Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Clientless VPN (SSL VPN) vs HTTPS


From: Eoin Miller <eoin.miller () trojanedbinaries com>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:11:33 -0400

harbinger wrote:
Hi

These days SSL VPN has been the alternative to
the tradition IPsec VPN, particularly for users that
require only email access.

However, what is the different in implementing SSL VPN -
which essentially means allowing only webbased traffic i.e webmail,
as compare to just to setup a webmail server running HTTPS.

Can anyone point out the differences??

Thanks

Some of the more feature packed SSL VPN products are basically a portal with some web applications or even fat client software that allow you to use the SSL VPN box as a jump off point into your network to connect to other services like Citrix. Other products I have seen are really lame and only allow you to connect to a single IP/port per the IP/port that is listening on the external side. If you just want to give your people access to web services on your intranet, I would look into just setting up a reverse proxy with cert and password authentication. You then just have to set your proxy configuration in your browser to point at it. Then you can get around to internal web services no problem. :)

Client ---> SSL ---> Reverse proxy/portal ---> HTTP/RDP/SSH/etc ---> Internal network

--Eoin

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