Publish a security.txt file on nginx

Why it matters

A security.txt file tells researchers who to contact when they find a security problem on your site, so a report reaches you instead of being posted publicly or lost. It is a small plain text file defined in RFC 9116.

The fix

1. Create the file at /var/www/security/.well-known/security.txt with the content shown in the generic tab (any directory works; adjust the root below).
2. Add the location block inside the server block for example.com. An exact-match location wins over a regex rule that denies dotfiles, so it also works if you block paths starting with a dot.
3. Run nginx -t, then reload nginx. Browse to https://example.com/.well-known/security.txt and check the content type is text/plain with charset=utf-8.

location = /.well-known/security.txt {
    root /var/www/security;
    default_type text/plain;
    charset utf-8;
}

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

Read the documentation ↗(opens in a new tab)

Related

• Reported by the security.txt check
• Serve security.txt from /.well-known/
• Serve security.txt over https
• Serve security.txt as text/plain with utf-8
• Add a Contact line to security.txt
• Fix the Contact value in security.txt
• Add an Expires line to security.txt
• Use an RFC 3339 date in the Expires line
• Renew the expired security.txt
• Renew security.txt before it expires
• Shorten the security.txt Expires date
• Fix repeated or insecure fields in security.txt
• Make the Canonical line match where the file is served