security - Enforce Https routing for login with play framework

Question

I want to enforce https routing for the login page only of my application.

Is it possible to do so with Play! without the use of a front end http server?

Answer 1

You can use an @Before interceptor to redirect every request, even if the user types http:// directly. Below is the code that I use (it works when running containerless play run, or when running behind a front end such as on Heroku).

public class HttpsRequired extends Controller {
    /** Called before every request to ensure that HTTPS is used. */
    @Before
    public static void redirectToHttps() {
        //if it's not secure, but Heroku has already done the SSL processing then it might actually be secure after all
        if (!request.secure && request.headers.get("x-forwarded-proto") != null) {
            request.secure = request.headers.get("x-forwarded-proto").values.contains("https");
        }

        //redirect if it's not secure
        if (!request.secure) {
            String url = redirectHostHttps() + request.url;
            System.out.println("Redirecting to secure: " + url);
            redirect(url);
        }
    }

    /** Renames the host to be https://, handles both Heroku and local testing. */
    @Util
    public static String redirectHostHttps() {
        if (Play.id.equals("dev")) {
            String[] pieces = request.host.split(":");
            String httpsPort = (String) Play.configuration.get("https.port");
            return "https://" + pieces[0] + ":" + httpsPort; 
        } else {
            if (request.host.endsWith("domain.com")) {
                return "https://secure.domain.com";
            } else {
                return "https://" + request.host;
            }
        }
    }    
}