Opening RStudio using AWS' SSL certificate

Hello :slight_smile:

I'm using RStudio (open source version) in an Amazon Linux machine (CentOS). I bought a domain in AWS and added a SSL certificate (also from AWS) to it. Now, if I try to go to www.mydomain.com, I can see the secure padlock from Chrome :slight_smile:

But if I visit www.mydomain.com/rstudio_name I get my RStudio page (I'm redirecting it to port 8787 using Apache) in http.
The question is: how can I connect to RStudio using the SSL certificate Amazon allow us to add to our domain by using Certificate Manager, ELB and Route 53?

I tried this suggestion but it didn't work, so I'm probably doing something wrong:
RStudio using proxy

Thanks in advance,
Silvano

2 Likes

Thanks for the post! A bit more detail about the architecture you are using would be helpful: how have you configured the ELB and Route 53? What are you hosting at www.mydomain.com ? Is there a reason that RStudio is hosted at www.mydomain.com/rstudio_name and not at the root (/)?

In any case, a "redirect" is not what you want here. What you want is to terminate SSL at the proxy (i.e. an ELB, nginx proxy, etc.) and reverse proxy the traffic to RStudio Server port 8787. But the port should be transparent to the end user (i.e. it should still look like www.mydomain.com/rstudio_name/... in the browser).

A bit more detail about the setup and the nginx or apache example you used would be helpful! If you are trying to terminate SSL at the RStudio Server instance, then that requires RStudio Server Pro. But you should be able to terminate SSL at a proxy and reverse proxy (backend) http traffic to RStudio Server Open Source with no problems.

1 Like

Hello Cole,

Thanks for the answer.

Sure, I should've given you the configurations earlier. Here you have:
ELB:

Route53:

Right now my Apache (httpd) is configured to point mydomain.com to my test HTML page (and in the end I would want to point to the shiny app I'm developing in RStudio).

This is the code I tried to use for the proxy. I created a conf file for this virtual host:

<VirtualHost *:80>

  <Proxy *>
    Allow from localhost
  </Proxy>



#RStudio redirect
RedirectMatch permanent ^/rstudio$ /rstudio/
  
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} =websocket
  RewriteRule /rstudio/(.*)     ws://localhost:8787/$1  [P,L]
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} !=websocket
  RewriteRule /rstudio/(.*)     http://localhost:8787/$1 [P,L]
  ProxyPass /rstudio/ http://localhost:8787/
  ProxyPassReverse /rstudio/ http://localhost:8787/
  ProxyRequests Off

RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =http
RewriteRule .* https://%{HTTP:Host}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=permanent]


#to restrict rstudio only to my IP (it doesn't work, because even my ip is blocked):
<Location /rstudio>
      Require ip [my PC IP]
      </Location>

<Location /rstudio/auth-sign-in>
	Require ip [my PC IP]
     </Location>


</VirtualHost> 

Note: mydomain.com/rstudio works fine, but only in HTTP.

Thanks in advance,
Silvano

Thanks for the detail! That should be helpful! Unfortunately, my understanding of all of AWS's shenanigans is a bit fuzzy, but it looks to me like you have:

  • http://myurl.com/rstudio :arrow_right: port 80 on ELB :arrow_right: port 80 on host
  • https://myurl.com/rstudio :arrow_right: port 443 on ELB :arrow_right: port 80 on host

So the former works fine, but the latter does not? Is that correct? What is the behavior if you go to the second url? https://myurl.com/rstudio?

One really useful tool is to use curl -i from a client computer... for instance, the output of the following might be helpful to see if it is a redirect that is causing the issue:

curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio
curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio
curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/
1 Like

Hi Cole,

Thanks again!

If I go to http://myurl.com/rstudio, it works fine and I can see my shiny app's code.

But if I go to https://myurl.com/rstudio, I get the normal login page from RStudio, and when I try to log in, Chrome give me this message:

(as you can see above, the url changes to localhost:8787).

