Nginx CORS include file

nginx-cors.conf

#
# A CORS (Cross-Origin Resouce Sharing) config for nginx
#
# == Purpose
#
# This nginx configuration enables CORS requests in the following way:
# - enables CORS just for origins on a whitelist specified by a regular expression
# - CORS preflight request (OPTIONS) are responded immediately
# - Access-Control-Allow-Credentials=true for GET and POST requests
# - Access-Control-Max-Age=20days, to minimize repetitive OPTIONS requests
# - various superluous settings to accommodate nonconformant browsers
#
# == Comment on echoing Access-Control-Allow-Origin
#
# How do you allow CORS requests only from certain domains? The last
# published W3C candidate recommendation states that the
# Access-Control-Allow-Origin header can include a list of origins.
# (See: http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/CR-cors-20130129/#access-control-allow-origin-response-header )
# However, browsers do not support this well and it likely will be
# dropped from the spec (see, http://www.rfc-editor.org/errata_search.php?rfc=6454&eid=3249 ).
#
# The usual workaround is for the server to keep a whitelist of
# acceptable origins (as a regular expression), match the request's
# Origin header against the list, and echo back the matched value.
#
# (Yes you can use '*' to accept all origins but this is too open and
# prevents using 'Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true', which is
# needed for HTTP Basic Access authentication.)
#
# == Comment on  spec
#
# Comments below are all based on my reading of the CORS spec as of
# 2013-Jan-29 ( http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/CR-cors-20130129/ ), the
# XMLHttpRequest spec (
# http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20121206/ ), and
# experimentation with latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari at
# that point in time.
#
# == Changelog
#
# shared at: https://gist.github.com/algal/5480916
# based on:  https://gist.github.com/alexjs/4165271
#

# if the request included an Origin: header with an origin on the whitelist,
# then it is some kind of CORS request.

# specifically, this example allow CORS requests from
#  scheme    : http or https
#  authority : any authority ending in ".mckinsey.com"
#  port      : nothing, or :
if ($http_origin ~* (^https?://.*\.42debut\.com$)) {
    set $cors "true";
}
if ($http_origin ~* (^http://(localhost|127.0.0.1)(:[0-9]+)?$)) {
    set $cors "true";
}

# Nginx doesn't support nested If statements, so we use string
# concatenation to create a flag for compound conditions

# OPTIONS indicates a CORS pre-flight request
if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {
    set $cors "${cors}options";
}

# non-OPTIONS indicates a normal CORS request
if ($request_method = 'GET') {
    set $cors "${cors}get";
}
if ($request_method = 'POST') {
    set $cors "${cors}post";
}

# if it's a GET or POST, set the standard CORS responses header
if ($cors = "trueget") {
    # Tells the browser this origin may make cross-origin requests
    # (Here, we echo the requesting origin, which matched the whitelist.)
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Origin: $http_origin";
    # Tells the browser it may show the response, when XmlHttpRequest.withCredentials=true.
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true";
    # # Tell the browser which response headers the JS can see, besides the "simple response headers"
    # more_set_headers "Access-Control-Expose-Headers: myresponseheader";
}

if ($cors = "truepost") {
    # Tells the browser this origin may make cross-origin requests
    # (Here, we echo the requesting origin, which matched the whitelist.)
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Origin: $http_origin";
    # Tells the browser it may show the response, when XmlHttpRequest.withCredentials=true.
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true";
    # # Tell the browser which response headers the JS can see, besides the "simple response headers"
    # more_set_headers 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'myresponseheader';
}

# if it's OPTIONS, then it's a CORS preflight request so respond immediately with no response body
if ($cors = "trueoptions") {
    # Tells the browser this origin may make cross-origin requests
    # (Here, we echo the requesting origin, which matched the whitelist.)
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Origin: $http_origin";
    # in a preflight response, tells browser the subsequent actual request can include user credentials (e.g., cookies)
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true";

    #
    # Return special preflight info
    #

    # Tell browser to cache this pre-flight info for 20 days
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Max-Age: 1728000";

    # Tell browser we respond to GET,POST,OPTIONS in normal CORS requests.
    #
    # Not officially needed but still included to help non-conforming browsers.
    #
    # OPTIONS should not be needed here, since the field is used
    # to indicate methods allowed for "actual request" not the
    # preflight request.
    #
    # GET,POST also should not be needed, since the "simple
    # methods" GET,POST,HEAD are included by default.
    #
    # We should only need this header for non-simple requests
    # methods (e.g., DELETE), or custom request methods (e.g., XMODIFY)
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, POST, DELETE, OPTIONS";

