Details

Disabling hidden files is a defense-in-depth mechanism to help prevent accidentally exposing sensitive information.

Rationale:

Disabling hidden files prevents an attacker from being able to reference a hidden file that may be put in your location and have sensitive information, like .git files.

Solution

Edit the ‘nginx.conf’ file and add the following line:

location ~ /. { deny all; return 404; }

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/2275

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.

References

• 800-53|CM-6
• CSCv7|5.1

Source

• Tenable.com/audits