Providing SSL Connections in Python using PKCS#11

Question

I have to implement a Python based web server on a Linux based firmware for an embedded system component:

class WebServer(http.server.HTTPServer)
...
...


        

Answer 1

It's not recommended to do this TLS stuff in the webserver with Python. It's better to do it using nginx or apache. They support both the pkcs#11 SSL context and are fast to negociate SSL since they are written in C.

So to resume:

• Stay on HTTP (not secure) in Python side
• Install nginx or apache
• Configure it for HTTPS :
  1. using pkcs#11 SSL cert/key (pkcs#11 URI to your HSM)
  2. reverse proxy it to your HTTP (not secure) Python webserver.