    # Tell browser we accept these headers in the actual request
    #
    # A dynamic, wide-open config would just echo back all the headers
    # listed in the preflight request's
    # Access-Control-Request-Headers.
    #
    # A dynamic, restrictive config, would just echo back the
    # subset of Access-Control-Request-Headers headers which are
    # allowed for this resource.
    #
    # This static, fairly open config just returns a hardcoded set of
    # headers that covers many cases, including some headers that
    # are officially unnecessary but actually needed to support
    # non-conforming browsers
    #
    # Comment on some particular headers below:
    #
    # Authorization -- practically and officially needed to support
    # requests using HTTP Basic Access authentication. Browser JS
    # can use HTTP BA authentication with an XmlHttpRequest object
    # req by calling
    #
    #   req.withCredentials=true,  and
    #   req.setRequestHeader('Authorization','Basic ' + window.btoa(theusername + ':' + thepassword))
    #
    # Counterintuitively, the username and password fields on
    # XmlHttpRequest#open cannot be used to set the authorization
    # field automatically for CORS requests.
    #
    # Content-Type -- this is a "simple header" only when it's
    # value is either application/x-www-form-urlencoded,
    # multipart/form-data, or text/plain; and in that case it does
    # not officially need to be included. But, if your browser
    # code sets the content type as application/json, for example,
    # then that makes the header non-simple, and then your server
    # must declare that it allows the Content-Type header.
    #
    # Accept,Accept-Language,Content-Language -- these are the
    # "simple headers" and they are officially never
    # required. Practically, possibly required.
    #
    # Origin -- logically, should not need to be explicitly
    # required, since it's implicitly required by all of
    # CORS. officially, it is unclear if it is required or
    # forbidden! practically, probably required by existing
    # browsers (Gecko does not request it but WebKit does, so
    # WebKit might choke if it's not returned back).
    #
    # User-Agent,DNT -- officially, should not be required, as
    # they cannot be set as "author request headers". practically,
    # may be required.
    #
    # My Comment:
    #
    # The specs are contradictory, or else just confusing to me,
    # in how they describe certain headers as required by CORS but
    # forbidden by XmlHttpRequest. The CORS spec says the browser
    # is supposed to set Access-Control-Request-Headers to include
    # only "author request headers" (section 7.1.5). And then the
    # server is supposed to use Access-Control-Allow-Headers to
    # echo back the subset of those which is allowed, telling the
    # browser that it should not continue and perform the actual
    # request if it includes additional headers (section 7.1.5,
    # step 8). So this implies the browser client code must take
    # care to include all necessary headers as author request
    # headers.
    #
    # However, the spec for XmlHttpRequest#setRequestHeader
    # (section 4.6.2) provides a long list of headers which the
    # the browser client code is forbidden to set, including for
    # instance Origin, DNT (do not track), User-Agent, etc.. This
    # is understandable: these are all headers that we want the
    # browser itself to control, so that malicious browser client
    # code cannot spoof them and for instance pretend to be from a
    # different origin, etc..
    #
    # But if XmlHttpRequest forbids the browser client code from
    # setting these (as per the XmlHttpRequest spec), then they
    # are not author request headers. And if they are not author
    # request headers, then the browser should not include them in
    # the preflight request's Access-Control-Request-Headers. And
    # if they are not included in Access-Control-Request-Headers,
    # then they should not be echoed by
    # Access-Control-Allow-Headers. And if they are not echoed by
    # Access-Control-Allow-Headers, then the browser should not
    # continue and execute actual request. So this seems to imply
    # that the CORS and XmlHttpRequest specs forbid certain
    # widely-used fields in CORS requests, including the Origin
    # field, which they also require for CORS requests.
    #
    # The bottom line: it seems there are headers needed for the
    # web and CORS to work, which at the moment you should
    # hard-code into Access-Control-Allow-Headers, although
    # official specs imply this should not be necessary.
    #
    more_set_headers "Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization,Content-Type,Accept,Origin,User-Agent,DNT,Cache-Control,X-Mx-ReqToken,Keep-Alive,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since";

    # build entire response to the preflight request
    # no body in this response
    more_set_headers "Content-Length: 0";
    # (should not be necessary, but included for non-conforming browsers)
    more_set_headers "Content-Type: text/plain charset=UTF-8";
    # indicate successful return with no content
    return 204;
}

z_example.conf

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name foo.services.42debut.com;

    location / {
        include /etc/nginx/includes/cors.conf;
        auth_basic "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/conf/htpasswd;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:29000;
    }
}

The HttpHeadersMoreModule is required.