Secure Zammad with LetsEncrypt Certıfıcate on Ubuntu 20.4 Apache

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The Story

after installing Zammad ticketing system I tried to implement Let’sEncrypt certificate to secure the system but there was nothing available on the internet except an old article about implementing this on Ubuntu 16 with Nginx (see article here).

In my case I was using apache and no Nginx in place, and after installing Zammad it was using pretty fine on Http but needed to redirect http to HTTPS after implementing the certificate.

Solution:

I first Installed Certbot for apache and then I took a backup of all my Zammad configuration and made sure not to alter the default Zammad directory.

So I created a dummy folder called /var/www/support and a file called /var/www/support/index.html within that folder and provided them the appropriate permissions.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

 sudo mkdir /var/www/support

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/support

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/support

sudo nano /var/www/support/index.html


Edit the index.html file with the following to make sure that it works

<html>
             <head>
                         <title>Welcome to Your_domain!</title>
             </head>
             <body>
                       <h1>Success! The your_domain virtual host is working!</h1>
           </body>
</html>

Edit Zammad’s Default Config File

Please make sure you take a move the original copy of Zammad file to another location using the following command

sudo mv /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.bak

Then we’ll replace the file with this configuration but since we moved the original file to .bak then we’ll have to recreate it with our intended configuration.

Edit a new zammad.conf file and copy the configuration below

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.conf

Configuration starts below this:

#

# this is the apache config for zammad

#

# security – prevent information disclosure about server version

#ServerTokens Prod

<VirtualHost *:8080> # I changed the default port of Zammad to 8080 to allow Letsencrypt to connect on 80 and create the certificate

# replace ‘localhost’ with your fqdn if you want to use zammad from remote

ServerName localhost:8080

## don’t loose time with IP address lookups

HostnameLookups Off

## needed for named virtual hosts

UseCanonicalName Off

## configures the footer on server-generated documents

ServerSignature Off

ProxyRequests Off

ProxyPreserveHost On

<Proxy 127.0.0.1:3000>

Require local

</Proxy>

ProxyPass /assets !

ProxyPass /favicon.ico !

ProxyPass /apple-touch-icon.png !

ProxyPass /robots.txt !

ProxyPass /ws ws://127.0.0.1:6042/

ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/

— INSERT — 10,38 Top

DocumentRoot “/opt/zammad/public”

<Directory />

Options FollowSymLinks

AllowOverride None

</Directory>

<Directory “/opt/zammad/public”>

Options FollowSymLinks

Require all granted

</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName support.cloud-net.tech

DocumentRoot /var/www/support

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

– ————————-

In the above configuration we did two things:

1- Replacing the original Zammad listening port instead of 80 to 8080

2- Created a new virtual host that points to our dummy folder /var/www/support

Save the file and exit from vi

Make sure you restart Apache after this

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Enable the new site configuration

sudo a2ensite zammad.conf

Lets create the certificate

In the below commands , the first one will drive you through the process of getting the certificate.

The second checks the status of the configuration of the auto renewal script certbot and third command tests the renewal of the certificate.

1- sudo certbot –apache

2- sudo systemctl status certbot.timer

3- sudo certbot renew –dry-run

As you can see in the below screenshot the command also asks you if you’d like to redirect all http traffic to HTTPS. You should want to say Y to that.

When you accept creating Redirection rule from HTTP to HTTPs the main Zammad config will get that configuration which wont work in that case because we already changed the default zammad port to 8080.

So you’ll need to get into that zammad.conf that you created again and enter the redirection portion

# this is the apache config for zammad
#


# security – prevent information disclosure about server version
#ServerTokens Prod


<VirtualHost *:8080>
     # replace ‘localhost’ with your fqdn if you want to use zammad from remote
     ServerName support.cloud-net.tech:8080


    ## don’t loose time with IP address lookups
     HostnameLookups Off


    ## needed for named virtual hosts
     UseCanonicalName Off


    ## configures the footer on server-generated documents
     ServerSignature Off


    ProxyRequests Off
     ProxyPreserveHost On


    <Proxy 127.0.0.1:3000>
         Require local
     </Proxy>


    ProxyPass /assets !
     ProxyPass /favicon.ico !
     ProxyPass /apple-touch-icon.png !
     ProxyPass /robots.txt !
     ProxyPass /ws ws://127.0.0.1:6042/
     ProxyPass /
http://127.0.0.1:3000/


    # change this line in an SSO setup
     RequestHeader unset X-Forwarded-User


     DocumentRoot “/opt/zammad/public”


    <Directory />
         Options FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride None
     </Directory>


    <Directory “/opt/zammad/public”>
         Options FollowSymLinks
         Require all granted
     </Directory>


RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteRule ^
https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteRule ^
https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

Note:

You need to make sure that you have enabled port 443 on your Firewall and changed the main protocol of Zammad to HTTPs

To do so you’ll need to get into the Zammad portal > Settings > System > Http Type and change that to HTTPS.

