# secure_headers

**Repository Path**: mirrors_github/secure_headers

## Basic Information

- **Project Name**: secure_headers
- **Description**: Manages application of security headers with many safe defaults
- **Primary Language**: Unknown
- **License**: MIT
- **Default Branch**: main
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No

## Statistics

- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2020-08-08
- **Last Updated**: 2026-02-21

## Categories & Tags

**Categories**: Uncategorized

**Tags**: None

## README

# Secure Headers [![Build + Test](https://github.com/github/secure_headers/actions/workflows/build.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/github/secure_headers/actions/workflows/build.yml)

**main branch represents 7.x line**. See the [upgrading to 4.x doc](docs/upgrading-to-4-0.md), [upgrading to 5.x doc](docs/upgrading-to-5-0.md), [upgrading to 6.x doc](docs/upgrading-to-6-0.md) or [upgrading to 7.x doc](docs/upgrading-to-7-0.md) for instructions on how to upgrade. Bug fixes should go in the `6.x` branch for now.

The gem will automatically apply several headers that are related to security.  This includes:
- Content Security Policy (CSP) - Helps detect/prevent XSS, mixed-content, and other classes of attack.  [CSP 2 Specification](https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP2/)
  - https://csp.withgoogle.com
  - https://csp.withgoogle.com/docs/strict-csp.html
  - https://csp-evaluator.withgoogle.com
- HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) - Ensures the browser never visits the http version of a website. Protects from SSLStrip/Firesheep attacks.  [HSTS Specification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6797)
- X-Frame-Options (XFO) - Prevents your content from being framed and potentially clickjacked. [X-Frame-Options Specification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7034)
- X-XSS-Protection - [Cross site scripting heuristic filter for IE/Chrome](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd565647\(v=vs.85\).aspx)
- X-Content-Type-Options - [Prevent content type sniffing](https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/gg622941\(v=vs.85\).aspx)
- x-download-options - [Prevent file downloads opening](https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/jj542450(v=vs.85).aspx)
- x-permitted-cross-domain-policies - [Restrict Adobe Flash Player's access to data](https://www.adobe.com/devnet/adobe-media-server/articles/cross-domain-xml-for-streaming.html)
- referrer-policy - [Referrer Policy draft](https://w3c.github.io/webappsec-referrer-policy/)
- expect-ct - Only use certificates that are present in the certificate transparency logs. [expect-ct draft specification](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-stark-expect-ct/).
- clear-site-data - Clearing browser data for origin. [clear-site-data specification](https://w3c.github.io/webappsec-clear-site-data/).

It can also mark all http cookies with the Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite attributes. This is on default but can be turned off by using `config.cookies = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT`.

`secure_headers` is a library with a global config, per request overrides, and rack middleware that enables you customize your application settings.

## Documentation

- [Named overrides and appends](docs/named_overrides_and_appends.md)
- [Per action configuration](docs/per_action_configuration.md)
- [Cookies](docs/cookies.md)
- [Hashes](docs/hashes.md)
- [Sinatra Config](docs/sinatra.md)

## Configuration

If you do not supply a `default` configuration, exceptions will be raised. If you would like to use a default configuration (which is fairly locked down), just call `SecureHeaders::Configuration.default` without any arguments or block.

All `nil` values will fallback to their default values. `SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT` will disable the header entirely.

**Word of caution:**  The following is not a default configuration per se. It serves as a sample implementation of the configuration. You should read more about these headers and determine what is appropriate for your requirements.

```ruby
SecureHeaders::Configuration.default do |config|
  config.cookies = {
    secure: true, # mark all cookies as "Secure"
    httponly: true, # mark all cookies as "HttpOnly"
    samesite: {
      lax: true # mark all cookies as SameSite=lax
    }
  }
  # Add "; preload" and submit the site to hstspreload.org for best protection.
  config.hsts = "max-age=#{1.week.to_i}"
  config.x_frame_options = "DENY"
  config.x_content_type_options = "nosniff"
  config.x_xss_protection = "1; mode=block"
  config.x_download_options = "noopen"
  config.x_permitted_cross_domain_policies = "none"
  config.referrer_policy = %w(origin-when-cross-origin strict-origin-when-cross-origin)
  config.csp = {
    # "meta" values. these will shape the header, but the values are not included in the header.
    preserve_schemes: true, # default: false. Schemes are removed from host sources to save bytes and discourage mixed content.
    disable_nonce_backwards_compatibility: true, # default: false. If false, `unsafe-inline` will be added automatically when using nonces. If true, it won't. See #403 for why you'd want this.

    # directive values: these values will directly translate into source directives
    default_src: %w('none'),
    base_uri: %w('self'),
    child_src: %w('self'), # if child-src isn't supported, the value for frame-src will be set.
    connect_src: %w(wss:),
    font_src: %w('self' data:),
    form_action: %w('self' github.com),
    frame_ancestors: %w('none'),
    img_src: %w(mycdn.com data:),
    manifest_src: %w('self'),
    media_src: %w(utoob.com),
    object_src: %w('self'),
    sandbox: true, # true and [] will set a maximally restrictive setting
    plugin_types: %w(application/x-shockwave-flash),
    script_src: %w('self'),
    script_src_elem: %w('self'),
    script_src_attr: %w('self'),
    style_src: %w('unsafe-inline'),
    style_src_elem: %w('unsafe-inline'),
    style_src_attr: %w('unsafe-inline'),
    worker_src: %w('self'),
    upgrade_insecure_requests: true, # see https://www.w3.org/TR/upgrade-insecure-requests/
    report_uri: %w(https://report-uri.io/example-csp)
  }
  # This is available only from 3.5.0; use the `report_only: true` setting for 3.4.1 and below.
  config.csp_report_only = config.csp.merge({
    img_src: %w(somewhereelse.com),
    report_uri: %w(https://report-uri.io/example-csp-report-only)
  })

  # Optional: Use the modern report-to directive (with Reporting-Endpoints header)
  config.csp = config.csp.merge({
    report_to: "csp-endpoint"
  })

  # When using report-to, configure the reporting endpoints header
  config.reporting_endpoints = {
    "csp-endpoint": "https://report-uri.io/example-csp",
    "csp-report-only": "https://report-uri.io/example-csp-report-only"
  }
end
```

