0

When I run a Port Scan to my server through NMap (like this)...

$ nmap -A -p443 example.com

...then I get an output like...

Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2018-03-29 00:14 BST
Nmap scan report for example.com (1.2.3.4)
Host is up (0.019s latency).
rDNS record for 1.2.3.4: 4.3.2.1.example.com

PORT    STATE SERVICE  VERSION
443/tcp open  ssl/http nginx
...

However when I run a curl call to check the Server header I can see that my settings overwritten the by-default value:

$ curl -I https://example.com

...
server: my awesome web server

So my concern is how to hide the nginx result from NMap to enhance the server security.

I have been browsing this other post too (/questions/620384/hiding-services-from-port-scan) however I don't see a way to re-use the answer for my case.

Any potential help is more than welcomed.

Cheers,

David Garcia
  • 33
  • 1
  • 2
  • nmap doesn't require the `Server` header to determine the running web server. There are many other ways to find out what it is. Spending time trying to hide the server software is useless. – Michael Hampton Mar 29 '18 at 00:14

1 Answers1

3

Nmap uses other information not easily hidden to fingerprint software. https://nmap.org/book/vscan.html

Trying to hide this adds only a minuscule amount of security anyway because attackers just run scripts trying various exploits and seeing or not seeing that you run nginx will not help or hinder an attacker in any way.

Sven
  • 98,649
  • 14
  • 180
  • 226