Apache2, vhosts and SSL - apache

Question

My setup:
site1.com | Port 80
site2.com | Port 80
panel.site1.com | Rewrites port 80 traffic to 443
This works until someone tries https:// site[x].com and the server redirects them to my panel. I need this panel to be open to the ~100 people who will use it, but I don't want the wrong people stumbling across it.
I've tried adding:
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin me#email
ServerName site1.com
ServerAlias www.site1.com
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
</VirtualHost>
to the vhost of site1.com, but it still returns the control panel. I believe this is because the certs are checked before Apache vhost rules are applied, but I'm not really sure. Is there a fix for this or is it simply the limitations of Apache2+SSL?

Answer 1

Apache document states that.
If no matching ServerName or ServerAlias is found in the set of
virtual hosts containing the most specific matching IP address and
port combination, then the first listed virtual host that matches that
will be used.
And so looks like you have kept the <VirtualHost> section of panel.site1.com on top of all other virtual host section. Because of this, requests for https://site[x].com will land in it, and so the issue is not related to SSL.
Update:
You can try below configuration and it should work.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.site1.com
ServerAlias site1.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/site1
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^panel.site1.com
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L]
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName www.site2.com
ServerAlias site2.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/site2
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName panel.site1.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/panel
SSLEngine on
SSLOptions +StrictRequire
SSLCertificateFile /opt/apache1/conf/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /opt/apache1/conf/server.key
</VirtualHost>
How this works
When request are for http://site1.com the first VirtualHost
section will be selected.
When request are for http://site2.com the second VirtualHost section will be selected.
If a request arrives for http://site[x].com then first VirtualHost section will be selected.
If a request arrives for http://panel.site1.com the request will be redirected to https://panel.site1.com and the third VirtualHost section will be selected.