virtual host / apache2 / ssl configuration - auto redirect from 80 to 443 not working - bad request 400 error

Jeff Lever

5/21/24, 5:16 PM

This problem has cost me a few hours trying to fix and I simply have no clue - so huge thanks in advance to anyone that can help me solve this.

This is the Bad Request 400 error I get:

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Reason: You're speaking plain HTTP to an SSL-enabled server port.
Instead use the HTTPS scheme to access this URL, please.

And this is my vhosts file:

<Directory /var/www/sub1>
   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  sub1.site1.com
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName sub1.site1.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/sub1
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/sub1.site1.com/cert.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/sub1.site1.com/privkey.pem
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/sub1.site1.com/chain.pem
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Here's the strange part - as long as I specify port 80 at the end of the URL - it works fine. If I DON'T type in http:// at the front of the URL - it works fine. -BUT- If I type in http://sub1.site1.com - it throws the above error.

I'm not sure if my apache2 config or the fact that I used certbot on my ubuntu server has something to do with this odd error, but I've tried everything I can think of to fix it.

So why would:

sub1.site1.com
sub1.site1.com:443
https://sub1.site1.com
http://sub1.site1.com:80

All work just fine, but

http://sub1.site1.com

Throw the above error rather than just automatically redirecting to one of the 4 url's that work fine?

249

0 + 3

server

networking

ssl

apache2

John Hanley

5/21/24, 7:01 PM

Please review how other people format details in their posts. Then update your post.

John Hanley

5/22/24, 1:30 AM

Are you entering the URL in a browser or via a CLI tool? If a CLI tool show the entire command.

John Hanley

5/22/24, 1:32 AM

Run the following command. Post the command and output in your post. `curl -v -L http://sub1.site1.com`.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: virtual host / apache2 / ssl configuration - auto redirect from 80 to 443 not working - bad request 400 error

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