• nginx ¹⁾
• PHP + PHP-CGI ²⁾
• Realm of Espionage

• Windows 11 (24H2)

• https://nginx.org/en/download.html
• Last tested: nginx-1.29.0.zip

• Extract to root system drive for C:\nginx-1.29.0\nginx.exe

explorer "%SystemDrive%"

CD "%SystemDrive%\nginx-"*"\" && "nginx.exe" -v

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf"

COPY /Y "%SystemDrive%\nginx-1.29.0\conf\fastcgi_params" "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf"

COPY /Y "%SystemDrive%\nginx-1.29.0\conf\mime.types" "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf"

"netsh.exe" advfirewall firewall add rule name="nginx" dir="in" action="allow" profile="any" program="%SystemDrive%\nginx-1.29.0\nginx.exe" protocol="tcp" localport="80,443"

"netsh.exe" advfirewall firewall delete rule name="nginx"

• https://windows.php.net/download/
• https://windows.php.net/qa/
• x64 Non Thread Safe
• Last tested: php-8.4.9RC1-nts-Win32-vs17-x64.zip

• Extract to root system drive for C:\php-8.4.9RC1-nts-Win32-vs17-x64\php-cgi.exe
• Add to user Path

explorer "%SystemDrive%"

CD "%SystemDrive%\php-8.4"*"-nts-Win32-"*"-x64\" && "php.exe" -v

"SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe"

C:\php-8.4.9RC1-nts-Win32-vs17-x64

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\php"

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf.d"

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\default.d"

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\vhosts.d"

• This automatically redirects non-HTTPS site links to HTTPS

notepad "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf.d\http-redirect.conf"

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

# End

• This prevents unconfigured subdomains from loading assets from other sites ³⁾

notepad "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf.d\non-existent.conf"

server {
    listen "443" "ssl" "default_server";
    http2 "on";
    server_name "_";

    return "404";
}

# End

• Add to individual site configs as an include

notepad "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\default.d\headers.conf"

add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options "sameorigin" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
add_header Cache-Control "no-store, no-transform, public" always;
add_header Referrer-Policy "same-origin" always;
add_header Expect-CT "max-age=0" always;
add_header Permissions-Policy "geolocation=(), microphone=(), payment=(), usb=(), vr=(), magnetometer=(), midi=(), camera=(), ambient-light-sensor=(), accelerometer=()" always;

# End

notepad "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\nginx.conf"

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#error_log  logs/error.log  info;

http {

    # Logging
    #log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
    #                  '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    #                  '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    #access_log  logs/access.log  main;

    # Includes
    include C:/www/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include C:/www/nginx/vhosts.d/*.conf;
    include C:/www/nginx/conf/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    # Config
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 4096;
    server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

    # gzip
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 9;
    gzip_types *;
    gzip_static always;
    gunzip on;
}

# End

• The empty CSP allows all and can be useful for new site bring-ups, and should be placed in site-specific configs underneath the include line(s)

    add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'" always;

    add_header Content-Security-Policy "" always;

• See Let's Encrypt/Certbot for further set-up

"notepad.exe" "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\conf.d\ssl.conf"

ssl_certificate "C:/www/certbot/certs/fullchain1.pem";
ssl_trusted_certificate "C:/www/certbot/certs/fullchain1.pem";
ssl_certificate_key "C:/www/certbot/certs/privkey1.pem";

ssl_session_timeout "10m";
ssl_session_cache "shared:SSL:10m";
ssl_session_tickets "off";
ssl_buffer_size "4k";

ssl_protocols "TLSv1.2" "TLSv1.3";
ssl_ciphers "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM";
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers "on";
ssl_ecdh_curve "secp384r1";

# End

MKDIR "%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx"

"notepad.exe" "%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Start.bat"

CD "%SystemDrive%\nginx-"*"\"
"nginx.exe" -c "%SystemDrive%\www\nginx\nginx.conf"

:: End

"notepad.exe" "%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Stop.bat"

CD "%SystemDrive%\nginx-"*"\"
"nginx.exe" -s quit

:: End

"%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Stop.bat"

"notepad.exe" "%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Reload.bat"

CD "%SystemDrive%\nginx-"*"\"
"nginx.exe" -s reload
"nginx.exe" -s reopen

:: End

"%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Reload.bat"

"%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Start.bat"

nginx Start

"%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Stop.bat"

nginx Stop

"explorer.exe" "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp"

"%SystemDrive%\www\scripts\nginx\Start.bat"

nginx

• https://nginx.org/en/docs/windows.html
• https://gist.github.com/odan/b5f7de8dfbdbf76bef089776c868fea1
• https://certbot.eff.org/instructions?ws=other&os=pip
• https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/using-certbot-in-windows-the-pragmatic-way/173929
• https://www.php.net/manual/en/image.installation.php
• Qualys SSL Test