Confluence Collaborative Editing does not work with SSL and Apache 2.4.9 or earlier

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Atlassian applications allow the use of reverse-proxies, however Atlassian Support does not provide assistance for configuring them. Consequently, Atlassian can not guarantee providing any support for them.

If assistance with configuration is required, please raise a question on Atlassian Answers.


Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Problem

Confluence 6.x is configured with Apache 2.4 using SSL and Websockets as described in this guide: Securing your Atlassian applications with Apache using SSL

However, when trying to use collaborative editing, you get an error in the browser and the editor does not load. 

Diagnosis

Environment

  • Confluence 6 or higher
  • Apache 2.4.9 or earlier (Not Apache 2.2, as it does not support Websockets at all)
    • If you are on Apache 2.2, please upgrade to the latest version of 2.4 and check if the issue persists
  • SSL configured in Apache and/or Tomcat level
  • The appropriate modules are loaded, specifically mod_proxy_wstunnel.so

Diagnostic Steps

Cause

The following bug breaks the SSL handshake because it sends plain-text requests to the Websockets URL, as opposed to SSL requests:  Plain-text request is sent to WSS URL (which should be over SSL) in mod_proxy_wstunnel

Workaround

Workarounds are ways to temporally circumvent a problem, although it still exists in the application.

Resolution

Upgrade to Apache 2.4.10 or higher. For some operating systems there is a fix available that has been tested using Apache version 2.4.6-45.

Description

Confluence 6+ is configured with Apache 2.4 using SSL and Websockets as described in this guide: FIZME Securing your Atlassian applications with Apache using SSL

However, when trying to use collaborative editing, you get an error in the browser and the editor does not load. 

ProductConfluence
PlatformServer
Last modified on Oct 10, 2018

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