Secure sessions with Node.js, Express.js, and NginX as an SSL Proxy

A: Secure Sessions Howto

Secure sessions are easy, but not very well documented.  
Here's a recipe for secure sessions in Node.js when NginX is used as an SSL proxy:

The desired configuration for using NginX as an SSL proxy is to offload SSL processing 
and to put a hardened web server in front of your Node.js application, like:

[NODE.JS APP] <- HTTP -> [NginX] <- HTTPS -> [PUBLIC INTERNET] <-> [CLIENT]

Edit for express 4.X and >:  Express no longer uses Connect as its middleware framework, it implements its own now. 

To do this, here's what you need to do:

B: app.js

// 1. In your main App, setup up sessions:

app.enable('trust proxy');
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.session({
   secret: 'Super Secret Password',
   proxy: true,
   key: 'session.sid',
   cookie: {secure: true},
//NEVER use in-memory store for production - I'm using mongoose/mongodb here
   store: new sessionStore() 
}));

C: nginx-ssl.conf

# 2. Configure nginx to do SSL and forward all the required headers that COnnect needs to do secure sessions:

server {
    listen       443;
    server_name  localhost;
    ssl                  on;
    ssl_certificate      /etc/nginx/nodeapp.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key  /etc/nginx/nodeapp.key;
    ssl_session_timeout  5m;
    ssl_protocols  SSLv2 SSLv3 TLSv1;
    ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers   on;

    location / {
# THESE ARE IMPORTANT
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
# This is what tells Connect that your session can be considered secure, 
# even though the protocol node.js sees is only HTTP:        
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; 
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
        proxy_read_timeout 5m;
        proxy_connect_timeout 5m;
        proxy_pass http://nodeserver;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

Many thanks

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Thank you boss !!! 🙌✨

Thank you!

this is great. it worked for me. i had to ensure that the nginx order of proxy headers was in line with your post. the headers needed to be above the proxy_pass pointer.