HTTPS

The Cradle Web Server (CWS) now supports secure communications over HTTPS based on the OpenSSL secure socket library.

To use secure communications, link to the CWS using a URL of the form:

https:// hostname :8016

and to use normal HTTP protocol, link to the CWS using a URL of the form:

http:// hostname :8015

This facility is enabled by the provision of a suitable certificate, issued either by an issuing authority such as Verisign, or by a self-certification process that is described in the Cradle Windows Installation Guide and the Cradle UNIX Installation Guide, both using the openssl utility that is supplied with the Cradle-5.2 release. The certificate should be installed in the directory:

$CRADLEHOME/admin/certs

based on the instructions in the above guides. The first time that a user connects to the CWS over HTTPS, the user may see a warning about an unknown certificate, or about an unknown certification authority (if you have created a self-certified certificate). Users should simply accept the warning message and/or add the certification authority (your organisation) to the list of trusted authorities to prevent such messages being displayed in the future.

The port numbers used for insecure and secure communications ( 8015 and 8016 in the above examples) can be controlled through the ports file supplied as:

$CRADLEHOME/admin/ports

The CWS can support secure and insecure communications simultaneously.