Configuring SSL Reverse Proxy

Rocket.Chat is designed to be a robust middle-tier application server. While it doesn't handle SSL directly, it seamlessly integrates with trusted and high-performance reverse proxy servers like Nginx. By configuring one of these servers, you can effectively manage SSL for your Rocket.Chat instance, ensuring secure and reliable communication.

When deploying Rocket.Chat, you must set the ROOT_URL parameter to a HTTPS address without including a port number. So instead of ROOT_URL=http://localhost:3000, use something like https://your_hostname.com

When setting up a reverse proxy in front of your Rocket.Chat server, you must configure Rocket.Chat to use the correct clientAddress. The rate limiter and other features may not function properly if this is not done. Set HTTP_FORWARDED_COUNT environment variable to the correct number of proxies in front of Rocket.Chat - by default, it is set to 1. If you are using Snap, refer to the official documentation.

Additionally, ensure that your proxies and load balancers ignore the X-Real-Ip header when making requests from end users. Rocket.Chat prioritizes the X-Real-Ip header when determining the clientAddress. Misconfigured proxies could allow users to bypass rate limiting and other security measures.

Running behind an Nginx SSL reverse proxy

These instructions were written for Ubuntu. For Amazon Linux, the conf file for the proxy goes in /etc/nginx/conf.d/ and needs to have a discrete name ending in .conf and nginx is installed using yum -y install nginx.

Run this as root:

apt-get install nginx

Add your private key to /etc/nginx/certificate.key

Lock down permissions: chmod 400 /etc/nginx/certificate.key

Add your certificate to /etc/nginx/certificate.crt

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default or if you use Nginx from Docker /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf and be sure to use your actual hostname in lieu of the sample hostname "your_hostname.com" below.

# Upstreams
upstream backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

# HTTPS Server
server {
    listen 443;
    server_name your_hostname.com;

    # You can increase the limit if your need to.
    client_max_body_size 200M;

    error_log /var/log/nginx/rocketchat.access.log;

    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certificate.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certificate.key;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # don’t use SSLv3 ref: POODLE

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
        proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;

        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

Restart Nginx: service nginx restart

Running under Plesk Onyx behind Nginx

Plesk Onyx now has a Docker installation and Nginx proxy Docker rule generator built in, but it doesn't support adding custom directives. Disable it and add the rules manually in the additional Nginx directives space. A scheme follows (replace 30000 with your external Docker mapped port).

#manual extension docker with socket upgrade begin
location ~ ^/.* {
    proxy_pass http://0.0.0.0:3000;
    proxy_set_header Host             $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP        $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For  $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto http;
    proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;

    proxy_redirect off;
}

#extension docker end

Running behind an Apache SSL reverse proxy

Note: When deploying Rocket.Chat, you must set the ROOT_URL parameter to a HTTPS address without including a port number. So instead of ROOT_URL=http://localhost:3000, use something like https://your_hostname.com

Run this as root:

apt-get update
apt-get install apache2
a2enmod proxy_http
a2enmod proxy
a2enmod ssl
a2enmod proxy_wstunnel
a2enmod rewrite

Add your private key to /etc/ssl/private/chat.domain.com.key

Lock down permissions: chmod 400 /etc/ssl/private/chat.domain.com.key

Add your certificate to /etc/ssl/certs/chat.domain.com.crt

Add your intermediate to /etc/ssl/certs/intermediate.ca.pem

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/rocketchat.conf and be sure to use your actual hostname in lieu of the sample hostname "your_hostname.com" below.

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName chat.domain.com

    LogLevel info
    ErrorLog /var/log/chat.domain.com_error.log
    TransferLog /var/log/chat.domain.com_access.log

    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/chat.domain.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/chat.domain.com.key
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/certs/intermediate.ca.pem

    <Location />
        Require all granted
    </Location>

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:CONNECTION} Upgrade [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} =websocket [NC]
    RewriteRule /(.*)           ws://localhost:3000/$1 [P,L]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} !=websocket [NC]
    RewriteRule /(.*)           http://localhost:3000/$1 [P,L]

    ProxyPassReverse /          http://localhost:3000/
</VirtualHost>

Restart Apache: service apache2 restart

Running behind a Caddy reverse proxy with free SSL

First, download Caddy

curl https://getcaddy.com | bash

Now Caddy is installed, but you still need a service to run Caddy http server on the background.

You must have at least port 443 opened so the Caddy server will request an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt

You can also open port 80 to redirect http requests to https.

Open /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Insert

yourdomain.com {
        reverse_proxy localhost:3000
        header Access-Control-Allow-Methods "POST, GET, OPTIONS"
        header Access-Control-Allow-Headers "*"
        import cors https://sub.domain.livechat
}