Background to the recommended installation

Using NGINX mainline

We recommend using NGINX mainline. By default, most linux distributions will install NGINX stable. While the stable branch will receive security updates, the version number will not always reflect the latest published version of NGINX, and scanning tools and other security compliance frameworks in your organisation may deem this as a failure to patch to the latest version.

Using a custom error page

We recommend installing custom error pages for common HTTP errors. Without this, certain errors are handled by NGINX, and this can reveal the version number of NGINX; other errors are handled by tomat, and this can reveal information about the version of tomcat in use, and a stack trace for the error.

The instructions below are for a simple configuration showing a text error message for all 4xx and 5xx HTTP errors.

• If you want to add details such as the web address, phone number or email address for your own support desk, update the text in the custom error file custom_error.html below.

• If you wish to show different pages for different errors, or to include images in your error pages, configuring NGINX to do this is well documented on the web.

In the phixflow.conf file provided below, the following lines specify the errors to be handed using a custom page, and the location of the page. Update these if you want to configure something different:

    proxy_intercept_errors on;
    error_page 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 421 422 423 424 425 426 428 429 431 451 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 510 511 /custom_error.html;
    location = /custom_error.html {
        internal;
        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

Using letsencrypt to provide certificates

The method below uses https://certbot.eff.org/ to issue and install certificates from https://letsencrypt.org/ to provide secure connections over HTTPS. Let’s Encrypt is a well known Certificate Authority (CA) that is free to use. Check with your organisation on standards for certificates. You may need to use a different public CA, or an internal CA. Using CAs aside from Let’s Encrypt is well documented on the web. In particular, most public CAs will docuemnt how their certificates can be installed into NGINX.

If you do not use Certbot, skip the section Install certificate using Certbot below, and follow instructions appropriate for your CA.

Installing with apt

The instructions below are based on installation on a Debian-based distubution of linux, and use the apt command. If you are installing on a RedHat-based distribution of linux, the equivalent yum commands for NGINX installation are well documented on the web.

Single server, single PhixFlow

The following instructions assume that NGINX is installed on the same server as PhixFlow itself (i.e. the same server as the tomcat installation), and with a single installation of PhixFlow (a “webapp”). If you have multiple webapps on a single server, mutliple webapps across several several servers, or a single webapp on a different server from the reverse proxy, see Multiple PhixFlows, multiple servers below.

Install NGINX

Install NGINX from the repository

1. Run sudo apt install curl gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release to install the prerequisites.

2. Run the following to set up the repository for mainline packages:

   Code Block
   echo "deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

3. Run curl -fsSL https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | sudo apt-key add - to import an official NGINX signing key so apt can verify the package's authenticity.

4. Run sudo apt-key fingerprint ABF5BD827BD9BF62 to verify you have the proper key - the output should contain the full fingerprint: 573B FD6B 3D8F BC64 1079 A6AB ABF5 BD82 7BD9 BF62.

5. Run sudo apt update and sudo apt install nginx.

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Install certificate using Certbot

Open the server to port 80 (HTTP), both in GCP firewalls and ufw on the server.

Follow the instructions here up to Step 7: https://certbot.eff.org/instructions?ws=nginx&os=ubuntubionic. In Step 7, run the first command: sudo certbot --nginx - the final step of this (installing the certificate into NGINX) will fail. Continuing with the instructions here will install the certificate manually.

Configure NGINX

1. Run sudo rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf to remove the default configuration.

2. Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/phixflow.conf and paste in the following, replacing [subdomain] with the appropriate subdomain of the server:

   Code Block

   server { listen 443 ssl; listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; server_name [subdomain].phixflow.com; proxy_intercept_errors on; error_page 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 421 422 423 424 425 426 428 429 431 451 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 510 511 /custom_error.html; location = /custom_error.html { internal; root /usr/share/nginx/html; } location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; } ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/[subdomain].phixflow.com/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/[subdomain].phixflow.com/privkey.pem; include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; client_max_body_size 40M; add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"; }

3. Create custom error page

4. Create a file /usr/share/nginx/html/custom_error.html , e.g. sudo nano /usr/share/nginx/html/custom_error.html, and enter the following contents:

<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=11" />
        <title>PhixFlow Error</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="access-error" style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; text-align: center; position:absolute; top:300px; width:100%; ">
            An unexpected error has occurred opening PhixFlow, please contact the support desk.
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

1. Restart NGINX:

   Code Block
   sudo nginx -s reload sudo service nginx stop sudo service nginx start

   You may need to reboot the server as well in order for NGINX to restart successfully.

2. Run netstat -tln to check the server is listening on port 443 rather than 80.

3. Check the PhixFlow application loads in the browser. Check the security settings in the browser console.

4. Run nginx -V to check the version.

Configure SSL cipher restriction

This is based on recommendations given at: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Recommended_configurations. Note that there is a scheduled audit to review these on a regular basis and update our build instructions to continue to comply with the recommendations.

Open the file at /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf. It should look similar to the following:

ssl_session_cache shared:le_nginx_SSL:1m;
ssl_session_timeout 1440m;

ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS";

Edit the ssl_protocols parameter to be:

ssl_protocols TLSv1.3;

Edit the ssl_ciphers parameter to be:

ssl_ciphers "TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256";

Close and save the file.

Run the following to reload the NGINX configuration:

sudo nginx -s reload

Restart the NGINX service:

sudo service nginx restart

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Multiple PhixFlows, multiple servers

A single reverse proxy can handle connections to different webapps (i.e. installations of PhixFlow), whether these are hosted on a single server, or across several servers. See *** for common network configuration for PhixFlow installation. However, whichever configruation you choose, the configuration is the same: you need an IP address and a webapp name to define each PhixFlow installation.

Note that, since NGINX is acting as the the point of SSL termination, that if you specify a PhixFlow installation at an IP address, you must make sure that the route from the reverse proxy to the PhixFlow installation is secure. The suggested configurations in *** will provide this since traffic is sent within a private network.

In the following example, a single reverse proxy on a dedicated server is handling incoming connections to:

To support connections to all these systems replace the directive

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    }

in the example phixflow.conf file above with:

    location /prod {
        proxy_pass http://10.154.0.12:8080;
    }

    location /uat {
        proxy_pass http://10.154.0.13:8080;
    }

    location /dev1 {
        proxy_pass http://10.154.0.14:8080;
    }
    
    location /dev2 {
        proxy_pass http://10.154.0.14:8080;
    }

Switching NGINX from stable branch to mainline

1. Run sudo apt remove nginx to remove the current installation of NGINX while preserving the configuration files.

2. Run sudo apt install curl gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release to install the prerequisites.

3. Run the following to set up the repository for mainline packages:

   Code Block
   echo "deb http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

4. Run curl -fsSL https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | sudo apt-key add - to import an official NGINX signing key so apt can verify the package's authenticity.

5. Run sudo apt-key fingerprint ABF5BD827BD9BF62 to verify you have the proper key.

6. The output should contain the full fingerprint 573B FD6B 3D8F BC64 1079 A6AB ABF5 BD82 7BD9 BF62.

7. Run sudo apt update and sudo apt install nginx.

8. Run sudo rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf to remove the default configuration.

9. Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; below the line include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;.

10. Run sudo nginx -s reload.

11. Run sudo service nginx stop.

12. Run sudo service nginx start.

13. Run netstat -tln to check the server is listening on port 443 rather than 80.

14. Check the PhixFlow application loads in the browser. Check the security settings in the browser console.

15. Run nginx -V to check the version.