Here you have the output I got from putty for the **curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio**:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:58:30 GMT
Location: https://myurl.com/rstudio
Server: Apache/2.4.37 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.2k-fips
Content-Length: 235
Connection: keep-alive

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a href="https://myurl.com/rstudio">here</a>.</p>
</body></html>

Here you have the output I got from putty for the curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio :

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:03:08 GMT
Location: http://myurl.com/rstudio/
Server: Apache/2.4.37 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.2k-fips
Content-Length: 235
Connection: keep-alive

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a href="http://myurl.com/rstudio/">here</a>.</p>
</body></html>
And here you have the output I got from putty for the **curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/** :
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:08:13 GMT
Location: https://localhost:8787/unsupported_browser.htm
Server: RStudio
Content-Length: 61
Connection: keep-alive

https:&#x2F;&#x2F;localhost:8787&#x2F;unsupported_browser.htm[ec2-user@ip-xx-x-x-xxx ~]

This last one looks odd, but I'm not a sysadmin expert, so I can't figure out what's wrong. I'm a data scientist trying to (securely) create a shiny app using AWS. All of this Apache stuff is new to me, so I'm basically learning from Apache's documentation.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again,
Silvano

Yes, that helps a lot! I'm with you on not being a sysadmin expert :slight_smile: But fortunately, I have mucked around with apache (and redirects) enough to see the problem is almost certainly in your apache configuration.

If you notice, the first curl request redirects http:// :arrow_right: https://. But then https:// redirects to http://, and then the localhost thing is almost certainly a bad redirect.

Nothing glaring is standing out to me about your configuration, though... hm...

Are these lines trying to redirect HTTP to HTTPS? Would you mind commenting them out, then restarting Apache?

Also, are there any other VirtualHost / configuration lines that might be responsible for the unsupported_browser message? I don't think I have ever seen RStudio throw that error before.

I doubt this is it, but it might be worth commenting out those two Location blocks that you have at the bottom of your VirtualHost, just to be sure they are not causing an issue either.

After restarting Apache, can you re-issue these curl commands? (I added a few :slight_smile: )

curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio
curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio/
curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio
curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/
curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/auth-sign-in

Yes, those 2 lines redirects myurl.com to https://myurl.com. Without that, if I type myurl.com, I got the unsafe warning from Chrome.

About the Virtual Host: the only virtual host I created was the one I sent you. The rest is the default options from httpd.

I commented those 2 lines and the locations and restarted Apache, but I still got the same error:

Curl commands:

curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:19:01 GMT
Location: http://myurl.com/rstudio/
Server: Apache/2.4.37 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.2k-fips
Content-Length: 235
Connection: keep-alive

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a href="http://myurl.com/rstudio/">here</a>.</p>
</body></html>

curl -i http://myurl.com/rstudio/

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:21:46 GMT
Location: http://myurl.com/rstudio/unsupported_browser.htm
Server: RStudio
Content-Length: 60
Connection: keep-alive

http:&#x2F;&#x2F;localhost:8787&#x2F;unsupported_browser.htm[ec2-user@ip-xx-x-x-xxx ~]

curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:23:15 GMT
Location: http://myurl.com/rstudio/
Server: Apache/2.4.37 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.2k-fips
Content-Length: 235
Connection: keep-alive

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a href="http://myurl.com/rstudio/">here</a>.</p>
</body></html>

curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:24:13 GMT
Location: https://localhost:8787/unsupported_browser.htm
Server: RStudio
Content-Length: 61
Connection: keep-alive

https:&#x2F;&#x2F;localhost:8787&#x2F;unsupported_browser.htm[ec2-user@ip-xx-x-x-xxx ~]

curl -i https://myurl.com/rstudio/auth-sign-in

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:32:22 GMT
Server: RStudio
Set-Cookie: user-id=; expires=Sat, 26-Jan-2019 23:59:59 GMT; path=/; HttpOnly
X-Frame-Options: DENY
Content-Length: 6220
Connection: keep-alive

<!DOCTYPE html>

<!--
#
# encrypted-sign-in.htm
#
# Copyright (C) 2009-12 by RStudio, Inc.
#
# This program is licensed to you under the terms of version 3 of the
# GNU Affero General Public License. This program is distributed WITHOUT
# ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING THOSE OF NON-INFRINGEMENT,
# MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Please refer to the
# AGPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt) for more details.
#
-->

<html>

<head>

<title>RStudio Sign In</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="images/favicon.ico" />

<script language='javascript'>
function verifyMe()
{
   if(document.getElementById('username').value=='')
   {
      alert('You must enter a username');
      document.getElementById('username').focus();
      return false;
   }
   if(document.getElementById('password').value=='')
   {
      alert('You must enter a password');
      document.getElementById('password').focus();
      return false;
   }
   return true;
}
</script>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="rstudio.css" type="text/css"/>

