OCSP stapling can significantly reduce the overhead and latency of running SSL. We enable OCSP stapling on all of our NGINX instances at Commando.io.
OCSP stapling, formally known as the TLS Certificate Status Request extension, is an alternative approach to the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) for checking the revocation status of X.509 digital certificates. It allows the presenter of a certificate to bear the resource cost involved in providing OCSP responses, instead of the issuing Certificate Authority (CA). — Wikipedia
It is actually quite trivial to setup in NGINX with a few directives.
http {
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/stapling.trusted.crt;
resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
resolver_timeout 10s;
}
You must specify a DNS resolver, since NGINX makes external http requests. We use Google Public DNS, but OpenDNS, or your hosting providers DNS should all work just fine. We also set a 5 minute time to live cache period and a 10 second resolver timeout.
You'll need to also provide the SSL trusted certificate. We have a wildcard SSL certificate from GoDaddy, so the content of stapling.trusted.crt is simply:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Finally, you may verify that OSCP stapling is enabled with SSL Labs. Here is our report for Commando.io.