Posts Tagged ‘DMZ’

How to Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy Load Balancer on Debian, CentOS, RHEL Linux

Monday, December 14th, 2020

set-up-nginx-reverse-proxy-howto-linux-logo

What is reverse Proxy?

Reverse Proxy (RP) is a Proxy server which routes all incoming traffic to secondary Webserver situated behind the Reverse Proxy site.

Then all incoming replies from secondary webserver (which is not visible) from the internet gets routed back to Reverse Proxy service. The result is it seems like all incoming and outgoing HTTP requests are served from Reverse Proxy host where in reality, reverse proxy host just does traffic redirection. Problem with reverse proxies is it is one more point of failure the good side of it can protect and route only certain traffic to your webserver, preventing the behind reverse proxy located server from crackers malicious HTTP requests.

Treverse proxy, which accepts all traffic and forwards it to a specific resource, like a server or container.  Earlier I've blogged on how to create Apache reverse Proxy to Tomcat.
Having a reverse proxy with apache is a classical scenarios however as NGINX is taking lead slowly and overthrowing apache's use due to its easiness to configure, its high reliability and less consumption of resources.


One of most common use of Reverse Proxy is to use it as a software Load Balancer for traffic towards another webserver or directly to a backend server. Using RP as a to mitigate DDoS attacks from hacked computers Bot nets (coming from a network range) is very common Anti-DDoS protection measure.
With the bloom of VM and Contrainerizations technology such as docker. And the trend to switch services towards micro-services, often reverse proxy is used to seamessly redirect incoming requests traff to multiple separate OS docker running containers etc.


Some of the other security pros of using a Reverse proxy that could be pointed are:

  • Restrict access to locations that may be obvious targets for brute-force attacks, reducing the effectiveness of DDOS attacks by limiting the number of connections and the download rate per IP address. 
  • Cache pre-rendered versions of popular pages to speed up page load times.
  • Interfere with other unwanted traffic when needed.

 


what-is-reverse-proxy-explained-proxying-tubes

 

1. Install nginx webserver


Assuming you have a Debian at hand as an OS which will be used for Nginx RP host, lets install nginx.
 

[hipo@proxy ~]$ sudo su – root

[root@proxy ~]#  apt update

[root@proxy ~]# apt install -y nginx


Fedora / CentOS / Redhat Linux could use yum or dnf to install NGINX
 

[root@proxy ~]# dnf install -y nginx
[root@proxy ~]# yum install -y nginx

 

2. Launch nginx for a first time and test


Start nginx one time to test default configuration is reachable
 

systemctl enable –now nginx


To test nginx works out of the box right after install, open a browser and go to http://localhost if you have X or use text based browser such as lynx or some web console fetcher as curl to verify that the web server is running as expected.

nginx-test-default-page-centos-linux-screenshot
 

3. Create Reverse proxy configuration file

Remove default Nginx package provided configuration

As of 2020 by default nginx does load configuration from file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default on DEB based Linuxes and in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf on RPM based ones, therefore to setup our desired configuration and disable default domain config to be loaded we have to unlink on Debian

[root@proxy ~]# unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

or move out the original nginx.conf on Fedora / CentOS / RHEL:
 

[root@proxy ~]# mv /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf-distro

 

Lets take a scenario where you have a local IP address that's NAT-ted ot DMZ-ed and and you want to run nginx to server as a reverse proxy to accelerate traffic and forward all traffic to another webserver such as LigHTTPD / Apache or towards java serving Application server Jboss / Tomcat etc that listens on the same host on lets say on port 8000 accessible via app server from /application/.

To do so prepare new /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to look like so
 

[root@proxy ~]# mv /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx.conf.bak
[root@proxy ~]# vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user nginx;
worker_processes auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 10240;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

 

events {
#       worker_connections 768;
        worker_connections 4096;
        multi_accept on;
        # multi_accept on;
}

http {

        ##
        # Basic Settings
        ##

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        #keepalive_timeout 65;
        keepalive_requests 1024;
        client_header_timeout 30;
        client_body_timeout 30;
        keepalive_timeout 30;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        # server_tokens off;

        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        ##
        # SSL Settings
        ##

        ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##

        access_log /var/log/nginx/domain.com/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/domain.com/error.log;

        ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##

        gzip on;

        # gzip_vary on;
        # gzip_proxied any;
        # gzip_comp_level 6;
        # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
        # gzip_http_version 1.1;
        # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

