Fake https for video tutorials on localhost

I am serving a site from localhost (NodeJS/Express) for a screencast and I want to make the video appear more professional:

www.company.com in the address bar instead of localhost
https on Chrome's address bar (secure & green)

I managed the first via the host file but failed at the second one. Serving express with a Self-signed certificate turned to be a real hassle. Is there a simple way to make chrome look like https for a screencast video. A floating png above the address bar or something like that? ;-)

Guy

Posted 2017-07-09T16:30:22.997

Reputation: 143

Using a yourdomain.com instead of localhost is trivial. What won't be trivial is using https. You will be unable to use https without an actual certificate, without knowing "what the real hassle" offhand, and since you didn't specifically say what it was, sounds like you should just do it the way its suppose to be done. – Ramhound – 2017-07-09T16:37:48.590

Faking a certificate isn't professional in my book ... – DavidPostill – 2017-07-09T16:39:14.577

Having trouble with that as I am accessing other - non http servers (CORS). I am looking for a way to make it appear as https as I am only capturing video. Thought of maybe asking this in the Design Q&A section - but it seemed more related to SuperUser. – Guy – 2017-07-09T16:40:10.100

1Come on guys - it's for a screencast - a video tutorial for our product that we are running from localhost - not a bank login server... – Guy – 2017-07-09T16:41:33.540

@Guy - Chrome doesn't care. You can only do https if there is a certificate, and unless you want to deal with an error (every single time you start the cast), then you will need an real certificate. – Ramhound – 2017-07-09T16:54:59.733

Yes, I realize that. I just find making our development environment support SSL to be such a big effort for the sake of video tutorials. We don't want to shoot the tutorials on production because some future features only exist in dev. So it sounded like a common problem and that's why I reached out. I do realize now that any "simple solution" would be a security hazard, so I guess there aren't. I will try to add the SSL banner in Screenflow's video processing as a separate layer. tnx. – Guy – 2017-07-09T17:02:06.750

I just find making our development environment support SSL to be such a big effort for the sake of video tutorials. Some proxy to the rescue maybe? – Arjan – 2017-07-09T17:08:09.750

1You'd need to install the private parts of the certificate on the server. The browser won't be able to provide you with that. – Arjan – 2017-07-09T16:48:41.423

The private key should have been created on the server and not shared at all with any devices. That's why it's called private. The server gives out its public key and since it's self-signed, the computer doesn't know to trust it since it has no verification from anything. Installing the certificate tells the computer that it is a trusted system, and the browsers should show a lock icon. – Blerg – 2017-07-09T17:00:06.650

Ah, you're referring to a self-signed certificate? How would the public part have ended up in the browser then, to be available for exporting? (And why export and import if it's already known in the browser...) – Arjan – 2017-07-09T17:06:41.010

The server sends out the public part when the SSL pages are requested. Technically you're not "exporting" the certificate, you're saving it to somewhere you can access it easily, (such as the desktop). Installing a certificate basically tells the computer, (and any browser that uses the OS's certificate stores), that the certificate is trusted. – Blerg – 2017-07-09T17:20:52.250

Fake https for video tutorials on localhost

Answers