Documentation forWeb Help Desk

Enable HTTPS

When a browser submits an HTTPS request to Web Help Desk, the SSL protocol requires Web Help Desk to respond with a certificate to prove the authenticity of the server. Begin your security configuration by enabling HTTPS.

See the following sections based on your Web Help Desk version.

Web Help Desk 12.5.1 and later

See Configure the server options for details about:

  • Configuring the HTTP and HTTPS ports running on Web Help Desk
  • Creating a new keystore to store your SSL certificates
  • Creating a new keystore with an existing wildcard certificate in PFX format

About HSTS

Beginning in version 12.7.4, Web Help Desk includes the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) web policy. After you download and import a signed certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), Web Help Desk forces a secure HTTPS connection with Transport Layer Security (TLS) between a supported web browser and the Web Help Desk server. This feature prevents unauthorized users from capturing data shared between the server and your clients, techs, and administrators.

Web Help Desk 12.5 and earlier

To enable HTTPS, perform the following procedures:

  1. Configure the HTTPS listening port to monitor HTTPS requests.
  2. Configure a URL port to monitor URLs generated by Web Help Desk that point back to the application.
  3. Enable Web Help Desk to listen for HTTPS requests.
  4. Enter the SSL connection port (if needed).
  5. Restart Web Help Desk.

This procedure requires changes to the whd.conf file. Review the following procedures before you enable HTTPS.

Configure the HTTPS listening port

Configure the listening port to listen for HTTPS requests. When you are finished, configure the port number used to monitor the requests.

  1. Open an Explore window.
  2. Navigate to:

    <WebHelpDesk>/conf/whd.conf

  3. In the whd.conf file locate the Ports section.
  4. Enter the port number Web Help Desk monitors for HTTPS requests, which appears after the following entry:
    HTTPS_PORTS=
  5. Save your changes.
  6. Close the whd.conf file.

Configure a URL port

Your deployment may require Web Help Desk to use a different port in URLs it generates to itself than the port the app server itself is running on. For example, you can configure a Web server to route requests for the default port (80) to go to the default Web Help Desk port (8081). In this example, you can have Web Help Desk URLs use port 80 instead of port 8081.

  1. In the whd.conf file, locate the URL Ports (optional) section.
  2. At the bottom of this section, enter the desired URL port number after the following entry:
    URL_HTTPS_PORT=
  3. Save and close the file.

Enable listening for HTTPS requests

  1. In the whd.conf file, locate the HTTPS_PORT entry.
  2. Uncomment the entry.
  3. Save and close the file.

Enter the SSL connection port

By default, Web browsers use port 443 for SSL connections. If you use a different port, include the port number in URLs that refer to Web Help Desk.

For example, if your whd.conf file contains HTTPS_PORT=8443, connect to Web Help Desk using the following URL:

https://localhost:8443

Restart Web Help Desk

After you configure the HTTPS_PORT setting, restart Web Help Desk. The application creates a new Java KeyStore at the following location:

<WebHelpDesk>/conf/keystore.jks

The new keystore contains a self-signed certificate.