<style type="text/css">

body, td {
   font-size: 12px;
}

#caption {
  text-align: center;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin-right: 0;
  width: 100%;
}

input[type=text], input[type=password] {
  width: 262px;
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  font-size: 14px;
  padding: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 4px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 4px;
  outline: none;
}

#buttonpanel {
  text-align: center;
  margin-top: 12px;
}
#errorpanel {
  text-align: center;
  padding: 0 25% 0 25%;
  color: red;
  display: none;
  font-weight: bold;
}
button.fancy {
  padding: 0;
  border: 0 none;
  margin: 0;
  outline: none;
  cursor: pointer;
  background-color: white;
}
button.fancy .left {
  width: 11px;
  height: 35px;
  background: url(images/buttonLeft.png) center right no-repeat;
}
button.fancy .inner {
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 13px;
  background: url(images/buttonTile.png) center repeat-x;
  height: 35px;
  padding: 5px;
  padding-top: 1px;
}
button.fancy .right {
  width: 11px;
  height: 35px;
  background: url(images/buttonRight.png) center left no-repeat;
}
</style>

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/encrypt.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function prepare() {
   if (!verifyMe())
      return false;
   try {
      var payload = document.getElementById('username').value + "\n" +
                    document.getElementById('password').value;
      var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
      xhr.open("GET", "auth-public-key", true);
      xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
         try {
            if (xhr.readyState == 4) {
               if (xhr.status != 200) {
                  var errorMessage;
                  if (xhr.status == 0)
                     errorMessage = "Error: Could not reach server--check your internet connection";
                  else
                     errorMessage = "Error: " + xhr.statusText;

                  var errorDiv = document.getElementById('errorpanel');
                  errorDiv.innerHTML = '';
                  var errorp = document.createElement('p');
                  errorDiv.appendChild(errorp);
                  if (typeof(errorp.innerText) == 'undefined')
                     errorp.textContent = errorMessage;
                  else
                     errorp.innerText = errorMessage;
                  errorDiv.style.display = 'block';
               }
               else {
                  var response = xhr.responseText;
                  var chunks = response.split(':', 2);
                  var exp = chunks[0];
                  var mod = chunks[1];
                  var encrypted = encrypt(payload, exp, mod);
                  document.getElementById('persist').value = document.getElementById('staySignedIn').checked ? "1" : "0";
                  document.getElementById('package').value = encrypted;
                  document.getElementById('clientPath').value = window.location.pathname;
                  document.realform.submit();
               }
            }
         } catch (exception) {
            alert("Error: " + exception);
         }
      };
      xhr.send(null);
   } catch (exception) {
      alert("Error: " + exception);
   }
}
function submitRealForm() {
   if (prepare())
      document.realform.submit();
}
</script>

</head>

<h3 id="banner"><a href="http://www.rstudio.com"><img src="images/rstudio.png" width="78" height="24" title="RStudio"/></a></h3>

<div id="errorpanel">
<p>Error: </p>
</div>

<form method="POST" action="javascript:void" onsubmit="submitRealForm();return false">
<table id="border" align="center">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <h2 id="caption">Sign in to RStudio</h2>
      <p>
         <label for="username">Username:</label><br />
         <input type='text'
                name='username'
                value=''
                id='username'
                size='45'/><br />
      </p>
      <p>
         <label for="password">Password:</label><br />
         <input type='password'
                name='password'
                value=''
                id='password'
                size='45'
                autocomplete='off' /><br />
      </p>
      <p style="display: block;">
         <input type="checkbox" name="staySignedIn" id="staySignedIn" value="1"/>
         <label for="staySignedIn">Stay signed in</label>
      </p>
       <input type="hidden" name="appUri" value=""/>
      <div id="buttonpanel"><button class="fancy" type="submit"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td class="left"></td>
          <td class="inner" valign="middle">Sign In</td>
          <td class="right"></td>
        </tr>
      </table></button></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</form>

<form action="auth-do-sign-in" name="realform" method="POST">
   <input type="hidden" name="persist" id="persist" value=""/>
   <input type="hidden" name="appUri" value=""/>
   <input type="hidden" name="clientPath" id="clientPath" value=""/>
   <input id="package" type="hidden" name="v" value=""/>
</form>

<div id="login-html">

</div>


<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('username').focus();
</script>
</body>
</html>

Another (maybe) interesting thing: if I login in the HTTP part and then, after I'm already logged in, change the link to https://mydomain.com/rstudio, I can continue to see my app's code with no error.

