Wordpress behind nginx reverse proxy doesnt work in https

Question

I'm trying to run wordpress on a docker based cloud. The setup is:

There is a server running a mysql array, which serves a container with Wordpress Running on Nginx. The setup is copied from this dockerfile. The goal of this setup is to achieve a high throughput and be compatible with our cloud setup.

The wordpress container has a local ip, in the same subnet as the mysql array and Nginx reverse proxy, and a public port to run http (not https).

The reverse proxy is configured to run SSL for the wordpress container. Navigation works on both http and https, but when I try to log in the dashboard with HTTPS, I get this error:

You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.

The only meaningful error I found happens when I log in on the dashboard, on HTTP:

[04-Nov-2014 23:16:13 UTC] PHP Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO in /usr/share/nginx/www/wp-config.php on line 86

but the dashboard works correctly on http.

In Wordpress configuration file I had to add the line:

/* SSL Proxy */

if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') $_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

And I think this is the culprit. I found this tip in the official wordpress documentation, and without it HTTPS doesnt load the CSS, either logged or not logged. I think maybe I should modify this line to suit my configuration?

Either this, or the nginx reverse proxy configuration file, I have no idea.

The nginx configuration file in the wordpress + nginx container is quite standard, and it's copied from here.

Please help me :D

Solution

I had some problem, I resolved in this way:

in my wp-config.php,

I added these lines:

if (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'], 'https') !== false) $_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

BEFORE everything in the code.

Hope it helps!

Comments

[Gekkie]

It seems your nginx proxy doesnt send the correct headers (or the nginx inside the WP container doesnt forward that header into PHP... ) Try debugging the output of the NGINX reverse proxy and then looking into what comes into the WP container

[Mascarpone]

how would you do that?

[Gekkie]

replace the various backends to a simple PHP script which dumps the headers ($_SERVER i.e.) and see what happens... It might be that one of you nginx-servers just messes up the headers?

[Mascarpone]

where do I find them? I guess it was the default ones

[Cyle]

@Mascarpone Did you ever figure this one out?

[user181157]

same problem here ... @Mascarpone did you manage to solve it?

[pdwalker]

if the line was put at the bottom of the config file, there will be a problem. this is what fixed the problem for me.

[Miguel Mota]

was struggling with this for hours, until putting it before everything in the code, that did the trick! thanks!

[Giordano]

yes, the placement of the snippet was crucial! Thanks :)

[Community]

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