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Fast and Secure Nginx Configuration Template - By Esad Cetiner

This project's goal is to provide a fast and secure by default Nginx configuration template and encourage secure design that minimizes the chances of misconfigurations and their impacts. Additional code snippets can be found inside the snippets folder which add additional functionality to improve performance/security but aren't enabled by default for various reasons, such as potentially being insecure, not working out of the box, or only being useful for more specific use cases.

Features

  • HTTPS redirection
  • DoS mitigation (Will need to be tuned for your use case, but fine out of the box)
  • Brotli Compression (Disabled by default)
  • Disable page indexing
  • 0-RTT (Disabled by default due to potential security concerns)
  • Hide Nginx
  • HSTS HTTPS only mode
  • Prevent host header spoofing
  • A+ Score on SSL Labs
  • Prevent DNS Spoofing
  • Prioritize ChaCha20 encryption for clients that don't support AES-NI (Disabled by default)
  • OCSP Stapling
  • File caching for frequently accessed files
  • Reduce information leakage
  • Prevent access to sensitive files (such as database dumps and dot files)
  • Default empty webroot (Prevents accidentally exposing your entire server's file system to the internet)

Requirements

  • A certificate with OCSP Stapling
  • Nginx more_set_headers module installed
  • This has only been tested on Ubuntu/Debian so Ubuntu/Debian is recommended, although there is nothing stopping you from using this on Arch/Cent OS etc

Before you install

To prevent DNS spoofing, the resolver directive within the http block is set to 127.0.0.53, your localhost DNS resolver may be located at a different IP address (127.0.0.11 for docker). DNS resolution may fail depending on your environment, monitor your error.log file and set the resolver directive to the correct IP address.

Don't set the resolver directive to a public DNS server, only use the localhost DNS resolver.

See: https://blog.zorinaq.com/nginx-resolver-vulns/

How to install

  1. At a bare minimum, the nginx package and http-headers-more-filter should be installed, these can be installed by using this command: apt install nginx libnginx-mod-http-headers-more-filter ssl-cert
  2. Clone this repository git clone https://github.com/EsadCetiner/Secure-Nginx-Config/
  3. Remove the default nginx.conf file sudo rm /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  4. Replace it with the one from this repository sudo mv Secure-Nginx-Config/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  5. Move code snippets to nginx folder sudo mv Secure-Nginx-Config/snippets /etc/nginx/
  6. Move Custom error pages to webroot sudo mv Secure-Nginx-Config/error_pages /var/www/
  7. Replace ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem; inside nginx.conf with the path to your certificate file (chain.pem for let's encrypt)
  8. Create an empty webroot to prevent accidential misconfiguration of webroot mkdir -p /var/www/empty-webroot/

Brotli (Brotli is not included in Ubuntu):

sudo apt install libnginx-mod-http-brotli-filter libnginx-mod-http-brotli-static

CrowdSec Nginx Bouncer (Lua is not included in Ubuntu 22.04 and newer)

To install the CrowdSec Nginx Bouncer, follow the official CrowdSec Docs then uncomment the lua modules in nginx.conf.

ModSecurity:

Most Linux distro's include an outdated version of ModSecurity, use this repository for the latest ModSecurity packages. Then uncomment the ModSecurity modules in nginx.conf.

Hiding Nginx

To hide Nginx include this code include /etc/nginx/snippets/hide-nginx.conf; inside your server block server { } to hide Nginx.

Please note that security through obscurity is not a replacement for proper security controls

Serve Security Headers

Most security headers will need to be tuned for each Website, you can serve some basic security headers that should work fine for most people but you may need to fine tune things so it can work for you.

To server basic security headers add this code include /etc/nginx/snippets/security-headers.conf; inside your server block server { }

Prevent your site from being indexed by Google

To prevent your website from showing up in google search results add this include include /etc/nginx/snippets/no-robots.conf; inside your server block server { }, please note that it will take time for your site to disapear from Google Search if it's already been indexed.

HTTPS only mode

HSTS is a security header that tells browsers to only connect over HTTPS, this helps prevent MITM attacks like SSL stripping.

To activate HTTPS only mode add this code include /etc/nginx/snippets/ssl.conf; inside your server block server { } then register your domain at https://hstspreload.org, and please make sure you only include this for port 443.

Fix Nextcloud "CONNECTION CLOSED" Error

Uploading large files to Nextcloud may cause a "Connection Closed" error, to fix this simply add this code include /etc/nginx/snippets/nextcloud_fix.conf; to your server block server { }, this will increase the max upload size to 10GB.

Enable Brotli compression

By default, Nginx uses gzip which has inferior compression and uses up more CPU cycles, Brotli can typically improve page load times by 5-10%.

To enable Brotli, make sure you have the brotli module installed https://github.com/google/ngx_brotli and uncomment the load_module for brotli in nginx.conf. Then add an include for the brotli code snippet include /etc/nginx/snippets/brotli.conf; in your HTTP block http { } inside nginx.conf.

Enable 0-RTT

0-RTT is a feature introduced in TLSv1.3 to improve the initial TLS connection speed, especially if it's combined with HTTP3. This feature is disabled by default since it opens up the risk of replay attacks (See: https://blog.cloudflare.com/even-faster-connection-establishment-with-quic-0-rtt-resumption/), you should consider what your performance and security needs are before enabling 0-RTT.

To enable 0-RTT, add an include for the 0-rtt code snippet in your http block include /etc/nginx/snippets/0-rtt.conf;.

Protect sensitive files

You can prevent the access of sensitive files stored in webroot such as htacess, database dumps and configuration files containing secrets. This feature tries to be false positive free but it may have poor coverage as a result.

WARNING: Do not store anything sensitive in your webroot if you can help it, this feature is meant to mitigate accidental misconfigurations.

To enable this feature, add an include into your server block include /etc/nginx/snippets/protect-sensitive-files.conf;.

Prioritize ChaCha20 for clients that don't support AES-NI

Some clients, in particular mobile clients may not support AES-NI, resulting in AES encryption/decryption being very slow. ChaCha20 is a popular alternative to AES, notably for it's improved performance over AES with clients that don't support AES-NI. Nginx can prioritize ChaCha20 for clients that doesn't support AES-NI, but only if your Nginx packages supports it.

WARNING: This is disabled by default since some Nginx packages (including Ubuntu) doesn't support prioritizing ChaCha20.

To enable this feature, uncomment the include within nginx.conf under TLS settings include /etc/nginx/snippets/chacha20-non-aes-ni.conf;.

Additional resources:

Yandex Gixy: Yandex Gixy is a static analysis tool for Nginx, it can detect misconfigurations like HTTP splitting, host header spoofing and SSRF. This project passes all tests from gixy out of the box. https://github.com/yandex/gixy