### CSP Reporting

SecureHeaders supports both the legacy `report-uri` and the modern `report-to` directives for CSP violation reporting:

#### report-uri (Legacy)
The `report-uri` directive sends violations to a URL endpoint. It's widely supported but limited to POST requests with JSON payloads.

```ruby
config.csp = {
  default_src: %w('self'),
  report_uri: %w(https://example.com/csp-report)
}
```

#### report-to (Modern)
The `report-to` directive specifies a named reporting endpoint defined in the `Reporting-Endpoints` header. This enables more flexible reporting through the HTTP Reporting API standard.

```ruby
config.csp = {
  default_src: %w('self'),
  report_to: "csp-endpoint"
}

config.reporting_endpoints = {
  "csp-endpoint": "https://example.com/reports"
}
```

**Recommendation:** Use both `report-uri` and `report-to` for maximum compatibility while transitioning to the modern approach.

### Deprecated Configuration Values
* `block_all_mixed_content` - this value is deprecated in favor of `upgrade_insecure_requests`. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy/block-all-mixed-content for more information.

## Default values

All headers except for PublicKeyPins and ClearSiteData have a default value. The default set of headers is:

```
content-security-policy: default-src 'self' https:; font-src 'self' https: data:; img-src 'self' https: data:; object-src 'none'; script-src https:; style-src 'self' https: 'unsafe-inline'
strict-transport-security: max-age=631138519
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-download-options: noopen
x-frame-options: sameorigin
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies: none
x-xss-protection: 0
```

## API configurations

Which headers you decide to use for API responses is entirely a personal choice. Things like X-Frame-Options seem to have no place in an API response and would be wasting bytes. While this is true, browsers can do funky things with non-html responses. At the minimum, we suggest CSP:

```ruby
SecureHeaders::Configuration.override(:api) do |config|
  config.csp = { default_src: 'none' }
  config.hsts = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT
  config.x_frame_options = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT
  config.x_content_type_options = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT
  config.x_xss_protection = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT
  config.x_permitted_cross_domain_policies = SecureHeaders::OPT_OUT
end
```

However, I would consider these headers anyways depending on your load and bandwidth requirements.

## Disabling secure_headers

If you want to disable `secure_headers` entirely (e.g., for specific environments or deployment scenarios), you can use `Configuration.disable!`:

```ruby
if ENV["ENABLE_STRICT_HEADERS"]
  SecureHeaders::Configuration.default do |config|
    # your configuration here
  end
else
  SecureHeaders::Configuration.disable!
end
```

**Important**: This configuration must be set during application startup (e.g., in an initializer). Once you call either `Configuration.default` or `Configuration.disable!`, the choice cannot be changed at runtime. Attempting to call `disable!` after `default` (or vice versa) will raise an `AlreadyConfiguredError`.

When disabled, no security headers will be set by the gem. This is useful when:
- You're gradually rolling out secure_headers across different customers or deployments
- You need to migrate existing custom headers to secure_headers
- You want environment-specific control over security headers

Note: When `disable!` is used, you don't need to configure a default configuration. The gem will not raise a `NotYetConfiguredError`.

## Acknowledgements

This project originated within the Security team at Twitter. An archived fork from the point of transition is here: https://github.com/twitter-archive/secure_headers.

Contributors include:
* Neil Matatall @oreoshake
* Chris Aniszczyk
* Artur Dryomov
* Bjørn Mæland
* Arthur Chiu
* Jonathan Viney
* Jeffrey Horn
* David Collazo
* Brendon Murphy
* William Makley
* Reed Loden
* Noah Kantrowitz
* Wyatt Anderson
* Salimane Adjao Moustapha
* Francois Chagnon
* Jeff Hodges
* Ian Melven
* Darío Javier Cravero
* Logan Hasson
* Raul E Rangel
* Steve Agalloco
* Nate Collings
* Josh Kalderimis
* Alex Kwiatkowski
* Julich Mera
* Jesse Storimer
* Tom Daniels
* Kolja Dummann
* Jean-Philippe Doyle
* Blake Hitchcock
* vanderhoorn
* orthographic-pedant
* Narsimham Chelluri

If you've made a contribution and see your name missing from the list, make a PR and add it!

## Similar libraries

* Rack [rack-secure_headers](https://github.com/frodsan/rack-secure_headers)
* Node.js (express) [helmet](https://github.com/helmetjs/helmet) and [hood](https://github.com/seanmonstar/hood)
* Node.js (hapi) [blankie](https://github.com/nlf/blankie)
* ASP.NET - [NWebsec](https://github.com/NWebsec/NWebsec/wiki)
* Python - [django-csp](https://github.com/mozilla/django-csp) + [commonware](https://github.com/jsocol/commonware/); [django-security](https://github.com/sdelements/django-security), [secure](https://github.com/TypeError/secure)
* Go - [secureheader](https://github.com/kr/secureheader)
* Elixir [secure_headers](https://github.com/anotherhale/secure_headers)
* Dropwizard [dropwizard-web-security](https://github.com/palantir/dropwizard-web-security)
* Ember.js [ember-cli-content-security-policy](https://github.com/rwjblue/ember-cli-content-security-policy/)
* PHP [secure-headers](https://github.com/BePsvPT/secure-headers)