Thanks,
Silvano

Interesting! Do you mind sharing the Apache boilerplate that you’re using outside the VirtualHost? The “unsupported_browser” message may be coming from elsewhere in the Apache config.

Here you have the main httpd.conf file in the conf folder:

#
# This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/> for detailed information.
# In particular, see 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/directives.html>
# for a discussion of each configuration directive.
#
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do.  They're here only as hints or reminders.  If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.  
#
# Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many
# of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the
# server will use that explicit path.  If the filenames do *not* begin
# with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so 'log/access_log'
# with ServerRoot set to '/www' will be interpreted by the
# server as '/www/log/access_log', where as '/log/access_log' will be
# interpreted as '/log/access_log'.

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path.  If you point
# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to specify a local disk on the
# Mutex directive, if file-based mutexes are used.  If you wish to share the
# same ServerRoot for multiple httpd daemons, you will need to change at
# least PidFile.
#
ServerRoot "/etc/httpd"

#
# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or
# ports, instead of the default. See also the <VirtualHost>
# directive.
#
# Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to 
# prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses.
#
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80

#
# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support
#
# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l') do not need
# to be loaded here.
#
# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so
#
#SJ: meti como comentário porque parecia ser preciso mas afinal recebo aviso a dizer que já é carregado:
#LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
Include conf.modules.d/*.conf

#
# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.  
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
#SJ: adicionei o silvano ao grupo apache e mudei o user aqui para silvano, mas continuou a dar erro.
User apache
Group apache

# 'Main' server configuration
#
# The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main'
# server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a
# <VirtualHost> definition.  These values also provide defaults for
# any <VirtualHost> containers you may define later in the file.
#
# All of these directives may appear inside <VirtualHost> containers,
# in which case these default settings will be overridden for the
# virtual host being defined.
#

#
# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.  This address appears on some server-generated pages, such
# as error documents.  e.g. admin@your-domain.com
#
ServerAdmin root@localhost

#
# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
# This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
# it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
#
# If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
#
#ServerName www.example.com:80

#
# Deny access to the entirety of your server's filesystem. You must
# explicitly permit access to web content directories in other 
# <Directory> blocks below.
#
<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Require all denied
</Directory>

#
# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

#
# Relax access to content within /var/www.
#
<Directory "/var/www">
    AllowOverride None
    # Allow open access:
    Require all granted
</Directory>

# Further relax access to the default document root:
<Directory "/var/www/html">
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride None

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted
</Directory>

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being 
# viewed by Web clients. 
#
<Files ".ht*">
    Require all denied
</Files>

#
# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>
# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog "logs/error_log"

#
# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
#
LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>
    #
    # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
    # a CustomLog directive (see below).
    #
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>
      # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio
    </IfModule>

    #
    # The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
    # If you do not define any access logfiles within a <VirtualHost>
    # container, they will be logged here.  Contrariwise, if you *do*
    # define per-<VirtualHost> access logfiles, transactions will be
    # logged therein and *not* in this file.
    #
    #CustomLog "logs/access_log" common

    #
    # If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information
    # (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.
    #
    CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined
</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>
    #
    # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to 
    # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client 
    # will make a new request for the document at its new location.
    # Example:
    # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

    #
    # Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to
    # access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot.
    # Example:
    # Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path
    #
    # If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will
    # require it to be present in the URL.  You will also likely
    # need to provide a <Directory> section to allow access to
    # the filesystem path.