        ##
        # Virtual Host Configs
        ##

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

 include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf;

upstream myapp {
    server 127.0.0.1:8000 weight=3;
    server 127.0.0.1:8001;
    server 127.0.0.1:8002;
    server 127.0.0.1:8003;
# Uncomment and use Load balancing with external FQDNs if needed
#  server srv1.example.com;
#   server srv2.example.com;
#   server srv3.example.co

}

#mail {
#       # See sample authentication script at:
#       # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
#
#       # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#       # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#       # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:110;
#               protocol   pop3;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:143;
#               protocol   imap;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#}

 

In the example above, there are 3 instances of the same application running on 3 IPs on different ports, just for the sake to illustrate Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) Load balancing is also supported you can see the 3 commented application instances srv1-srv3.
 When the load balancing method is not specifically configured, it defaults to round-robin. All requests are proxied to the server group myapp1, and nginx applies HTTP load balancing to distribute the requests.Reverse proxy implementation in nginx includes load balancing for HTTP, HTTPS, FastCGI, uwsgi, SCGI, memcached, and gRPC.
To configure load balancing for HTTPS instead of HTTP, just use “https” as the protocol.


To download above nginx.conf configured for High traffic servers and supports Nginx virtualhosts click here.

Now lets prepare for the reverse proxy nginx configuration a separate file under /etc/nginx/default.d/ all files stored there with .conf extension are to be red by nginx.conf as instructed by /etc/nginx/nginx.conf :

We'll need prepare a sample nginx

[root@proxy ~]# vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/reverse-proxy.conf

server {

        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;


 server_name domain.com www.domain.com;
#index       index.php;
# fallback for index.php usually this one is never used
root        /var/www/domain.com/public    ;
#location / {
#try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
#}

        location / {
                    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
  }

 

location /application {
proxy_pass http://domain.com/application/ ;

proxy_http_version                 1.1;
proxy_cache_bypass                 $http_upgrade;

# Proxy headers
proxy_set_header Upgrade           $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection        "upgrade";
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 X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host  $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port  $server_port;

# Proxy timeouts
proxy_connect_timeout              60s;
proxy_send_timeout                 60s;
proxy_read_timeout                 60s;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-error.log;

}

##listen 443 ssl;
##    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/domain.com/fullchain.pem;
##    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/domain.com/privkey.pem;
##    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
##    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;

}

Get above reverse-proxy.conf from here

As you see config makes all incoming traffic towards root ( / ) NGINX directory for domain http://domain.com on port 80 on Nginx Webserver to be passed on http://127.0.0.1:8000/application.

      location / {
                    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
  }


Another set of configuration has configuration domain.com/application to reverse proxy to Webserver on Port 8080 /application.

 

location /application {
proxy_pass http://domain.com/application/ ;

proxy_http_version                 1.1;
proxy_cache_bypass                 $http_upgrade;

# Proxy headers
proxy_set_header Upgrade           $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection        "upgrade";
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 X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host  $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port  $server_port;

# Proxy timeouts
proxy_connect_timeout              60s;
proxy_send_timeout                 60s;
proxy_read_timeout                 60s;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-error.log;

}

– Enable new configuration to be active in NGINX

 

[root@proxy ~]# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/reverse-proxy.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverse-proxy.conf

 

4. Test reverse proxy nginx config for syntax errors

 

[root@proxy ~]# nginx -t

 

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Test connectivity to listen external IP address

 

5. Enable nginx SSL letsencrypt certificates support

 

[root@proxy ~]# apt-get update
[root@proxy ~]# apt-get install software-properties-common

[root@proxy ~]# apt-get update
[root@proxy ~]# apt-get install python-certbot-nginx

 

6. Generate NGINX Letsencrypt certificates

 

[root@proxy ~]# certbot –nginx

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator nginx, Installer nginx

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
1: your.domain.com
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel): 1
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for your.domain.com
Waiting for verification…
Cleaning up challenges
Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverse-proxy.conf

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
1: No redirect – Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect – Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2
Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverse-proxy.conf

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://your.domain.com

You should test your configuration at:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=your.domain.com
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 

7. Set NGINX Reverse Proxy to auto-start on Linux server boot

On most modern Linux distros use systemctl for legacy machines depending on the Linux distribution use the addequate runlevel /etc/rc3.d/ symlink link on Debian based distros on Fedoras / CentOS / RHEL and other RPM based ones use chkconfig RedHat command.

 

[root@proxy ~]# systemctl start nginx
[root@proxy ~]# systemctl enable nginx

 

8. Fixing weird connection permission denied errors


If you get a weird permission denied errors right after you have configured the ProxyPass on Nginx and you're wondering what is causing it you have to know by default on CentOS 7 and RHEL you'll get this errors due to automatically enabled OS selinux security hardening.

