Score:0

Do I need to get a certificate to enable HTTPS if I'm running my own server?

us flag

I have a server with several domains but over HTTP and now I need to enable HTTPS.

Do I need to get a certificate to enable HTTPS if I'm running my own server?

I'm asking because all the pages that I read are for people that are using a third party server and have a panel to ask for a certificate. I don't have that; I'm running on Apache and all the modifications are made it by editing files.

Would somebody put me in context please?

dave_thompson_085 avatar
jp flag
If Apache httpd, the [official doc pages](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ssl/) certainly are for editing the config yourself and no panel. If Apache Tomcat ditto e.g. [for version 10.1](https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-10.1-doc/ssl-howto.html). Note for multiple domain names _if_ they are all one-level under a common suffix you can use one 'wildcard' cert; otherwise you must either get a cert with multiple names in SAN (this used to be called UCC but now mostly just multidomain) or _multiple_ certs which together contain all names and configure vhosts with the different certs (and keys).
E_Blue avatar
us flag
@dave_thompson_085 All the web addresses are under a common name like www.myweb.com, info.myweb.com, mobile.myweb.com but one has a completely different name; so, as far I understand this not fulfill the requirements to be compatible with a wildcard certificate, but somebody told to my boss that you can have like 20 domains registered with the same certificate and as many subdomains as you need. I think this is completely wrong and we should use an UCC not a wildcard certificate. I'm wrong?
dave_thompson_085 avatar
jp flag
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Registry-level domain names versus names under such domains (subdomains) are irrelevant for certs (though often important to people using certs); they are all names. Technically a PKIX cert can have many thousands of names in SAN and perhaps nearly a million, but most CAs set a much lower limit for their issuances, like 10 or 20 or 50 or 100. Each name can be a wildcard if the CA allows, and each name that is a wildcard matches any number of actual (DNS) names that differ only in _one_ leftmost label.
Score:1
cw flag

You could try a self-signed certificate service. It will be https but users will see that it's not a trusted certificate.

There are some low cost certificate options out there as well.

Ginnungagap avatar
gu flag
*there are some no-cost certificate options out there as well
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