Nginx SSL example

***
This post dates from 2014 and I would recommend to use the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator to get a more accurate configuration: https://ssl-config.mozilla.org/
***

This post is more of a reminder for myself but it might help others, it shows a example of how to setup a good vhost with SSL support that gives a A+ rating with a (100/95/100/100) score.

Example of my website:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=ulyaoth.com

Nginx SSL example.

server {
  listen 80;
  add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
  add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
  server_name test.ulyaoth.net;
  return 301 https://test.ulyaoth.net$request_uri;
}

server {
  listen 443 ssl default_server;
  listen [::]:443 ssl default_server ipv6only=on;
  server_name test.ulyaoth.net;

  root /srv/nginx/test.ulyaoth.net/public;
  index index.php;

  access_log /var/log/nginx/test.ulyaoth.net/access.log main;
  error_log /var/log/nginx/test.ulyaoth.net/error.log;

if ($http_user_agent ~ "Windows 95|Windows 98|biz360.com|xpymep|TurnitinBot|sindice|Purebot|libwww-perl") {
  return 403;
  break;
}

  ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/test.ulyaoth.net.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/certs/test.ulyaoth.net.key;
  ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparams.pem;
  ssl_session_cache builtin:1000 shared:SSL:2m;
  ssl_session_timeout 5m;
  ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
  ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

  ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA:ECDH-RSA-AES256-SHA:CAMELLIA256-SHA:AES256-SHA;

  ssl_stapling on;
  ssl_stapling_verify on;
  resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
  resolver_timeout 5s;
  ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/test.ulyaoth.net.ca;

  add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000;";
  add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
  add_header Public-Key-Pins "pin-sha256=\"zco8Bhue8GQPxzzGd9unFQteH9JAk4VUxsofgGUkb7k=\"; max-age=172800;";

location = /favicon.ico {
  alias /srv/nginx/test.ulyaoth.net/public/favicon.ico;
}

location ~ /\.ht {
  deny all;
}

location / {
}
}

To get your “Public key pin” you can use the command:

$ openssl rsa -in test.ulyaoth.net.key -outform der -pubout | openssl dgst -sha256 -binary | openssl enc -base64

Of course use your own key file.

If anyone has a better way of a more secure way feel free to show me I would like to see more examples or learn more about it.

You can test it yourself on this website: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/index.html