🐧 The Complete Guide to NGINX Reverse Proxy Security Hardening (2026)

Ubuntu 26.04 ships NGINX 1.28.3 with defaults that leak your version, accept any HTTP method, and send zero security headers. I verify every hardening directive on a live VM, covering server token hiding, rate limiting, proxy header hygiene, the CVE-2026-42945 rewrite module fix, security headers, and SSL/TLS hardening.