Security Best Practices in Nginx

From the Nginx cheat sheet · Security & Access Control · verified Jul 2026

Security Best Practices

Essential security configurations

nginx
# Hide Nginx version
server_tokens off;

# Security headers
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;

# Rate limiting
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;

# IP restrictions
location /admin {
    allow 192.168.1.0/24;
    deny all;
}
🔒 Always hide server version information
🛡️ Implement security headers
⚠️ Use rate limiting to prevent abuse
🔐 Restrict access to sensitive areas
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