mod_ssl on a mac

Web development requires the hardware and software to accommodate a wide variety of client needs and web technologies. Apple has provided web developers with an enormously flexible development environment in Mac OS X. By including Apache, the world’s most widely used web server, along with a host of related technologies (PHP, OpenSSL, SSI, etc) Apple has provided a perfect compliment to popular tools such as BBEdit, Adobe Photoshop, and Macromedia Dreamweaver.

This tutorial will show you how to enable one of the most important technologies included with the standard installation of Apache on Mac OS X, mod_ssl. The mod_ssl module lets Apache use OpenSSL, thereby enabling cryptographically protected connections to web servers via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security. Though this is not a comprehensive tutorial on system security, if you enable mod_ssl you will add a layer of security to a Mac OS X machine’s Web Sharing feature.

For more on security in Mac OS X, see An Introduction to Mac OS X Security.

Why SSL?

Adding Apache support for mod_ssl is a great development step. You will be able to test scripts and applications in the most realistic environment possible prior to deployment to a staging or production server. This will help cut development time. It also permits access to your computer that is encrypted. Web applications served off of your Macintosh will be accessible in a secure way. So passwords passed to your machine via web-based forms will be hidden from packet sniffers. Data transmitted to a browser will also be encrypted during transit.