    #
    # ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts. 
    # ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that
    # documents in the target directory are treated as applications and
    # run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the
    # client.  The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias
    # directives as to Alias.
    #
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

#
# "/var/www/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased
# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
#
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<IfModule mime_module>
    #
    # TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from
    # filename extension to MIME-type.
    #
    TypesConfig /etc/mime.types

    #
    # AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
    # file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types.
    #
    #AddType application/x-gzip .tgz
    #
    # AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress
    # information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.
    #
    #AddEncoding x-compress .Z
    #AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz
    #
    # If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you
    # probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:
    #
    AddType application/x-compress .Z
    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

    #
    # AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers":
    # actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server
    # or added with the Action directive (see below)
    #
    # To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories:
    # (You will also need to add "ExecCGI" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

    # For type maps (negotiated resources):
    #AddHandler type-map var

    #
    # Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client.
    #
    # To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI):
    # (You will also need to add "Includes" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    AddType text/html .shtml
    AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
</IfModule>

#
# Specify a default charset for all content served; this enables
# interpretation of all content as UTF-8 by default.  To use the 
# default browser choice (ISO-8859-1), or to allow the META tags
# in HTML content to override this choice, comment out this
# directive:
#
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

<IfModule mime_magic_module>
    #
    # The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the
    # contents of the file itself to determine its type.  The MIMEMagicFile
    # directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located.
    #
    MIMEMagicFile conf/magic
</IfModule>

#
# Customizable error responses come in three flavors:
# 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects
#
# Some examples:
#ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo."
#ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
#ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl"
#ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html
#

#
# EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it, 
# memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall may be used to deliver
# files.  This usually improves server performance, but must
# be turned off when serving from networked-mounted 
# filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise
# broken on your system.
# Defaults if commented: EnableMMAP On, EnableSendfile Off
#
#EnableMMAP off
EnableSendfile on

# Supplemental configuration
#
# Load config files in the "/etc/httpd/conf.d" directory, if any.
IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf

Besides that, I also have some .conf files in the conf.d folder:
image

Very interesting - thanks for sharing! I would recommend pulling out all of the Directory and DocumentRoot settings, since those are usually only necessary when serving files from disk (which you are not). Further, they can confuse Apache into doing weird things with respect to reverse proxying other services. I still have no idea where the unsupported_browser.htm is coming from though :grimacing:

Another thought I had - it is probably worth testing Apache directly (in case the AWS server is causing trouble here). The way to do that is to execute similar curl commands directly from the server itself. For instance:

curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio
curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio/
curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio/auth-sign-in

Hi Cole,

If I delete all Directory and DocumentRoot settings, I get this error message:
image

Now my conf code looks like this:

#
# This is the main Apache HTTP server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/> for detailed information.
# In particular, see 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/directives.html>
# for a discussion of each configuration directive.
#
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do.  They're here only as hints or reminders.  If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.  
#
# Configuration and logfile names: If the filenames you specify for many
# of the server's control files begin with "/" (or "drive:/" for Win32), the
# server will use that explicit path.  If the filenames do *not* begin
# with "/", the value of ServerRoot is prepended -- so 'log/access_log'
# with ServerRoot set to '/www' will be interpreted by the
# server as '/www/log/access_log', where as '/log/access_log' will be
# interpreted as '/log/access_log'.

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path.  If you point
# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to specify a local disk on the
# Mutex directive, if file-based mutexes are used.  If you wish to share the
# same ServerRoot for multiple httpd daemons, you will need to change at
# least PidFile.
#
ServerRoot "/etc/httpd"

#
# Listen: Allows you to bind Apache to specific IP addresses and/or
# ports, instead of the default. See also the <VirtualHost>
# directive.
#
# Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to 
# prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses.
#
#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80

#
# Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support
#
# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Statically compiled modules (those listed by `httpd -l') do not need
# to be loaded here.
#
# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module modules/mod_foo.so
#
#SJ: meti como comentário porque parecia ser preciso mas afinal recebo aviso a dizer que já é carregado:
#LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
Include conf.modules.d/*.conf

#
# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.  
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
#SJ: adicionei o silvano ao grupo apache e mudei o user aqui para silvano, mas continuou a dar erro.
User apache
Group apache

# 'Main' server configuration
#
# The directives in this section set up the values used by the 'main'
# server, which responds to any requests that aren't handled by a
# <VirtualHost> definition.  These values also provide defaults for
# any <VirtualHost> containers you may define later in the file.
#
# All of these directives may appear inside <VirtualHost> containers,
# in which case these default settings will be overridden for the
# virtual host being defined.
#

#
# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.  This address appears on some server-generated pages, such
# as error documents.  e.g. admin@your-domain.com
#
ServerAdmin root@localhost

#
# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
# This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
# it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
#
# If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
#
#ServerName www.example.com:80

