INTERNAL CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE HARDENING SECURITY IN NGINX

Abstract

The notorious evolution of technologies has led to the rising of increasingly complex cybernetic attacks. Web servers are the foundations supporting these technologies, interacting directly, besides, with the operating system which makes them an attractive target for cyber attackers. The denominated Nginx server has reached recently a great popularity, becoming thus a constant target for the search for vulnerabilities in such a way that analysis of popular open-source web servers revealed important security holes, despite the obvious efforts of their developer communities. These vulnerabilities leave both applications and their no expert users in a  "security limbo" opened to exploitation, for what it is almost mandatory and necessary, to apply additional measures and configurations to those established by default during initial deployment. Therefore, the objective of this research was to organize and implement measures to harden security through the different configuration mechanisms for the Nginx web server. These measures were applied in applications available on the Internet in 2018, being effective to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information in the face of attacks, risks, and threats of all kinds, thus contributing to the secure computerization process that is taking place in the country.