ssl_certificate_compression
The ssl_certificate_compression directive determines whether SSL/TLS certificate compression is enabled or disabled.
Description
The ssl_certificate_compression directive in NGINX is used to enable or disable compression of SSL/TLS certificates sent to clients. Certificate compression can improve transmission speeds by reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent over the network, particularly beneficial in situations with limited bandwidth. However, enabling this feature could introduce security risks, as it can potentially expose the compressed data to attacks like CRIME.
This directive accepts a flag as its argument, where setting it to 'on' enables compression, while 'off' disables it. By default, the directive is set to 'off', meaning that SSL/TLS certificates will be transmitted as-is without compression. It is important to be cautious when using this feature, especially with sensitive data, because of the potential security implications associated with compressed data leakage during the transmission process.
To use this directive, it can be placed within the http or server contexts in the NGINX configuration file. As with other configuration options, any changes to this directive will require a restart or reload of the NGINX server to take effect.
Config Example
server {
listen 443 ssl;
ssl_certificate /path/to/certificate.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/private.key;
ssl_certificate_compression on;
}Enabling SSL certificate compression may expose the server to potential security vulnerabilities such as CRIME.
Make sure your clients support the compression feature to avoid compatibility issues.
Test the performance and security of your server after modifying this directive.