MVC RequireHttps entire site

Question

I have read the previous posts about using the RequireHttpsAttribute to secure individual controllers:

ASP.NET MVC RequireHttps in Production Only

but is the

Answer 1

MVC 6 (ASP.NET Core 1.0) works slightly different in it's way of registering filters:

Startup.cs - AddMvc with filter for RequireHttpsAttribute:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    // TODO: Register other services

    services.AddMvc(options =>
    {
        options.Filters.Add(typeof(RequireHttpsAttribute));
    });
}

Design decisions explained:

1. Use filter in Startup.cs for global setup (since we want this to apply everywhere). Startup should be responsible for registering and setting up all global rules. If your company employ a new developer, she would expect to find global setup in Startup.cs.
2. Use RequireHttpsAttribute logic since it's proven (by Microsoft). Never use "magical" strings like "http://" and "https://" when it can be avoided by reusing a Microsoft component created to provide the same logic.

If you are running your MVC website in localhost without SSL:

• http://localhost:1337/ (no SSL)
• https://localhost:1337/ (SSL)

Consider looking at how to run without SSL in localhost while still requiring https it in production.

Note:

As an alternative, we could make a "class BaseController : Controller" and make all our controllers inherit from "BaseController" (instead of Controller). Then we only have to set the attribute 1 global place (and don't need to register filter in Startup.cs).

Some people prefer the attribute style.

Example of usage:

[RequireHttpsAttribute]
public class BaseController : Controller
{
    // Maybe you have other shared controller logic..
}

public class HomeController : BaseController
{
    // Add endpoints (GET / POST) for Home controller
}