Add X-Frame-Options in HTTP header to secure NGINX from Clickjacking attack
Clickjacking is a well-known web application vulnerabilities.
In my last post, I talked about how to secure Apache Web Server, IBM HTTP Server & .htaccess and some of you asked about Nginx.
So here you go…
The X-Frame-Options in HTTP response header can be used to indicate whether or not a browser should be allowed to open a page in frame or iframe.
This will prevent site content embedded into other sites.
Did you every try embed Google.com on your website as a frame? You can’t because it’s protected and you can protect it too.
There are three settings for X-Frame-Options:
- SAMEORIGIN: This setting will allow the page to be displayed in a frame on the same origin as the page itself.
- DENY: This setting will prevent a page displaying in a frame or iframe.
- ALLOW-FROM URI: This setting will allow a page to be displayed only on the specified origin.
Note: you may also try CSP frame-ancestors to control the content embed.
Implementation
- Go to where Nginx is installed and then a conf folder
- Take a backup before modifying
- Add the following parameter in
nginx.confunder server section
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";- Restart Nginx webserver
Verification
You can use a web developer tool in the browser to view Response headers. It should look like this.
Alternatively, you can also use HTTP Header online tool to verify this.
I hope this helps. For more on security, check out my Nginx Hardening & Security guide.
This is just one of the hundreds of security fixes for a website. If you are looking for a complete security solution, you may consider cloud-based security providers like SUCURI, or Cloudflare.
