Create 07_header_manipulation.md

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# Nginx Header Manipulation
Instructions to manipulate headers in nginx
## Hide Webserver-Details
The simplest (and anyhow recommended) configuration is to remove the webserver details.
This will set the server header to `nginx` only (without any further details).
This is done e.g. in the main configuration: `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`
```bash
sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
```
and uncomment or add following line:
```nginx
http {
##
# Basic Settings
##
[...]
server_tokens off; # Recommended practice is to turn this off
[...]
}
```
## Hide/Replace Webserver at all
To remove or add headers at all, the "headers more module" is needed.
On debian/ubuntu the this module is included in the package `nginx-extras`.
To verify if the package is already installed run:
```bash
sudo apt list nginx-extras --installed
```
to install the package run:
```bash
sudo apt install nginx-extras -y
```
to remove the Server header at all, modify the site configuration:
```bash
sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/*site-name*
```
and add the following line to the server section:
```nginx
server {
[...]
more_clear_headers Server;
[...]
}
```
to replace it with a custom value, use following statement:
```nginx
server {
[...]
more_set_headers 'Server: Webserver';
[...]
}
```
## Security Header
### X-Frame-Options
instructs the browser to not show the website in an iframe.
**Note:** The modern way is using `frame-ancestors` within the CSP header.
edit the site configuration:
```nginx
server {
[...]
add_header X-Frame-Options DENY always; # disable being loaded as iframe at all
add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN always; # only from same domain allowed
[...]
}
```
### CSP
#### XSS/CSP Demo
Using Demo-App [Addressbook](enable_php.md)
Using Instructions [XSS-Demo](xss_demo.md)
#### Preparing Website for exercise
as simple playground...add following code-block to the index.html (or index.nginx-debian.html) before **`</body>`**
```html
<input id="hello_world" type="button" value="Hello World!" />
<script nonce="nginx_nonce">
document.getElementById("hello_world").addEventListener('click', hello);
function hello() {
alert("hello world!");
}
</script>
```
and add a style tag (within head-section):
```html
<style nonce="nginx_nonce">
h1 {color:red;}
</style>
```
#### CSP general
Set the Content Security Policy. Edit the site configuration.
```nginx
server {
[...]
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self';" always; # only resources from our webserver are loaded. Inline script/css tags are blocked as well!
[...]
}
```
afterwards compare the website to before (comment/uncomment the CSP header).
#### CSP nonce
a simple example to generate a dynamic nonce per request...
edit the site configuration.
```nginx
server {
[...]
# nonce
set $nonce $request_id;
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' 'nonce-$nonce';" always; # only resources from our webserver are loaded
sub_filter 'nginx_nonce' "$nonce";
sub_filter_once off;
sub_filter_types text/html;
[...]
}
```
Note: *nginx_nonce* has to match to the value provided in the *script* and *style* tag.
Note2: Test the website again. The style and script tags should now be allowed, as they are whitelisted by using the nonce tag.
#### CSP hash
nonce requires will and option to modify the source code of webapp...
another option is using hash-values in the CSP header.
comment the lines from above to have the style and script stop working again.
get hash-values from the debug-console of the browser and add it to the CSP instruction.
![firefox debug-console](./images/get_csp_hash.png)
or (for external resources) calculate them using:
```bash
curl -s https://*domain*/*path-to-resource* | openssl dgst -sha384 -binary | openssl base64 -A
```
```nginx
server {
[...]
# csp hash
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' 'nonce-$nonce' 'sha256-4qxDpGEJUcxjIP3NOEWlTKBLTDQ5y6fmRuEEO6ZT9Q0=' 'sha256-IKS/bMyKMqxTwEMnsaKruaZIbhySJGL+EebDepTqwUM=';" always; # only resources from our webserver are loaded
[...]
}
```
Note: Test the website again. The style and script tags should now be allowed, as they are whitelisted by providing their hash-value.