Nginx to allow only POST requests for certain URL's - nginx

Question

I have an application which will be served using GET & POST method's. For better security, I have configured Nginx to serve the pages using only POST requests. Below is the config I have used in Nginx.
Config in Nginx:
if ($request_method !~ ^(POST)$ ){
return 404; }
This is working perfectly.
Now, I wanted to change above configuration in Nginx to serve certain pages with both GET & POST requests. But, I am unable to do it.
I have used lot of combinations, but no luck.
Can some one please help me in configuring nginx for the same.
Below is my Nginx configuration file.
Note: I am using Nginx (at front end) as a webserver and apache (at back end) for serving application. I have configured nginx to redirect the web pages requested to apache successfully.
#user nobody;
worker_processes 1;
#error_log logs/error.log;
#error_log logs/error.log notice;
#error_log logs/error.log info;
#pid logs/nginx.pid;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
#log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
# '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
# '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
#access_log logs/access.log main;
sendfile on;
#tcp_nopush on;
#keepalive_timeout 0;
keepalive_timeout 65;
#gzip on;
server {
listen 8081;
server_name localhost;
#charset koi8-r;
access_log /logs/host.access.log;
location /WebGoat {
#root html;
#index index.html index.htm;
proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/WebGoat/;
}
location /application { ##sample project
#root html;
#index index.html index.htm;
if ($request_method !~ ^(POST)$){
return 404;
}
proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/application/;
}
location ~ ^register\.html {##register.html page should be served with GET & POST requests
if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|POST)$){
return 500;
}
}
#error_page 404 /404.html;
# redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
#
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root html;
}
# proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
#
#location ~ \.php$ {
# proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1;
#}
# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
#
#location ~ \.php$ {
# root html;
# fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
# fastcgi_index index.php;
# fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
# include fastcgi_params;
#}
# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
# concurs with nginx's one
#
#location ~ /\.ht {
# deny all;
#}
}
# another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration
#
#server {
# listen 8000;
# listen somename:8080;
# server_name somename alias another.alias;
# location / {
# root html;
# index index.html index.htm;
# }
#}
# HTTPS server
#
#server {
# listen 443;
# server_name localhost;
# ssl on;
# ssl_certificate cert.pem;
# ssl_certificate_key cert.key;
# ssl_session_timeout 5m;
# ssl_protocols SSLv2 SSLv3 TLSv1;
# ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
# ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
# location / {
# root html;
# index index.html index.htm;
# }
#}
}
Thanks in Advance,
Sandeep

Answer 1

I would write something like this:
location /application {
proxy_pass http://<host>;
limit_except POST {
deny all;
}
}
## Below three pages should be served with GET & POST
location ~ ^/application/(RegisterServet|pd|LoginServlet)$ {
proxy_pass http://<host>;
}
Changes:
There is almost no reason to write limit_except GET POST. A don't think that it's important to you to forbid OPTIONS request to these addresses.
Do you really want to allow urls like /APPLICATION/Pd/? I don't think so, and I've changed ~* to ~.
Removed path parts from proxy_pass, so nginx will proxy original path.
Removed named location.

Answer 2

Easy way to allow only required request methods
if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD)$ ) {
return 444;
}