#
# Deny access to the entirety of your server's filesystem. You must
# explicitly permit access to web content directories in other 
# <Directory> blocks below.
#


#
# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#


#
# Relax access to content within /var/www.
#


# Further relax access to the default document root:

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being 
# viewed by Web clients. 
#
<Files ".ht*">
    Require all denied
</Files>

#
# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>
# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog "logs/error_log"

#
# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
#
LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>
    #
    # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
    # a CustomLog directive (see below).
    #
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>
      # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio
    </IfModule>

    #
    # The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
    # If you do not define any access logfiles within a <VirtualHost>
    # container, they will be logged here.  Contrariwise, if you *do*
    # define per-<VirtualHost> access logfiles, transactions will be
    # logged therein and *not* in this file.
    #
    #CustomLog "logs/access_log" common

    #
    # If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information
    # (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.
    #
    CustomLog "logs/access_log" combined
</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>
    #
    # Redirect: Allows you to tell clients about documents that used to 
    # exist in your server's namespace, but do not anymore. The client 
    # will make a new request for the document at its new location.
    # Example:
    # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

    #
    # Alias: Maps web paths into filesystem paths and is used to
    # access content that does not live under the DocumentRoot.
    # Example:
    # Alias /webpath /full/filesystem/path
    #
    # If you include a trailing / on /webpath then the server will
    # require it to be present in the URL.  You will also likely
    # need to provide a <Directory> section to allow access to
    # the filesystem path.

    #
    # ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts. 
    # ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that
    # documents in the target directory are treated as applications and
    # run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to the
    # client.  The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias
    # directives as to Alias.
    #
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

#
# "/var/www/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your ScriptAliased
# CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
#


<IfModule mime_module>
    #
    # TypesConfig points to the file containing the list of mappings from
    # filename extension to MIME-type.
    #
    TypesConfig /etc/mime.types

    #
    # AddType allows you to add to or override the MIME configuration
    # file specified in TypesConfig for specific file types.
    #
    #AddType application/x-gzip .tgz
    #
    # AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers uncompress
    # information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.
    #
    #AddEncoding x-compress .Z
    #AddEncoding x-gzip .gz .tgz
    #
    # If the AddEncoding directives above are commented-out, then you
    # probably should define those extensions to indicate media types:
    #
    AddType application/x-compress .Z
    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

    #
    # AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers":
    # actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server
    # or added with the Action directive (see below)
    #
    # To use CGI scripts outside of ScriptAliased directories:
    # (You will also need to add "ExecCGI" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    #AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

    # For type maps (negotiated resources):
    #AddHandler type-map var

    #
    # Filters allow you to process content before it is sent to the client.
    #
    # To parse .shtml files for server-side includes (SSI):
    # (You will also need to add "Includes" to the "Options" directive.)
    #
    AddType text/html .shtml
    AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
</IfModule>

#
# Specify a default charset for all content served; this enables
# interpretation of all content as UTF-8 by default.  To use the 
# default browser choice (ISO-8859-1), or to allow the META tags
# in HTML content to override this choice, comment out this
# directive:
#
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

<IfModule mime_magic_module>
    #
    # The mod_mime_magic module allows the server to use various hints from the
    # contents of the file itself to determine its type.  The MIMEMagicFile
    # directive tells the module where the hint definitions are located.
    #
    MIMEMagicFile conf/magic
</IfModule>

#
# Customizable error responses come in three flavors:
# 1) plain text 2) local redirects 3) external redirects
#
# Some examples:
#ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo."
#ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
#ErrorDocument 404 "/cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl"
#ErrorDocument 402 http://www.example.com/subscription_info.html
#

#
# EnableMMAP and EnableSendfile: On systems that support it, 
# memory-mapping or the sendfile syscall may be used to deliver
# files.  This usually improves server performance, but must
# be turned off when serving from networked-mounted 
# filesystems or if support for these functions is otherwise
# broken on your system.
# Defaults if commented: EnableMMAP On, EnableSendfile Off
#
#EnableMMAP off
EnableSendfile on

# Supplemental configuration
#
# Load config files in the "/etc/httpd/conf.d" directory, if any.
IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf


Output for curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:24:39 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.37 (Amazon) OpenSSL/1.0.2k-fips
Location: http://localhost/rstudio/
Content-Length: 233
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a href="http://localhost/rstudio/">here</a>.</p>
</body></html>

