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HTTP Strict Transport Security
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Description
HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is an opt-in security enhancement that is specified by a web application through the use of a special response header. Once a supported browser receives this header that browser will prevent any communications from being sent over HTTP to the specified domain and will instead send all communications over HTTPS. It also prevents HTTPS click through prompts on browsers.
Examples
Example of the HTTP strict transport security header
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=60000
If all subdomains are HTTPS to then the following header is applicable:
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=60000; includeSubDomains
Browser Support
| Browser |
Lowest Version Supported |
| Internet Explorer |
no support |
| Firefox |
4 |
| Opera |
?? |
| Safari |
?? |
| Chrome |
4.0.211.0 |
Server Side
The web server side needs to inject the HSTS header.
For HTTP sites on the same domain it is not recommended to add a HSTS header but to do a perminate redirect (301 status code) to the HTTPS site.
An Apache HTTPd example that will permanently redirect a URL to the identical URL with a HTTPS scheme, is as follows:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAlias *
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [redirect=301]
</VirtualHost>
On the HTTPS site configuration the following is needed to add the header as recommended by the standard:
Header set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=16070400; includeSubDomains"
The following links show how to do set response headers in other web servers:
