Ask HN: How Wix.com or Wordpress.com Handle SSL-Certificates?

3 points by techvibe2 10 years ago | 2 comments

Ask HN: How Wix.com or Wordpress.com handle SSL-Certificates?

I am developing a software for niche market. The software works like a website builder and my clients can use their custom domains. I use Apache and I have a single virtual host. The application fetches the right configuration and content with $HTTP_HOST variable.

Everything works fine, but the problem begins with SSL certificates. I am searching a solution where I can add new domains without changing Apache configuration, something like this (I know, it doesn’t work).

ServerName ${HTTP_HOST}

SSLEngine on

SSLCertificateFile /path/to/${HTTP_HOST}.cert

SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/${HTTP_HOST}.key

</VirtualHost>

I have googled a lot but found no solution. Is there any solution? How the all the website builder like, wix.com, jimdo.com and wordpress.com handle this problem?

alanpost 10 years ago |

Traditionally, you had to bind each SSL certificate to it's own IP address. Today, if both you and your client support Server Name Indicator (SNI) it works to specify the certificate inside each VirtualHost.

EDIT: I realize after posting that you may be asking about the syntax of VirtualHost in Apache, and not about how TLS works in this use case.

techvibe2 10 years ago | |

No you didn't gott my question. Image you have 500 SSL certificate and one server? How do you manage this?