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@jfloff
Last active March 6, 2024 09:43
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How to get MAMP to work with SSL ... Yes really.

First of all you need to be able to run MAMP in port 80. This is a "heat check" if you don't have any process jamming http ports. You can check it like this:

sudo lsof | grep LISTEN

If you do happen to have any process with something like this *:http (LISTEN), you are in trouble. Before with adventure check if it isn't MAMP itself (yeah, you should close that beforehand)

ps <pid of that process>

If you don't see MAMP, you are in good hands, I have just the thing for you:

# I've forced the removal of the job
$ launchctl remove org.apache.httpd

# and load it again
$ launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

# and unload it again
$ launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

Now you should be able to use port 80 (and almost any other) in MAMP. Just go to MAMP > Preferences > Ports Tab and click the Set to default Apache and MySQL ports.

Now comes the easy part, you just have to follow what this guy wrote here. Well, that's copy that here just in case ...

  1. Backup your /Applications/MAMP/conf/ dir.

  2. Generate a (dummy) SSL Certificate

    $ cd ~
    
    # generate a private key (will request a password twice)
    $ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
     
    # generate certificate signing request (same password as above)
    $ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
     
    # Answer the questions
    Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: CA
    State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: Quebec
    Locality Name (eg, city) []: Montreal
    Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: Your Company
    Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: Development
    Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: localhost
    Email Address []: your_email@domain.com
    A challenge password []: # leave this empty
    An optional company name []: # leave this empty
     
    # generate the certificate
    $ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
     
    # remove the password from the server key
    $ cp server.key server.tmp
    $ openssl rsa -in server.tmp -out server.key
     
    # Move the certificate into your MAMP apache configuration folder
    $ cp server.crt /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache
    $ cp server.key /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache
    
  3. Open /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf and uncomment Include /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/extra/httpd-ssl.conf.

  4. Keep your vhost in /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf just the same.

  5. In /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/extra/httpd-ssl.conf, find the following block and edit the fields Server Name and Document Root with the values you already have in your vhost.

    #   General setup for the virtual host
    DocumentRoot "/Applications/MAMP/Library/htdocs"
    ServerName www.example.com:443
    ServerAdmin you@example.com
    ErrorLog "/Applications/MAMP/Library/logs/error_log"
    TransferLog "/Applications/MAMP/Library/logs/access_log"
    and edit in your DocumentRoot and ServerName settings:
    

Happy secure MAMPing!

@mike-source
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I tried various solutions posted in this thread and had no joy (a long and frustrating process!). In the end this set of instructions worked for me, so maybe this will help someone:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44585919/self-signed-ssl-certificates-not-working-with-mamp-and-chrome

(copy/pasted in case it ever vanishes)

Chrome now requires SSL certificates to use the "Subject Alt Name" (SAN) rather than the old Common Name. This breaks self-signed certs previously generated by MAMP.

Fortunately, the workaround is pretty straightforward.

Here are all the steps from the very first moment of setting a host to be SSL in MAMP Pro. If you previously created SSL certificates in MAMP, then I've found that deleting them and starting again using this method works.

  1. Create your hostname, eg. test.dev and select your document root

  2. Click the SSL tab, and check the "SSL" box. Make sure you leave the other checkbox "Only allow connections using TLS protocols" unchecked.

Screenshot showing SSL panel in MAMP Pro

  1. Click the "Create self signed certificate" button and fill in the popup form with the relevant details. Click "Generate" and save the certificate wherever you like. I just save mine in Documents > certificates

Screenshot of SSL certificate creation popup form in MAMP Pro

  1. Save your changes in MAMP, and restart the servers.
  2. Click the round arrow button beside "Certificate file" in the MAMP SSL panel (Show in Finder). Double click the .crt file that is highlighted - it should be named like your host, eg. if your host is test.dev then your certificate file will be test.dev.crt. This should open Keychain Access and you should see the new certificate in there.
  3. Right click / Control click on the certificate, and choose "Get Info". Click the drop-down triangle beside "Trust"

Screenshot of Mac Keychain Access for certificate

  1. From the "When using this certificate" selector, choose "Always Trust" - every selector should change to show "Always Trust". Close that window. It will ask for your Mac OS system password to make that change. You should see that the certificate icon shows a little blue plus sign icon over it, marking it as trusted.

enter image description here

  1. Restart Chrome.
  2. Visit your new hostname, and enjoy the green https in the browser bar.

Screenshot of https working in Chrome

@huykon
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huykon commented Feb 26, 2020

I have done full option like your introduction but still only access to http://localhost. When I access to https://localhost.com, it will show like this: https://prnt.sc/r7vs5h. I hope someone here can help me resolve it.
Thanks

@n8jadams
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n8jadams commented Feb 26, 2020

If anyone is interested, I put some work into Dockerizing a LAMP/PHP dev environment with https, and automating the cert generation in a bash script. It should serve nicely as a lightweight replacement to MAMP. Here's the repo. It's working with Mac and I'm open to PRs for other operating systems.

@adampatterson
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For anyone interested in making local certificates I like to use mkCert.

@codux31
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codux31 commented Sep 30, 2021

It doesn't work for me ... 😣

@seb-montana
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To use subjectAltName [SAN] in your certificate (needed by Chrome), you can generate you key and certificate like this : https://www.lopau.com/how-to-generate-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-with-san/

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