Output for curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio/

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:25:50 GMT
Server: RStudio
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 60
Location: http://localhost/rstudio/unsupported_browser.htm

http:&#x2F;&#x2F;localhost:8787&#x2F;unsupported_browser.htm[ec2-user@ip-10-0-0-244 ~]

Output for curl -i http://localhost:80/rstudio/auth-sign-in

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:26:53 GMT
Server: RStudio
X-Frame-Options: DENY
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 6220
Set-Cookie: user-id=; expires=Mon, 28-Jan-2019 23:59:59 GMT; path=/; HttpOnly

<!DOCTYPE html>

<!--
#
# encrypted-sign-in.htm
#
# Copyright (C) 2009-12 by RStudio, Inc.
#
# This program is licensed to you under the terms of version 3 of the
# GNU Affero General Public License. This program is distributed WITHOUT
# ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING THOSE OF NON-INFRINGEMENT,
# MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Please refer to the
# AGPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt) for more details.
#
-->

<html>

<head>

<title>RStudio Sign In</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="images/favicon.ico" />

<script language='javascript'>
function verifyMe()
{
   if(document.getElementById('username').value=='')
   {
      alert('You must enter a username');
      document.getElementById('username').focus();
      return false;
   }
   if(document.getElementById('password').value=='')
   {
      alert('You must enter a password');
      document.getElementById('password').focus();
      return false;
   }
   return true;
}
</script>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="rstudio.css" type="text/css"/>

<style type="text/css">

body, td {
   font-size: 12px;
}

#caption {
  text-align: center;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin-right: 0;
  width: 100%;
}

input[type=text], input[type=password] {
  width: 262px;
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  font-size: 14px;
  padding: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 4px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 4px;
  outline: none;
}

#buttonpanel {
  text-align: center;
  margin-top: 12px;
}
#errorpanel {
  text-align: center;
  padding: 0 25% 0 25%;
  color: red;
  display: none;
  font-weight: bold;
}
button.fancy {
  padding: 0;
  border: 0 none;
  margin: 0;
  outline: none;
  cursor: pointer;
  background-color: white;
}
button.fancy .left {
  width: 11px;
  height: 35px;
  background: url(images/buttonLeft.png) center right no-repeat;
}
button.fancy .inner {
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 13px;
  background: url(images/buttonTile.png) center repeat-x;
  height: 35px;
  padding: 5px;
  padding-top: 1px;
}
button.fancy .right {
  width: 11px;
  height: 35px;
  background: url(images/buttonRight.png) center left no-repeat;
}
</style>

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/encrypt.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function prepare() {
   if (!verifyMe())
      return false;
   try {
      var payload = document.getElementById('username').value + "\n" +
                    document.getElementById('password').value;
      var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
      xhr.open("GET", "auth-public-key", true);
      xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
         try {
            if (xhr.readyState == 4) {
               if (xhr.status != 200) {
                  var errorMessage;
                  if (xhr.status == 0)
                     errorMessage = "Error: Could not reach server--check your internet connection";
                  else
                     errorMessage = "Error: " + xhr.statusText;

                  var errorDiv = document.getElementById('errorpanel');
                  errorDiv.innerHTML = '';
                  var errorp = document.createElement('p');
                  errorDiv.appendChild(errorp);
                  if (typeof(errorp.innerText) == 'undefined')
                     errorp.textContent = errorMessage;
                  else
                     errorp.innerText = errorMessage;
                  errorDiv.style.display = 'block';
               }
               else {
                  var response = xhr.responseText;
                  var chunks = response.split(':', 2);
                  var exp = chunks[0];
                  var mod = chunks[1];
                  var encrypted = encrypt(payload, exp, mod);
                  document.getElementById('persist').value = document.getElementById('staySignedIn').checked ? "1" : "0";
                  document.getElementById('package').value = encrypted;
                  document.getElementById('clientPath').value = window.location.pathname;
                  document.realform.submit();
               }
            }
         } catch (exception) {
            alert("Error: " + exception);
         }
      };
      xhr.send(null);
   } catch (exception) {
      alert("Error: " + exception);
   }
}
function submitRealForm() {
   if (prepare())
      document.realform.submit();
}
</script>

</head>

<h3 id="banner"><a href="http://www.rstudio.com"><img src="images/rstudio.png" width="78" height="24" title="RStudio"/></a></h3>

