Balling’s Bits

Setting Up Nginx for SSL/TLS

Before you can setup Nginx for serving pages via SSL/TLS you should obtain a certificate (e.g. test.wbnet.dk.crt) and a private key (e.g. test.wbnet.dk.key).

To server pages via SSL/TLS with SSL 3.0 disabled (due to Poodlebleed) use a Nginx configuration like (adapted from this):

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server {
  listen       443 ssl;
  server_name  test.wbnet.dk;
  ssl on;
  ssl_certificate      /opt/local/etc/nginx/ssl/wbnet.dk/test.wbnet.dk.crt;
  ssl_certificate_key  /opt/local/etc/nginx/ssl/wbnet.dk/test.wbnet.dk.key;

  # enable session resumption to improve https performance
  # http://vincent.bernat.im/en/blog/2011-ssl-session-reuse-rfc5077.html
  ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:1m;
  ssl_session_timeout  5m;

  # Diffie-Hellman parameter for DHE ciphersuites, recommended 2048 bits
  # to generate use: openssl dhparam -rand – 2048
  ssl_dhparam /opt/local/etc/nginx/ssl/dhparam.pem;

  # read more here http://tautt.com/best-nginx-configuration-for-security/
  # don't send the nginx version number in error pages and Server header
  server_tokens off;

  # config to don't allow the browser to render the page inside an frame or iframe
  # and avoid clickjacking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking
  # if you need to allow [i]frames, you can use SAMEORIGIN or even set an uri with
  # ALLOW-FROM uri
  # https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/HTTP/X-Frame-Options
  add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;

  # when serving user-supplied content, include a X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
  # header along with the Content-Type: header, to disable content-type sniffing
  # on some browsers.
  # https://www.owasp.org/index.php/List_of_useful_HTTP_headers
  # currently suppoorted in IE > 8
  # http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2008/09/02/ie8-security-part-vi-beta-2-update.aspx
  # http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/gg622941(v=vs.85).aspx
  # 'soon' on Firefox https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=471020
  add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

  # This header enables the Cross-site scripting (XSS) filter built into most
  # recent web browsers. It's usually enabled by default anyway, so the role
  # of this header is to re-enable the filter for this particular website if
  # it was disabled by the user.
  # https://www.owasp.org/index.php/List_of_useful_HTTP_headers
  add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

  # enables server-side protection from BEAST attacks
  # http://blog.ivanristic.com/2013/09/is-beast-still-a-threat.html
  ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

  # disable SSLv3(enabled by default since nginx 0.8.19) since it's less secure
  # then TLS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer#SSL_3.0
  ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;

  # ciphers chosen for forward secrecy and compatibility
  # http://blog.ivanristic.com/2013/08/configuring-apache-nginx-and-openssl-for-forward-secrecy.html
  ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:kEDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-RC4-SHA:RC4-SHA:HIGH:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!3DES:!MD5:!PSK';

  # enable ocsp stapling (mechanism by which a site can convey certificate
  # revocation information to visitors in a privacy-preserving, scalable manner)
  # http://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/07/29/ocsp-stapling-in-firefox/
  resolver 8.8.8.8;
  ssl_stapling on;
  ssl_trusted_certificate /opt/local/etc/nginx/ssl/wbnet.dk/test.wbnet.dk.crt;

  # config to enable HSTS(HTTP Strict Transport Security)
  # https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Security/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security
  # to avoid ssl stripping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSL_stripping#SSL_stripping
  add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains;";

  #... the rest of your configuration

}

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