Recompile OpenSSL 1.1 & NGINX 1.25 for TLS 1.3 (CentOS 7)

Recompile OpenSSL 1.1 & NGINX 1.25 for TLS 1.3 (CentOS 7), following the scenario where you have already installed on the server o older version openssl associated with the nginx service.

More specifically, to be able to activate OpenSSL 1.1.1t for the service NGINX, which runs with an older version. OpenSSL 1.0.2k.

# nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.25.0
built by gcc 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44) (GCC) 
built with OpenSSL 1.0.2k-fips  26 Jan 2017
TLS SNI support enabled

# openssl version -a
OpenSSL 1.1.1t  7 Feb 2023

This means that there are two different versions of OpenSSL. A version installed on the system by “yum"(1.0.2k-fips) and a version OpenSSL installed by manual compilation (openssl 1.1.1t).

Classically, most recommend reinstalling 'OpenSSL' at the server level. This would involve executing the command: yum remove openssl. But there is a big problem here. With the uninstallation of the old version OpenSSL, you may also need to uninstall some dependent apps. Such as: nginx, MariaDB-server, cerbotPlus many others.

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A simpler solution is to recompile openssl 1.1 & nginx 1.25 for TLS 1.3.

Recompile tutorial OpenSSL 1.1 & NGINX 1.25 for TLS 1.3 (CentOS 7)

In my example, the recompilation is for nginx/1.25.0 & OpenSSL 1.1.1h using bookstores OpenSSL 1.1.1t.

Recompile NGINX.

1. Create the file: nginx-with-tls13-compile.sh

sudo nano nginx-with-tls13-compile.sh

where you add the script:

#!/bin/bash

## nginx
NGINX=nginx-1.25.0.tar.gz

if [ ! -f "${NGINX}" ];then
    wget https://nginx.org/download/${NGINX}
fi

ND=$(basename $NGINX .tar.gz)
if [ ! -d "${ND}" ];then
    tar zxvf ${NGINX}
fi

cd ${ND}

## pre require package
## yum install gcc pcre-devel zlib-devel

./configure --prefix=/etc/nginx \
    --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx \
    --modules-path=/usr/lib64/nginx/modules  \
    --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
    --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
    --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
    --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
    --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock \
    --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/client_temp \
    --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/proxy_temp \
    --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/fastcgi_temp \
    --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/uwsgi_temp \
    --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/scgi_temp \
    --user=nginx \
    --group=nginx \
    --with-compat \
    --with-file-aio \
    --with-threads \
    --with-http_addition_module \
    --with-http_auth_request_module \
    --with-http_dav_module \
    --with-http_flv_module \
    --with-http_gunzip_module \
    --with-http_gzip_static_module \
    --with-http_mp4_module \
    --with-http_random_index_module \
    --with-http_realip_module \
    --with-http_secure_link_module \
    --with-http_slice_module \
    --with-http_ssl_module \
    --with-http_stub_status_module \
    --with-http_sub_module \
    --with-http_v2_module \
    --with-mail \
    --with-mail_ssl_module \
    --with-stream \
    --with-stream_realip_module \
    --with-stream_ssl_module \
    --with-stream_ssl_preread_module \
    --with-openssl=../$(basename $OPENSSL .tar.gz)
    
make

sudo make install

nginx -V

Save the new file.

2. Make the new executable file:

chmod +x nginx-with-tls13-compile.sh

Rewrite nginx.service

3. Make a backup of nginx.service.

cat /lib/systemd/system/nginx.service > /srv/nginx_service.txt

(you can choose any path you want for nginx_service.txt)

4. Create the file for the service nginx: nginx.service

sudo nano nginx.service

5. In the file the new file nginx.service add the lines:

##  /lib/systemd/system/nginx.service

[Unit]
Description=The NGINX HTTP and reverse proxy server
After=syslog.target network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/run/nginx.pid
ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx
ExecReload=/usr/sbin/nginx -s reload
ExecStop=/bin/kill -s QUIT $MAINPID
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

6. Copy the file to 'daemon".

sudo cp nginx.service /lib/systemd/system/nginx.service

7. After the file has been copied, update the file permissions using the command:

sudo chmod 644 /lib/systemd/system/nginx.service

8. Reload the configuration systemd to take the changes into account using the command:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

9. Restart ngnix.

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Recompile OpenSSL / NGINX for TLS 1.3

10. In the same folder where you have the files nginx-with-tls13-compile.sh and nginx.service, create a new file: openssl-1.1-compile.sh.

sudo nano openssl-1.1-compile.sh

Add the script:

#!/bin/bash

## Compile OpenSSL
OPENSSL=openssl-1.1.1h.tar.gz

DONE=openssl-compile-done

if [ ! -f "${DONE}" ] ;then
    wget https://www.openssl.org/source/${OPENSSL}

    tar zxvf ${OPENSSL}

    cd $(basename $OPENSSL .tar.gz)

    ./config shared no-idea no-md2 no-mdc2 no-rc5 no-rc4 --prefix=/usr/local/

    make

    sudo make install

    cd ..

    touch ${DONE}
fi

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib64/

read -n1 -r -p "$(/usr/local/bin/openssl version) - Press any key to continue..." key

source ./nginx-with-tls13-compile.sh

Replace "OPENSSL=openssl-1.1.1h.tar.gz” with the version you want to install and recompile with NGINX.

11. Make the script executable:

chmod +x openssl-1.1-compile.sh

12. Run the command:

./openssl-1.1-compile.sh

Wait for the recompilation process to complete OpenSSL & NGINX.

If we can help you or there are additions to be made, the comment section is open.