<div id="errorpanel">
<p>Error: </p>
</div>

<form method="POST" action="javascript:void" onsubmit="submitRealForm();return false">
<table id="border" align="center">
  <tr>
    <td>
      <h2 id="caption">Sign in to RStudio</h2>
      <p>
         <label for="username">Username:</label><br />
         <input type='text'
                name='username'
                value=''
                id='username'
                size='45'/><br />
      </p>
      <p>
         <label for="password">Password:</label><br />
         <input type='password'
                name='password'
                value=''
                id='password'
                size='45'
                autocomplete='off' /><br />
      </p>
      <p style="display: block;">
         <input type="checkbox" name="staySignedIn" id="staySignedIn" value="1"/>
         <label for="staySignedIn">Stay signed in</label>
      </p>
       <input type="hidden" name="appUri" value=""/>
      <div id="buttonpanel"><button class="fancy" type="submit"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td class="left"></td>
          <td class="inner" valign="middle">Sign In</td>
          <td class="right"></td>
        </tr>
      </table></button></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</form>

<form action="auth-do-sign-in" name="realform" method="POST">
   <input type="hidden" name="persist" id="persist" value=""/>
   <input type="hidden" name="appUri" value=""/>
   <input type="hidden" name="clientPath" id="clientPath" value=""/>
   <input id="package" type="hidden" name="v" value=""/>
</form>

<div id="login-html">

</div>


<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('username').focus();
</script>
</body>
</html>

All I see is a "black hole" for your error message :stuck_out_tongue:

Sorry this is getting so lengthy. The most confounding thing for me ATM is that unsupported_browser.htm line. It is breaking the /rstudio/ :arrow_right: /rstudio/auth-sign-in redirect.

I seriously doubt this is RStudio firing that page, but can you check this for me to be sure?

curl -I http://localhost:8787/

Sorry, the "black hole" was just a print of the browser:
image

Here you have the output for curl -I http://localhost:8787/

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 60
Location: http://localhost:8787/unsupported_browser.htm
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 20:13:10 GMT
Connection: close
Server: RStudio

Thanks for all the help! :slight_smile:

I don't know if this helps, but the unsupported_browser.htm file is here:
/usr/lib/rstudio-server/www/unsupported_browser.htm

Yeah, that surprises me a lot! I was not expecting to see RStudio issuing that redirect :scream: Very interesting. Do you mind noting what version of RStudio Server you are using?

We have peeled back all of the layers sufficiently, I think! Sorry for the lengthy back-and-forth. Since these are permanent redirects, what is the browser behavior you experience if you clear your cookies / use an "Incognito" browser and access at https://myurl.com/rstudio?

EDIT: URL was originally using localhost as filler (https://localhost/rstudio), but that was confusing

The RStudio Server version is 1.1.456

I don't think I understood your last question: I have RStudio installed on my remote Linux server (on AWS) and I can only access it via Putty (I have a Windows PC), so if I open Chrome in "Incognito" mode in my computer and type https://localhost/rstudio nothing will happen, right? When you say localhost, do you mean my domain?

Yeah, sorry. Your AWS URL. :slight_smile: I used localhost as filler, but that was bad / confusing filler :laughing: I have edited to use myurl.com to make it more clear

First, Chrome sent me to the http page, but then I click enter again and I can see the secure page:

(the link turns to https://myurl.com/rstudio/auth-sign-in)

And when I try to login, this is the page I got:

And the link turns to https://localhost:8787/

Ok! I have found a hacky way around our unsupported_browser shenanigans. If we set a bogus User-Agent header that pretends like it is a legitimate browser, RStudio will talk to us. If you can try the following curl requests, that would be great!

The requests to try:

curl -I -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/71.0.3578.98 Safari/537.36' http://myurl.com/rstudio/
curl -I -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/71.0.3578.98 Safari/537.36' https://myurl.com/rstudio/

EDIT: I don't know that that is going to be enormously helpful, to be honest. Are you familiar with the browser devtools? If you could watch the network traffic while you're logging in and send me a bit of the output from the auth-do-sign-in endpoint. Honestly, the most important is probably the Request URL, Status Code, and Location header (on the response). Obviously redacted appropriately :slight_smile: I suspect your Location header will have http://localhost:8787 for the behavior you are seeing. An example (in chrome):