Configuring HTTPS

MetaDefender Storage Security can be configured to support HTTPS communication when accessing the Web UI and REST API.

Which method applies to your deployment?

Enabling HTTPS from the UI

Enabling HTTPS from the UI is now available for non Kubernetes deployments. On the Settings page, under the Security tab, you can enable HTTPS directly from the UI by entering the certificate file and the key file. The certificate must be a .crt file while the key must be a .key file.

After configuring HTTPS from UI, for the configuration to apply, restarting MDSS manually is required using the mdss command on Linux or the mdss.ps1 script on Windows.

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sudo mdss -c restart

Enabling HTTPS from the Command Line

Prerequisites (both platforms)

• Certificate and private key must be in PEM format (.crt or .pem for the cert, .key for the key).
• If your certificate chain includes intermediate certificates, concatenate them into the .crt file (server cert first, then intermediates).
• Only one .crt/.pem and one .key file may be present in the certificate directory at a time.
• If no certificate is available, skip the certificate placement steps — the script will auto-generate a self-signed certificate (Linux only; Windows requires a certificate to be provided).

Enable HTTPS on Windows-based deployments

In order to setup HTTPS communication please follow these steps:

1. Place your certificate (.crt or .pem) and key (.key) files in: C:\Program Files\OPSWAT\MetaDefender Storage Security\config\nginx\certificates The files can have any name — the script renames them to ssl.crt and ssl.key automatically.
2. Navigate to the scripts folder: C:\Program Files\OPSWAT\MetaDefender Storage Security\scripts
3. Open a PowerShell prompt and run:

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PS> .\mdss.ps1 -u enable_https

4. The script restarts the services automatically. Verify HTTPS is working by navigating to https://<your-host>:443 (or the port configured in WEB_PORT_SSL in your .env file).
5. Verify that HTTPS is configured correctly by navigating with your browser.

Disable HTTPS on Windows-based deployments

For disabling HTTPS communication please follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the scripts folder (by default, in C:\Program Files\OPSWAT\MetaDefender Storage Security\scripts)
2. Run the following command in PowerShell:

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PS> .\mdss.ps1 -u disable_https

3. The script patches the nginx configuration and restarts services automatically. The certificate files remain in config\nginx\certificates — they are not deleted.

Enable HTTPS on Unix-based deployments

In order to setup HTTPS communication please follow these steps:

1. Place your certificate (.crt or .pem) and key (.key) files in /etc/mdss/webclient/ The files can have any name — the script renames them to ssl.crt and ssl.key automatically.
2. Run:

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sudo mdss -u enable_https

3. The script reloads nginx automatically — no MDSS restart is required. Verify HTTPS is working by navigating to https://<your-host>:443 (or the port configured in WEB_PORT_SSL in your .env file)
4. Verify that HTTPS is configured correctly by navigating with your browser.

Disable HTTPS on Unix-based deployments

For disabling HTTPS communication, run the following command:

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sudo mdss -u disable_https

The script reloads nginx automatically — no restart required.

Port configuration

By default, MDSS listens on:

• HTTP: port 80
• HTTPS: port 443

If ports 80 or 443 are unavailable, you can change them in your .env file:

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WEB_PORT=8080

WEB_PORT_SSL=8443