HTTP-6712 - Log file configuration in nginx

This information is provided as part of the Lynis community project. It is related to Lynis control HTTP-6712 and should be considered as-is and without guarantees. Any advice and commands should be tested before implementing them in production environments.

Control details
Category	Web
Application

Description

For auditing purposes logging should be properly configured in nginx. Missing log files or disabled entries might result in losing valuable data for analytics and accounting.

How to solve

Disabled logging: Check in the Lynis log for entries which are disabled, or in the nginx configuration (access_log off). Missing logging: Check for missing log files. They are references in the configuration of nginx, but not on disk. The Lynis log will reveal to what specific files this applies.

Additional resources

nginx log module (Logging module of nginx)
nginx documentation (Documentation reference)

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Lynis is a technical security auditing tool for Unix flavors like Linux, macOS, AIX, Solaris, and *BSD. It is open source software and free to use. Typical usage include system hardening, compliance testing, and vulnerability scanning. The project has an active community, including development via GitHub.

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