If this is the case after you setup Nginx + HTTPD or whatever application server you will get errors in  /var/log/nginx.log like:

2020/12/14 07:46:01 [crit] 7626#0: *1 connect() to 127.0.0.1:8080 failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:8080/", host: "localhost"
2020/12/14 07:46:01 [crit] 7626#0: *1 connect() to 127.0.0.1:8080 failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:8080/", host: "localhost"
2020/12/14 07:46:01 [crit] 7626#0: *1 connect() to 127.0.0.1:8080 failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:8080/", host: "localhost"
2020/12/14 07:46:02 [crit] 7626#0: *1 connect() to 127.0.0.1:8080 failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:8080/", host: "localhost"


The solution to proxy_pass weird permission denied errors is to turn off selinux

[root@proxy ~]# setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

To permanently allow nginx and httpd

[root@proxy ~]# cat /var/log/audit/audit.log | grep nginx | grep denied | audit2allow -M mynginx
[root@proxy ~]# semodule -i mynginx.pp

 

[root@proxy ~]# cat /var/log/audit/audit.log | grep httpd | grep denied | audit2allow -M myhttpd
[root@proxy ~]# semodule -i myhttpd.pp


Then to let know nginx and httpd (or whatever else app you run) be aware of new settings restart both

[root@proxy ~]# systemctl restart nginx
[root@proxy ~]# systemctl restart httpd

How to split / rar in parts large data archive files on Linux and Windows – Transfer big files across servers located in DMZ rescticted areas

Friday, November 28th, 2014

how-to-split-rar-in-parts-large-data-archive-files-on-Linux-and-Windows-Transfer-big-files-across-servers-in-firewalled-restricted-areas

I was working on a Application Migration Project whose goal was to Install a business application called Asset Guardian and then move current company Data from the old server to the new AppServer.
F
or that purpose the company vendor Asset Guardian shipped to a Public access FTP, a huge (12GB) ZIP archive file which had to be transferred into a well secured DMZ-ed corporation network with various implemented Traffic Shaping Network policies, a resctrictive firewall allowing access to Internal Network only and to Few (Restrictive configured) Proxy Server IPs on port 80 and 8080.

One of the proxy servers allowed access to the Internet and I set this one and tried downloading the Huge Archive file  with the Windows 2012 server default browser Internet Explorer 10, though the download started it kept slow between ~ 300 – 500KB sec and when reached 3.4GB download failed. I tried resuming the download but as the remote Public FTP server where files resides doesn't support FTP RESUME function.
I thought it might be that Internet Explorer is badly managing the download so, I go forward and installed Portable Firefox (mirrored version 33.1.1 is here). Re-running download with firefox also failed, so the next logical step was for me to try downloading with Windows version of Wget (Wget) and with Portable Free Download Manager 3.9.14.1481 (mirrored here) using both of them was unable to complete download (probably due to firewall or Proxy screwing the proxy inspected traffic) thus I had to look for another way to copy the enormous archive into the company network.

To get around the issue I tried to download the file from FTP to another Server running Apache and tried re-downloading the big file archive (Asset-Guardian-data.zip) from Apache Webserver via HTTP protocol, this download method didn't work neither using plain HTTP protocol for download when downloaded file reached (3.4GB), thus I realized this is due to restrictive Proxy servers (dropping file downloads) bigger than  3.4GBs).

Then to be able to transfer the huge 12GB file, it seems the only left option was to to chop the big file on smaller file chunks and transfer them one by one.
In my case I had the Asset-Guardian-Files.zip transferred already to the Apache (Webserver) host which is running Linux so basicly the task was to Transfer Big archive file between the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and Windows 2012 Server.

Quickesy way to do that is by using UNIX split command, i.e.:

split -b 1024m Asset-Guardian-Files.zip


The outputted files each 1GB are with naming (xaa, xab, xac, xad, xae, xaf, gaf etc.) in same folder where split command is run:

To later merge the files on the Windows 2012 server (copy) command is used:

copy /b file1 + file2 + file3 + file4 filetogether


In my case the command to issue on Win 2012 server was:

copy /b xaa + xab + xac + xae + xae + xaf + xaf + xag xah xai xaj xak Asset-Guardian-files.zip


This method to chop and transfer the file is most simple one and it doesn't require the two servers to have WinRAR or Console RAR / unrar installed.

