What Should be the Permissions of Apache SSL Directory, Certificate, and Key?

Question

I have my cert.pem and cert.key files in /etc/apache2/ssl folders.

What would be the most secure permissions and ownership of:

1. /etc/apache2/ssl directory

2. /etc/apache2/ssl/cert.pem file

3. /etc/apache2/ssl/cert.key file

(Ensuring https:// access works of course :).

Thanks,

JP

Solution

The directory permissions should be 700, the file permissions on all the files should be 600, and the directory and files should be owned by root.

Comments

[Admin]

Thanks. This works. One thing - I guess the files only need to be read by root that starts the apache daemon. Why do we need to give "write" permissions to the file?

[Mike Scott]

The files will need updating periodically, as your certificates expire and need to be renewed, and since there's no real security risk in making them writeable it makes life slightly simpler. They don't need to be readable for day-to-day use, so you can use 400 permissions (and 500 on the directory) if you don't mind having to fiddle with them at renewal time.

[Admin]

It should be noted, that the official Apache Docs do not agree with Mike's original suggestions about SSL and go with his second suggestion here in the comments.

[John Bachir]

What should the owner be?

[user9]

where did you find the "official Apache Docs" about ssl

[txyoji]

Its mentioned one time here in the SSL faq. httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ssl/ssl_faq.html#removepassphrase