TLS SNI

TLS Server Name Indication

SNI allows browser to pass requested server name during the SSL handshake

info

To support multiple SSL server_name server section, Nginx version must support SNI

To check if Nginx supports SNI

Ref: Configuring HTTPS servers

$ nginx -V
...
TLS SNI support enabled
...

Check the error_log that without

nginx was built with SNI support, however, now it is linked
dynamically to an OpenSSL library which has no tlsext support,
therefore SNI is not available

info

If Nginx does not support TLS SNI, Nginx will use default server certificate for all request

Testing

Create self signed certificate

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa -nodes -keyout default.key -days 36500 -out default.crt -subj "/CN=example.org"

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa -nodes -keyout a.key -days 36500 -out a.crt -subj "/CN=a.example.org"

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa -nodes -keyout b.key -days 36500 -out b.crt -subj "/CN=b.example.org"

server {
    listen       443 ssl default_server;
    server_name  "";

    ssl_certificate      default.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key  default.key;

    default_type text/plain;
    return 200 "default page";
}

server {
    listen       443 ssl;
    server_name  a.example.org;

    ssl_certificate      a.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key  a.key;

    default_type text/plain;
    return 200 "a.example.org page";
}

server {
    listen       443 ssl;
    server_name  b.example.org;

    ssl_certificate      b.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key  b.key;

    default_type text/plain;
    return 200 "b.example.org page";
}

Test SNI

Use curl -v to show the certificate

curl --insecure --resolve "a.example.org:443:127.0.0.1" https://a.example.org

a.example.org page

curl --insecure --resolve "b.example.org:443:127.0.0.1" https://b.example.org

b.example.org page

curl --insecure https://127.0.0.1

default page

To check if Nginx supports SNI​

Testing​

To check if Nginx supports SNI

Testing