Enabling HTTPS on MikroTik

Mikrotik and its WinBox interface are virtually inseparable. Most people use it without thinking of any other option. However, Mikrotik supports also has (quite a good) HTTP interface and it also supports a (disabled by default) HTTPS access.

Enabling HTTPS is unfortunately not a straightforward experience.

The easiest way to configure this is to enter commands into New Terminal from WinBox. I will simply repeat commands needed instead of going through the screens. Commands are actually quite descriptive and easy to “translate” into GUI actions if that is your preference.

For HTTPS to work we need to create two certificates, master and apprentice. Ok, actually we need root and HTTPS certificate but master and apprentice sounds much cooler ;):

/certificate
add name=root-cert common-name=MyRouter days-valid=3650 key-usage=key-cert-sign,crl-sign
sign root-cert
add name=https-cert common-name=MyRouter days-valid=3650
sign ca=root-cert https-cert

With certificate signed, we just need to assign it to www-ssl service and enable it, while disabling non-https variant:

/ip service
set www-ssl certificate=https-cert disabled=no
set www disabled=yes

And that’s it. Now you can access your router via HTTPS.

PS: Never use unencrypted interface like HTTP or FTP toward your router. Your password will travel plain-text and risk is not worth 5 minutes it takes to enable TLS encryption.