IIS URL redirect and rewrite to make some kind of a reverse proxy on my JIRA cloud

Question

I am trying to use IIS URL redirect and rewrite to make some kind of a reverse proxy using a windows server. The application is as follows, I have a windows server deployed using IIS, and my server's URL is (for example): "https://my-server.com".

Now, the IIS on my server redirects and rewrites the incoming requests' URL from "https://my-server.com/customer/portal/1" to my JIRA Service Management Customer portal URL, which would look like: "https://jira-instance.com/customer/portal/1". Now doing this causes an issue with XSRF/CSRF checks, where they fail, and the redirects does not work.

Is there a way to pass the XSRF checks to only the customer portal? As I want to reverse proxy the customer portal to my server, so the requests towards JIRA instance would first pass through my server before reaching JIRA Cloud (This is my main goal).

In conclusion, I want to access the customer portal using my server's URL (https://my-server.com), and have a seamless operation.

I want to add too, that I thought it was an issue with the SSL certificate, so I used a certified domain, and I also thought the issue was because at first I was using an IP address instead of the URL, so I created an A record and used instead, so IIS is used to deploy an HTTPS website using an A-record, and finally rewrite the URL to my JIRA cloud customer portal instance.

Umniah TS · Answer

HI!

Well I have seen this approach, and I want to try it, but what I want to understand, is do I add an A-record myself? Or does Jira does it for me? Because I think I tried it this approach, and I use a custom name through a process defined by Jira, where I do not insert my server's IP address as the resolved A-record. Which means, that using this approach I cannot reverse proxy the help center website. I guess Jira only changes the name but not the process.

But, I guess what you mean is that after I do it, it would become easier to configure the proxy, is that what you meant? Or would the XSRF/CSRF checks pass, since the domain name has been changed?

And thank you for your response.

Charlie Misonne · Answer

Hi!

You might be happy to hear Atlassian is rolling out a custom domain option for the customer portal. You can read about it in the weekly blog post: Atlassian Cloud changes Aug 21 to Aug 28, 2023 
Search for Add a custom domain for your help center.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to solve your reverse proxy issue.
And even if it would work your users will click on link in the portal and in email notifications and use the default URL anyway.