Correctly switching between HTTP and HTTPS using .htaccess

We've got a shopping site which we're hosting on a shared host (Mediatemple Gridserver). Some parts of the site need to use HTTPS (checkout etc) but the rest should be using HTTP.

Does anyone know how we can always force the correct use of HTTP/HTTPS for particular URLs? We've had it working in various states but we can't get a request for a page that should be on HTTP but is requested with HTTPS to switch back correctly.

I've had a look around SO but couldn't find a suitable answer to this.

Solution 1:

I use something similar to this for my admin folder in wordpress:

#redirect all https traffic to http, unless it is pointed at /checkout
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/checkout/?.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

The RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on portion may not work for all web servers. My webhost requires RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-SSL} on, for instance.

If you want to force the reverse, try:

#redirect all http traffic to https, if it is pointed at /checkout
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/checkout/?.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

If you want some alternate ways to do it, check out askapache.

Solution 2:

This should work in pretty much every scenario and should work in your actual vhost or .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

(do not forget the slash before %{REQUEST_URI} as this may allow passing a portnumber, which is dangerous)

Solution 3:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR] 
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

I had some problem being behind a loadballancer. This how i fixed it.

Solution 4:

As detailed in this answer, fix your application to use https:// links when needed. Don't rely on automatic redirections, this could lead you to a false sense of security if you haven't made your links/forms served over https:// go to https:// URLs too. Using mod_rewrite automatically makes it harder to detect such mistakes (which can also be vulnerabilities).

Solution 5:

For me worked this (I used it for wordpress site and redirecting to HTTPS). You have to add the condition and rule lines just behind RewriteEngine and RewriteBase lines:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# I added these two lines for redirect to HTTPS
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# (end of custom modifications)

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress`

Have a look to condition RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https - only this worked for my server hosting. (I tried RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$ or RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off as well, but without success.