ssl_error_rx_record_too_long and Apache SSL

In my case I had to change the <VirtualHost *> back to <VirtualHost *:80> (which is the default on Ubuntu). Otherwise, the port 443 wasn't using SSL and was sending plain HTML back to the browser.

You can check whether this is your case quite easily: just connect to your server http://www.example.com:443. If you see plain HTML, your Apache is not using SSL on port 443 at all, most probably due to a VirtualHost misconfiguration.

Cheers!

In my case I had forgot to set SSLEngine On in the configuration. Like so,

<VirtualHost _default_:443>
  SSLEngine On
  ...
</VirtualHost>

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_ssl.html#sslengine

The solution for me was that default-ssl was not enabled in apache 2.... just putting SSLEngine On

I had to execute a2ensite default-ssl and everything worked.

The link mentioned by Subimage was right on the money for me. It suggested changing the virtual host tag, ie, from <VirtualHost myserver.example.com:443> to <VirtualHost _default_:443>

Error code: ssl_error_rx_record_too_long

This usually means the implementation of SSL on your server is not correct. The error is usually caused by a server side problem which the server administrator will need to investigate.

Below are some things we recommend trying.

• Ensure that port 443 is open and enabled on your server. This is the standard port for https communications.

• If SSL is using a non-standard port then FireFox 3 can sometimes give this error. Ensure SSL is running on port 443.

• If using Apache2 check that you are using port 443 for SSL. This can be done by setting the ports.conf file as follows

  Listen 80
  Listen 443 https
  

• Make sure you do not have more than one SSL certificate sharing the same IP. Please ensure that all SSL certificates utilise their own dedicated IP.

• If using Apache2 check your vhost config. Some users have reported changing <VirtualHost> to _default_ resolved the error.

That fixed my problem. It's rare that I google an error message and get the first hit with the right answer! :-)

In addition to the above, these are some other solutions that other folks have found were causing the issue:

• Make sure that your SSL certificate is not expired

• Try to specify the Cipher:

  SSLCipherSuite ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!LOW:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+SSLv3