Category: Apache

To enable the Apache SSL module in Ubuntu, follow these steps

Update apt package cache

apt update

Install Apache SSL module

apt install libapache2-mod-ssl

Enable the SSL module

a2enmod ssl

Example

# a2enmod ssl
Considering dependency setenvif for ssl:
Module setenvif already enabled
Considering dependency mime for ssl:
Module mime already enabled
Considering dependency socache_shmcb for ssl:
Enabling module socache_shmcb.
Enabling module ssl.
See /usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian.gz on how to configure SSL and create self-signed certificates.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 restart
# 

Restart Apache webserver

# service apache2 restart
 * Restarting web server apache2     [ OK ] 
#

Verify Apache SSL module is installed.

# apache2ctl -M | grep ssl
 ssl_module (shared)
# 

See Configure SSL in Apache

Enable HSTS

Header set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

Enable X-Frame-Options

Header always append X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN

Enable X-XSS-Protection

Header set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"

Enable X-Content-Type-Options

Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"

Enable Referrer-Policy

Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin"

Enable Content Security Policy (CSP)

Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; font-src *;img-src * data:; script-src *; style-src *;"

Enable Permissions-Policy

Header always set Permissions-Policy "geolocation=(),midi=(),sync-xhr=(),microphone=(),camera=(),magnetometer=(),gyroscope=(),fullscreen=(self),payment=()"

Back to Apache

On an Apache server, when accessing a long URL, got 414 Request-URI Too Long

The error is because the URL is too long, this may be a bug with the web applications. If you pass so much data, you should consider using the HTTP POST method instead of GET request.

To fix this error, edit the apache config file, and add the following 2 lines

LimitRequestLine 40940
LimitRequestFieldSize 40940

On Debian/Ubuntu, create

vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/url-length.conf

On RHEL based OS, create

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/url-length.conf

Add the following 2 lines

LimitRequestLine 40940
LimitRequestFieldSize 40940

Restart Apache

For Ubuntu/Debian

systemctl restart apache2

For RHEL/AlmaLinux/OracleLinux

systemctl restart httpd

See Nginx HTTP 414 request-URI too large, Apache

To install the latest version of Apache Web Server from source code, go to the apache website, download the latest source code .tar.gz file.

https://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

At the time of writing this, the latest version was Apache HTTP Server 2.4.52.

cd /usr/local/src
wget --no-check-certificate https://dlcdn.apache.org//httpd/httpd-2.4.52.tar.gz
tar xvf httpd-2.4.52.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/httpd-2.4.52
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-proxy --enable-proxy-connect --enable-proxy-fcgi --enable-remoteip
make
make install

If you get an error related to APR

checking for APR... no
configure: error: APR not found.  Please read the documentation.

Install APR with

For RHEL

yum -y install apr-devel apr-util-devel

For Ubuntu/Debian

apt install libapr1-dev libaprutil1-dev libpcre3-dev build-essential

To start Apache, use the command

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

To stop

/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop

Apache config files are located at

/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Create Apache Service file

?

Create file

vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service

With the following content

[Unit]
Description=The Apache HTTP Server
After=network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start
ExecReload=/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful
ExecStop=/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful-stop
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start Apache service with
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable apache2
systemctl restart apache2

To enable Apache module, you can edit file /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
Here are sed commands to enable some common apache modules
sed -i 's/^#LoadModule proxy_module/LoadModule proxy_module/g'  /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
sed -i 's/^#LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module/LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module/g'  /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
sed -i 's/^#LoadModule ssl_module/LoadModule ssl_module/g'  /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
sed -i 's/^#LoadModule rewrite_module/LoadModule rewrite_module/g'  /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

On a CentOS server, when uploading a 100 MB video file in WordPress media manager, I got the following error message

Request Entity Too Large
The requested resource /wp-admin/async-upload.php
does not allow request data with POST requests, or the amount of data provided in the request exceeds the capacity limit.

The server had mod_security installed. I edited the mod_security config file

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/mod_security.conf

Set following for values and restart Apache.

SecRequestBodyLimit 1073741824000
SecRequestBodyNoFilesLimit 1073741824000
SecRequestBodyInMemoryLimit 1073741824000

But I still get the same error. So I disabled mod_security by moving the config file to a temporary directory and restarting apache.

The error was due to Apache setting LimitRequestBody, the error is fixed by adding “LimitRequestBody 0” in the .htaccess file used by WordPress.

LimitRequestBody 0

Now when I enable mod_security, I get 500 error, I disabled mod_seurity for the file upload PHP script used by WordPress by editing the Apache VirtualHost entry of the website and adding

    SecRuleEngine Off