0 specification. Because it uses the
SSL session ID associated with the physical client-server connection there
are some limitations. They are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Tomcat must have a connector with the attribute
<strong>isSecure</strong> set to <code>true</code>.</li>
<li>If SSL connections are managed by a proxy or a hardware accelerator
they must populate the SSL request headers (see the
<a href="config/valve.html">SSLValve</a>) so that
the SSL session ID is visible to Tomcat.</li>
<li>If Tomcat terminates the SSL connection, it will not be possible to use
session replication as the SSL session IDs will be different on each
node.</li>
</ul>
<p>
To enable SSL session tracking you need to use a context listener to set the
tracking mode for the context to be just SSL (if any other tracking mode is
enabled, it will be used in preference). It might look something like:</p>
<source><![CDATA[package org.apache.tomcat.example;
import java.util.EnumSet;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletContext;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
import jakarta.servlet.ServletContextListener;
import jakarta.servlet.SessionTrackingMode;
public class SessionTrackingModeListener implements ServletContextListener {
@Override
public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent event) {
// Do nothing
}
@Override
public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent event) {
ServletContext context = event.getServletContext();
EnumSet<SessionTrackingMode> modes =
EnumSet.of(SessionTrackingMode.SSL);
context.setSessionTrackingModes(modes);
}
}]]></source>
</section>
<section name="Miscellaneous Tips and Bits">
<p>To access the SSL session ID from the request, use:</p>
<source><![CDATA[String sslID = (String)request.getAttribute("jakarta.servlet.request.ssl_session_id");]]></source>
<p>
For additional discussion on this area, please see
<a href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22679">Bugzilla</a>.
</p>
<p>To terminate an SSL session, use:</p>
<source><![CDATA[// Standard HTTP session invalidation
session.invalidate();
// Invalidate the SSL Session
org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SSLSessionManager mgr =
(org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SSLSessionManager)
request.getAttribute("jakarta.servlet.request.ssl_session_mgr");
mgr.invalidateSession();
// Close the connection since the SSL session will be active until the connection
// is closed
response.setHeader("Connection", "close");]]></source>
</section>
</body>
</document>