If instead of Copy Huge File from Linux -> Windows host you need to copy too big file (lets say 100GB) between 2 Windows servers (Windows server host A and Windows server Host B – both situated in different firewall corporate networks) you will need to download to Win Host A and use Windows UNIX split equivalent tool called sfk (The Swiss File Knife) , sfk has port also for Mac OS so in case of need for need for migrating huge archive file from Mac OS X host it will serve as Linux's split – I've made SFK (current version) mirror here.

Another way to cut the 12GB file in parts and transfer to destination host via HTTP was to use rar (on the Linux host), then download the file on Win 2012 server and use Winrar Portable Free to extract the multiple files:

To make archive separate in parts set out to certain size out of a huge file with rar on Linux use:

cd /var/www
rar -a -v1000000k Asset_Guardian_Files.splitted.rar /var/www/Asset_Guardian_Files.zip

10000000Kbs = 10000000/1024 = 976MBs, hence rar produced parts will be sized to 976MB rar parts.

To find out archives check for *splitted*.rar in your /var/www

ls -al /var/www/*splitted*.rar
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1048576 ное 28 18:34 Asset-Guardian-Files.splitted.part1.rar
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1048576 ное 28 18:34 Asset-Guardian-Files.splitted.part2.rar
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1048576 ное 28 18:34 Asset-Guardian-Files.splitted.part3.rar
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1048576 ное 28 18:34 Asset-Guaridna-Filse.splitted.part4.rar

 

Then to download the files M$ Win 2012 server IE (http://my-linux-host.com/Asset-Guardian-Files.splitted.part1.rar, http://my-linux-host.com/Asset-Guardian-Files.splitted.part2.rar. etc.)

Thanks God, Problem Solved 🙂

Preserve Session IDs of Tomcat cluster behind Apache reverse proxy / Sticky sessions with mod_proxy and Tomcat

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

apache_and_tomcat_merged_logo_prevent_sticky_sessions
Having a combination of Apache webservice Reverse Proxy to redirect invisibly traffic to a number of Tomcat server positioned in a DMZ is a classic task in big companies Corporate world.
Hence if you work for company like IBM or HP sooner or later you will need to configure Apache Webserver cluster with few running Jakarta Tomcat Application servers behind. Scenario with necessity to access a java based application via Tomcat which requires logging (authentication) relaying on establishing and keeping a session ID is probably one of the most common ones and if you do it for first time you will probably end up with Session ID issues.  Session ID issues are hard to capture at first as on first glimpse application will seem to be working but users will have to re-login all the time even though the programmers might have coded for a session to expiry in 30 minutes or so.

… I mean not having configured Session ID prevention to Tomcats will cause random authentication session expiries and users using the Tomcat app will be unable to normally access below application with authenticated credentials. The solution to these is known under term "Sticky sessions"
To configure Sticky sessions you need to already have configured Apache/s with following minimum configuration:

  • enabled mod_proxy, proxy_balancer_module, proxy_http_module and or mod_proxy_ajp (in Apache config)

  LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

  • And configured and tested Tomcats running an Application reachable via AJP protocol

Below example assumes there is Reverse Proxy Load Balancer Apache which has to forward all traffic to 2 tomcats. The config can easily be extended for as many as necessary by adding more BalancerMembers.

In Apache webserver (apache2.conf / httpd.conf) you need to have JSESSIONID configured. These JSESSIONID is going to be appended to each client request from Reverse Proxy to each of Tomcat servers with value opened once on authentication to first Tomcat node to each of the other ones.

<Proxy balancer://mycluster>
BalancerMember ajp://10.16.166.53:11010/ route=delivery1
BalancerMember ajp://10.16.166.66:11010/ route=delivery2
</Proxy>

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/ stickysession=JSESSIONID
ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/

The two variables route=delivery1 and route=delivery2 are routed to hosts identificators that also has to be present in Tomcat server configurations
In Tomcat App server First Node (server.xml)

<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="delivery1">

In Tomcat App server Second Node (server.xml)

<Engine name="Catalina" defaultHost="localhost" jvmRoute="delivery2">

Once Sticky Sessions are configured it is useful to be able to track they work fine this is possible through logging each of established JESSSIONIDs, to do so add in httpd.conf

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"\"%{JSESSIONID}C\"" combined

After modifications restart Apache and Tomcat to load new configs. In Apache access.log the proof should be the proof that sessions are preserved via JSESSIONID, there should be logs like:
 

127.0.0.1 - - [18/Sep/2013:10:02:02 +0800] "POST /examples/servlets/servlet/RequestParamExample HTTP/1.1" 200 662 "http://localhost/examples/servlets/servlet/RequestParamExample" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130807 Firefox/17.0""B80557A1D9B48EC1D73CF8C7482B7D46.server2"