That’s it, my example here worked as expected and now my traffic is automatically getting redirected to https.

Hope this helps anyone looking for such configuration.

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Secure Your DNS Traffic with the outside world

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DoH in Microsoft Windows OS

Until this moment Microsoft Windows OS doesn’t support DNS over HTTPS, The feature will most likely be implemented in future builds but no body knows when is that however, You can still take a peak into the feature which is in preview mode/

Benefit of using DoH on an OS level

The benefit of using DoH on an Operating System level would provide more certainty that your DNS queries leave your computer without being read by any other party even if that is your ISP.

A simple DNS nslookup query using Wireshark on your computer would show you how serious this topic is. After installing Wireshark you’ll be able to see that all of your dns queries are in clear text and can be read by anyone until it gets to the destination website/server.

Demonstration of DNS lookup without DoH

After installing Wireshark, I fire up Powershell or CMD and try to nslookup google.com and it’ll show what I just queried for.

So how to make sure that your DNS queries don’t leave your computer in clear text format? and since Microsoft OS is not DoH ready yet what can you do?

In my case, I am already using encrypted DNS on firewall level as I have Pfsense acting as a router and it already supports DoH but still not pretty satisfied :).

DNSCrypt as a solution

Since the foundation of DoH I have been looking for a solution that would work on Microsoft Windows OS and luckily someone already created this great project called Simple DNSCrypt which not just enables the encryption of DNS queries on your OS but also enables this to work as a service.

Installing DNSCrypt would create a Windows based Service which would start automatically when your OS boots and logs into Windows.

The service is called DNSCrypt Client Proxy

Add alt text

DNSCrypt has a simple interface, You can pick up the DNS Server where to forward queries to and it works with proof.

Right after the installation of this tiny app, launch it as an administrator and configure it as in the below screenshot. You can choose to install the service or not.

Add alt text

Right after you enable it (By clicking on your Network Card box) that will start protecting your DNS queries. Let’s go ahead with a little demo

I am going to start Wireshark after enabling DnsCrypt and do a google dns lookup , As you can see below on wireshark it’s not returning any dns queries.

When you install Simple DNSCrypt it changes your Preferred DNS configuration to localhost so that all queries is passed through the app in DNS over HTTPS which doesn’t allow even Wireshark to see it as DNS.

So that makes it pretty secure and not even your firewall will see it.

If you have any question please don’t hesitate to ask me

Official DNScrypt website https://simplednscrypt.org/

Support the project founder https://github.com/bitbeans/SimpleDnsCrypt

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Mimecast trust cert hacked in Microsoft supply chain

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The Threatpost.com and other cyber security news published articles claiming that A Mimecast-issued certificate used to authenticate some of the company’s products to Microsoft 365 Exchange Web Services has been “compromised by a sophisticated threat actor,” the company has announced.

Mimecast provides email security services that customers can apply to their Microsoft 365 accounts by establishing a connection to Mimecast’s servers. The certificate in question is used to verify and authenticate those connections made to Mimecast’s Sync and Recover (backups for mailbox folder structure, calendar content and contacts from Exchange On-Premises or Microsoft 365 mailboxes), Continuity Monitor (looks for disruptions in email traffic) and Internal Email Protect (IEP) (inspects internally generated emails for malicious links, attachments or for sensitive content).

A compromise means that cyberattackers could take over the connection, though which inbound and outbound mail flows, researchers said. It would be possible to intercept that traffic, or possibly to infiltrate customers’ Microsoft 365 Exchange Web Services and steal information.

Reference:

https://threatpost.com/mimecast-certificate-microsoft-supply-chain-attack/162965/

https://www.crn.com/news/security/hackers-compromise-mimecast-certificate-for-microsoft-authentication

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3- Migrate Users from Skype for Business 2015 to Teams

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Hybrid Integration

In my last post about Skype for Business / Office 365 Skype for Business Online/Teams migration article I discussed the steps of how to create a hybrid environment between Skype for Business on-premises and went through the troubleshooting of each issue I have been through. In this article I am going to discuss the migration of users from on-premises to the cloud through UI and PowerShell.

Migrating users

This article will assume that you are planning to migrate users from Skype for Business Frontend 2015 Server and that you already have a hybrid configuration in place. If so then you’re going to fulfill the following prerequisites:

To check the currently installed PowerShell run the following cmdlet

$PSVersionTable

After you Download and install PowerShell 5.1 you might need to restart the server. In which case the PowerShell will show that it is updated to the required version.

After Installing the Skype Online Connector Module, We will be able to connect right after launching PowerShell

To do so type:

Import-Module SkypeOnlineConnector