Top 20 Nginx WebServer Best Security

Nginx is a lightweight, high performance web server/reverse proxy and e-mail (IMAP/POP3) proxy. It runs on UNIX, GNU/Linux, BSD variants, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows. According to Netcraft, 6% of all domains on the Internet use nginx webserver. Nginx is one of a handful of servers written to address the C10K problem. Unlike traditional servers, Nginx doesn't rely on threads to handle requests. Instead it uses a much more scalable event-driven (asynchronous) architecture. Nginx powers several high traffic web sites, such as WordPress, Hulu, Github, and SourceForge. This page collects hints how to improve the security of nginx web servers running on Linux or UNIX like operating systems.

Configure and Install With IPv6 Networking Support on Nginx

Compile Nginx With IPv6 Support

You need to pass the --with-ipv6 option to configure command. Type the following command to compile it, enter:
# cd /path/to/nginx-src-code/
# ./configure --without-http_autoindex_module --without-http_userid_module \
--without-http_auth_basic_module --without-http_geo_module \
--without-http_fastcgi_module --without-http_empty_gif_module \

Block And Deny IP Address OR Network Subnets on Nginx

Nginx comes with a simple module called ngx_http_access_module to allow or deny access to IP address. The syntax is as follows:

deny IP;
deny subnet;
allow IP;
allow subnet;
# block all ips
deny    all;
# allow all ips
allow    all;

Note rules are checked in the order of their record to the first match.

HowTo Block User Agent on Nginx

How do I block a http user agent or a software agent using Nginx web server under Linux or Unix like operating systems?

You can block any http user agents with GET / POST requests that scrape your content or try to exploit software vulnerability. Use the following syntax. Edit /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf file, enter:

Nginx Redirect URL With HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Header

How do I redirect old ugly urls such as http://example.com/store/view.jsp?product=foo with clean url - http://example.com/store/view/product/foo using nginx reverse proxy?

You need to use HttpRewriteModule under nginx web server. This module makes it possible to change URI using regular expressions (PCRE), and to redirect and select configuration depending on variables. The syntax is as follows to chage URI in accordance with the regular expression and the replacement string.

Too Many Open Files Error And Solution on Nginx

I'm getting the following error in my nginx server error log file:

2010/04/16 13:24:16 [crit] 21974#0: *3188937 open() "/usr/local/nginx/html/50x.html" failed (24: Too many open files), client: 88.x.y.z, server: example.com, request: "GET /file/images/background.jpg HTTP/1.1", upstream: "http://10.8.4.227:81//file/images/background.jpg", host: "example.com"

Setup SSL Reverse Proxy (Load Balanced SSL Proxy) on Nginx

A reverse proxy is a proxy server that is installed in a server network. Typically, reverse proxies are used in front of Web servers such as Apache, IIS, and Lighttpd. How do I setup nginx web server as SSL reverse proxy?

When you've multiple backend web servers, encryption / SSL acceleration can be done by a reverse proxy. Nginx can act as SSL acceleration software. It provided the following benefits:

Easy of use : Nginx is easy to setup and upgrade.

mod_extforward: Lighttpd Log Clients Real IP Behind Reverse Proxy / Load Balancer

I've setup 5 lighttpd web servers behind Nginx based reverse proxy / load balancer to distribute load for busy e-commerce website. However, all web server nodes putting my load balncers two IP address in access log file. How do I force lighttpd to log a real IP (public IP) address of all client computers visiting our website?

You need to use mod_extforward under Lighttpd to extract and log the client's real IP from "X-Forwarded-For" or "X-Real-IP" header which is added by reverse proxy server such as Nginx or Squid proxy server.

Create Custom 404 / 403 Error Page on NGINX

How do I create a custom static HTTP 404 or HTTP 403 error page under nginx web server?
First create 404.html in your document root. The default is location is /usr/local/nginx/html/. So create a HTML file as follows:

Nginx Redirect All HTTP Request To HTTPS Rewrite Rules

have setup nginx as a secure reverse proxy server. How do I redirect all http://example.com/ requests (traffic) to https://example.com/ under nginx web server?

The syntax is as follows. You need to add the following in location or server directives: