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#22559 HSTS Header

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Latest post by Lumiga on Thursday, 30 April 2015 05:49 CDT

Lumiga
Hi,

I your documentation about the HSTS Header, you write that Joomla! offers a Global Configuration setting to force SSL throughout the entire site, but this is merely a workaround.

So my question is, when I want to use my website only on HTTPS. Do I have to use the Joomla setting in combination with HSTS Header on YES or should I only use HSTS Header on YES?

Hope to hear from you.

With kind regards,
Lumiga

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
You need to turn both settings on. The two settings are complementary.

You may wonder why you need the HSTS header. It's a more secure setup. Without it, trying to access http://www.example.com means that the browser contacts the site over the unencrypted, plain old HTTP channel and Joomla! sends it a redirect to https://www.example.com. This means that any information to the site, including the login cookie, will be transferred over unencrypted HTTP and there's a security and privacy risk there. With the HSTS header the browser will NOT attempt to use the HTTP channel at all. It will convert http://www.example.com to https://www.example.com BEFORE making the network connection. Thus no information is exchanged over insecure, plain only HTTP. The thing is that the very first time you access the site someone needs to tell the browser to use the HTTPS version. That's what the Joomla! setting does.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Lumiga
Thanks Nicholas that's what I wanted to know.

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