Cis Nginx V300 1 1 1

CIS 1.1.1 — Ensure NGINX is installed

Profile Applicability

• Level 1 - Webserver
• Level 1 - Proxy
• Level 1 - Loadbalancer

Description

An NGINX installation must be present on the system. To ensure support for modern security standards (such as TLS 1.3 and HTTP/3) and to mitigate known vulnerabilities, the installed version must be 1.28.0 or later and compiled with the necessary modules.

Rationale

NGINX must be installed and operational to serve as the target for this benchmark's security controls. Enforcing a minimum version and feature set ensures the platform is capable of supporting the required security configurations.

Impact

Upgrading NGINX to a newer version may introduce configuration syntax changes or deprecated directives. Administrators should test the configuration syntax nginx -t before restarting the service.

Audit Procedure

1. Verify Installation and Version: Run the following command to display the installed NGINX version:

# Note: It's an uppercase V
nginx -V

2. Evaluation:

• Verify Output: The command must return an installed version (e.g., nginx version: nginx/1.28.0). If the command is not found, NGINX is not installed.
• Check Version: Ensure the version number is 1.28.0 or higher.

Remediation

Install or upgrade NGINX to version 1.28.0 or later.

Note: Official packages from nginx.org (see recommendation 1.2.1) typically include these modules by default. Custom builds must explicitly enable them.

Default Value

NGINX is not installed by default.

References

1. https://nginx.org/en/docs/install.html
2. https://nginx.org/en/linux_packages.html

CIS Controls

MITRE ATT&CK Mappings

Profile

• Level 1 - Webserver
• Level 1 - Proxy
• Level 1 - Loadbalancer