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Caddy

The guide covers various counter-measures for deploying a secure and harden Caddy web server.

Update Caddy​

Ensure you are running the latest version of Caddy.

caddy version

Updates usually contain security related fixes, so it is essential to stay updated.

caddy upgrade

Use HTTPS​

Caddy by default gives https secure connection which is one of the important security features, but still ensure that you are using https. If you want to add it manually, you can add it to the Caddyfile like so:

http:// {
    redir https://{host}{uri} permanent
}

Limiting Request Body Size​

To ensure that the server does not run out of memory, setting a request body limit is important.

route /api/* {
    body {
        max_size 100mb
    }
}

Set the X-Content-Type-Options HTTP Header​

X-Content-Type-Options stops a browser from trying to MIME-sniff the content type and forces it to stick with the declared content-type.

header / {
    X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
}

Set the X-Frame-Options HTTP Header​

This tells the browser whether you want to allow your site to be framed or not.

header / {
    X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
}

Disable Server Tokens​

Avoid providing a potential attacker with information they don’t need.

header / {
    -Server
}

Enforce Strong TLS Configurations​

Enforcing strong TLS configurations is crucial for secure communication in your server. Below is a strong cipher suite that Caddy uses by default:

tls {
    protocols tls1.3 tls1.2
    ciphers ECDHE-RSA-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384
}

Set the Strict-Transport-Security HTTP Header​

This header tells the browser to stick with HTTPS instead of using HTTP.

header / {
    Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"
}

Limit Conn Count and Conn Per IP​

Limiting the connection count per IP can help prevent denial of service attacks.

conn_per_ip 10
conn_count 1000

Enable Access Logging​

Access logs provide historical records of individual access requests and can be vital when investigating incidents.

log {
    output file /var/log/caddy/access.log
}

Enable Error Logging​

Error logs can give details about issues and errors that occur on your website:

log {
    output file /var/log/caddy/error.log
    format console
    level ERROR
}

Enable Automatic HTTPS​

Caddy's automatic HTTPS obtains and renews SSL/TLS certificates for your site(s) automatically.

:80, :443

Use Rate Limiting​

Limit the number of requests that can be made to a specific route or in total to your site:

route /login {
    rate_limit {
        zone login
        limit 10r/m
    }
}

Use a Firewall​

Restrict server ports to only necessary ports.