127.0.0.1 - - [18/Sep/2013:10:02:06 +0800] "GET /examples/servlets/servlet/RequestInfoExample HTTP/1.1" 200 693 "http://localhost/examples/servlets/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130807 Firefox/17.0""B80557A1D9B48EC1D73CF8C7482B7D46.server2"

That should solve problems with mysterious session expiries 🙂

MySQL SSL Configure Howto – How to Make MySQL communication secured

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

mysql-over-ssl-how-to-configure-logo how to configure ssl on mysql server

Recently I've been asked How to make communication to MySQL database encrypted. The question was raised by a fellow developer who works on developing a Desktop standalone application in Delphi Programming Language with DevArt an (SQL Connection Component capable to connect Delphi applications to multiple databases like MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Interbase, Firebird etc.

Communicating in Secured form to MySQL database is not common task to do, as MySQL usually communicates to applications hosted on same server or applications to communicate to MySQL are in secured DMZ or administrated via phpMyAdmin web interface.

MySQL supports encrypted connections to itself using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. Setting up MySQL db to be communicated encrypted is a must for standalone Desktop applications which has to extract / insert data via remote SQL.
Configuring SQL to support communicated queries encrpytion is supported by default and easily configured on most standard Linux version distributions (Debian, RHEL, Fedora) with no need to recompile it.
1. Generate SSL Certificates

$ mkdir /etc/mysql-ssl && cd mysql-ssl

# Create CA certificate
$ openssl genrsa 2048 > ca-key.pem
$ openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -days 3600 \
         -key ca-key.pem -out ca-cert.pem

Create server certificate, remove passphrase, and sign it
server-cert.pem is public key, server-key.pem is private key
$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 3600 \
         -nodes -keyout server-key.pem -out server-req.pem

$ openssl rsa -in server-key.pem -out server-key.pem
$ openssl x509 -req -in server-req.pem -days 3600 \
         -CA ca-cert.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 -out server-cert.pem

Create client certificate, remove passphrase, and sign it
client-cert.pem is public key and client-key.pem is private key
$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 3600 \
         -nodes -keyout client-key.pem -out client-req.pem

$ openssl rsa -in client-key.pem -out client-key.pem
$ openssl x509 -req -in client-req.pem -days 3600 \
         -CA ca-cert.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 -out client-cert.pem

After generating the certificates, verify them:

$ openssl verify -CAfile ca-cert.pem server-cert.pem client-cert.pem
 

2. Add SSL support variables to my.cnf

Once SSL key pair files are generated in order to active SSL encryption support in MySQL server, add to (/etc/my.cnf,  /etc/mysql/my.cnf, /usr/local/etc/my.cnf … ) or wherever config is depending on distro

# SSL
ssl-ca=/etc/mysql-ssl/ca-cert.pem
ssl-cert=/etc/mysql-ssl/server-cert.pem
ssl-key=/etc/mysql-ssl/server-key.pem

3. Restart MySQL server

/etc/init.d/mysqld restart
...

4. Create SQL user to require SSL login

Create new user with access to database;

GRANT ALL ON Sql_User_DB.* TO Sql_User@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

To create administrator privileges user:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO ‘ssluser’@'%’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘pass’ REQUIRE SSL;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

5. Test SSL Connection with MySQL CLI client or with few lines of PHP

To use mysql cli for testing whether SSL connection works:

$ mysql -u ssluser -p'pass' –ssl-ca /etc/mysql-ssl/client-cert.pem –ssl-cert /etc/mysql-ssl/client-key.pem

Once connected to MySQL to verify SSL connection works fine:

mysql> SHOW STATUS LIKE 'Ssl_Cipher';
 +---------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name | Value              |
 +---------------+--------------------+
| Ssl_cipher    | DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA |
+---------------+--------------------+

If you get this output this means MySQL SSL Connection is working as should.

Alternative way is to use test-mysqli-ssl.php script to test availability to mysql over SSL.

$conn=mysqli_init();
mysqli_ssl_set($conn, '/etc/mysql-ssl/client-key.pem', '/etc/mysql-ssl/client-cert.pem', NULL, NULL, NULL);
if (!mysqli_real_connect($conn, '127.0.0.1', 'ssluser', 'pass')) { die(); }
$res = mysqli_query($conn, 'SHOW STATUS like "Ssl_cipher"');
print_r(mysqli_fetch_row($res));
mysqli_close($conn);

Note: Change username password according to your user / pass before using the script

That's all now you have mysql communicating queries data over SSL