I am trying to set up a reverse proxy server, with TLS passthrough.
I am behind CGNAT, so I cannot forward any ports from my home server. So, my current workaround was that I connected my home server to a VPS via WireGuard and used Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) to proxy services running on different docker containers to the VPS, so that they are accessible publicly. But now I want to use TLS passthrough for better privacy. But I cannot find any guides for my case.
I need help with 2 issues, basically. Let’s take a look at my passthrough.conf
file, which I have included in nginx.conf
file.
stream {
# Listen for incoming TLS connections on service1.domain.me
server {
listen 443;
proxy_pass service1.domain.me;
proxy_ssl on;
proxy_ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
proxy_ssl_name $ssl_preread_server_name;
}
# Listen for incoming TLS connections on service2.domain.me
# server {
# listen 443;
# proxy_pass service2.domain.me;
# proxy_ssl on;
# proxy_ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
# proxy_ssl_name $ssl_preread_server_name;
# }
# Define the backend server for service1.domain.me
upstream service1.domain.me {
server homeserverIP:port;
}
# Define the backend server for service2.domain.me
# upstream service2.domain.me {
# server homeserverIP:port;
# }
}
The services are running in docker containers on different ports. When I used two server blocks and two upstream blocks, I got this error while testing NGINX config: nginx: [emerg] duplicate "0.0.0.0:443" address and port pair in /etc/nginx/passthrough.conf:13
. So, I commented out the other server block and tested it again. The test was successful, but NGINX failed to restart. When I checked the systemctl status
I saw: nginx[2480644]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:443 failed (98: Address already in use)
. This is because I am already hosting multiple WordPress sites on this VPS.
Here’s my nginx.conf
file:
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;
events {
worker_connections 768;
}
http {
sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
types_hash_max_size 2048;
include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
client_max_body_size 100M;
server_tokens off;
}
#include /etc/nginx/passthrough.conf;
I do not know much about NGINX configuration, any help or article links would help.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web HTTPS HTTP over SSL IP Internet Protocol NAT Network Address Translation SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption TCP Transmission Control Protocol, most often over IP TLS Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL VPN Virtual Private Network VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting) nginx Popular HTTP server
8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.
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I am running a similar setup to yours. The issue is that only one server block can listen to an address+port pair. You ought to do something like this:
map $ssl_preread_server_name $proxy_backend_router { serviceA.example.com upstreamA:12346; serviceB.example.com upstreamB:12346; default $ssl_preread_server_name.invalid_proxy:443; } server { listen 443; ssl_preread on; proxy_pass $proxy_backend_router; }
Can you link some documentation or a guide that can explain all this?
The nginx documentation for the ssl preread module has an almost identical example.
Just use cloudflare tunnels
There is TLS termination at the Cloudflare’s backend servers, so theoretically, they can look at all the data going through.
As has been mentioned, put the WordPress sites on different internal ports or different internal IPs (easier if they are dockerised on a docker network).
Then have nginx have the external 80/443 port binds, and reverse proxy to the WordPress instances.This is really handy for nginx config files
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tools/nginxThis looks like a really great tool, but I cannot seem to find TLS pass through options in here. Or maybe I am too dumb to understand. I do not want the proxy server to generate or keep any certificates, all that will be done by my home server. All I want the proxy server to do is pass through the TCP connection.
If you are forwarding to multiple services, TCP proxying isnt going to work.
The proxy server has to know where to send the connection, so it has to be protocol-aware. In this case, http/https is the protocol.Luckily TLS/HTTPS has functionality for this without having to terminate encryption, called SNI.
Here is an article using SNI and nginx.
https://gist.github.com/kekru/c09dbab5e78bf76402966b13fa72b9d2Thanks. So, I just have to put this
stream
block in mynginx.conf
file and everything will work? Do I still have to use reverse proxy for my existing WordPress sites? Or can they stay normally configured?If they are running on the same server as nginx, then they will need to be proxied as well.
Only 1 service can bind to a port. So if the webserver doing wordpress is bound to 80/443, nginx will not be able to acquire the port.
Hence why reverse proxying. Nginx binds 80/443, then forwards to other services on arbitrary ports
Hi OP,
I don’t know how to do TLS pass-through, but I think you could just run NAT (configure the firewall on your VPS) and host your reverse proxy at home. No need for TLS pass-through in such a case, unless you absolutely need to host the proxy on the VPS.
Cheers
I am not sure how to do that. Can you, please, link a guide or any documentation? Does this method prevent the VPS provider from looking into the data being passed through?
I don’t have any guide (haven’t looked for one). The concept is simple:
- Configure Wireguard server on the VPS.
- Connect to server using your router/home firewall as a client (I believe you’ve done this already).
- Configure
nftables
oriptables
to forward traffic coming from a certain IP/port through your VPN connection to your router. - Since you have hosted your proxy at home, that’s where TLS termination happens, which means your traffic is encrypted in transit (NAT does not decrypt packets). So yes, you’re (in theory) safe from the VPS provider.
I believe there are ways to encrypt one’s RAM on a VPS but you likely don’t need it here, and that might be beyond the scope of this discussion anyway.
Cheers. I was given this idea by another person on Lemmy, I’m just pushing this wonderful idea forward.