You're most welcome! (Your reply to me did not go to the list)
Sometimes, it helps to see the actual HTTP request or an example request
and understand the headers, etc. You're right, this is likely being
added by your poster.exe program which precedes your existence or
involvement in the project, and is likely doing something with the
headers. If you ever want to *test* you can put the error.log into
`debug` mode by doing `error_log /path/to/error.log debug;` and get a
TON of extra stuff during request processing (DO NOT do this long term!)
but it'll also show you the request and the headers - it won't show you
the data in a POST but it'll show you the request and received headers
and the reply. Sometimes, this helps you to dissect the request and
understand what's going on behind the scenes.
Thomas
On 6/3/21 4:56 PM, Benn Boulton wrote:
Thomas,
Thank you for that explanation.
It must be the poster.exe program adding that as a default header.
I did not create the poster.exe application, it precedes my employment.
Again Thank you for the information and thank you to this list .
-Benn
*From:* Thomas Ward <tew...@thomas-ward.net>
*Sent:* Thursday, June 3, 2021 4:02 PM
*To:* nginx@nginx.org; Benn Boulton <bboul...@skippingstone.com>
*Subject:* Re: gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm in the access log
Let's dissect an HTTP request that is sent to your NGINX server.
Assume for a moment it's '/cr-bin/mp.exe' that's the request but
there's extra headers. The full HTTP request looks like this (CURL
format output, but also what NGINX spits in debug mode):
POST /cr-bin/mp.exe
referer: example.com/foobar.html
content-type: text/json
content-length: 2345
The actual URL request in this case would have been
http://your-nginx-server/cr-bin/mp.exe
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bwkn8DTjVOXhBFZ6R5Yx3rK971vdc14vuUILU7hnSjBYY5r57OSPXR8dCG1HSujSJCegPBsRcpH9pSQS6uuFgMwMGpt9YeOZDPqz1IAZXA-71zWnFiVr_LB7dufsQGKx_>
with a POST to there, and that is passed through to your system per
your proxy_pass rules, etc.
Where your logs are getting "gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm" is from
that *referer* header. I.E. you would see "example.com/foobar.html"
if the referer header in the request was the example above.
This has **nothing** to do with your configuration. Whatever 'poster'
is doing to post the items to your system is passing a referer header
in the POST with the contents "gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm". If
this is some other site/system you'll see any number of potential
referer items. It's also entirely possible that this is your hostname,
or something specific to your Poster program itself setting the
referer header in the POST that it sends to your server.
This, again, has nothing to do with your NGINX configuration and
everything with how Poster is structuring the POST request (including
any headers it's sending in the request).
Thomas
On 6/3/21 2:52 PM, Benn Boulton wrote:
Hi,
Currently… The posts are coming from the same computer that is
hosting NGINX that passes the requests to an external server.
Eventually… NGINX will be run on the same computer with Apache
and will also function as a load balancer for multiple servers.
One being the same as NGINX and other external servers.
The posts are from a custom poster process that is an .EXE run
from the windows command prompt or a process that calls the POSTER
executable.
C:\POSTER> Poster h:http://localhost/cr-bin/mp.exe
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bvfyNuLOUSKoCAN95VRolCtTnlZv_GE8qno8EEJXYck_6XfRmaMZL-PPvEsyKjLRVrgBjSH2q3pVAMxl8wUV6Aw~~>
f:test.txt
h: is the host to send to
f: is the file with the payload to be sent to the final
destination which is the mp.exe on the server listed in the
proxy_pass parameter.
Everything looks to work as it should. But the
‘gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm’ Log entries are just not what I
expect to see.
I am installing NGINX to rate limit a customer that is sending
multiple posts so fast that we occasionally miss one, and hope
this will resolve that.
Again, the proxy redirect is working, just the log entries is what
prompted my asking.
Thanks,
- Benn
*From:* nginx <nginx-boun...@nginx.org>
<mailto:nginx-boun...@nginx.org> *On Behalf Of *Moshe Katz
*Sent:* Thursday, June 3, 2021 1:29 PM
*To:* nginx@nginx.org <mailto:nginx@nginx.org>
*Subject:* Re: gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm in the access log
Benn,
I guess my explanation wasn't clear enough, so I'll try again.
That value is not coming from anywhere in your server's
configuration - it has nothing to do with proxy_pass or anything
else. It is the value of the "Referer" header that is in the
incoming request.
First, are these log lines from requests that you are making to
the server yourself, or are they coming from someone else?
If it is your own traffic, where are you making your requests
from? Is it a page in a web browser, or is it some other tool?
If it is a web browser, that is usually the URL of the web page
that is open in the browser. For example, if I have a website at
`example.com/page.html`
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bDBb9TVOKiqDPh_SUvfalWM90G6wcWScPnK_EVq6xVxizKwZf0qkcUED1FUainDmbSHVgkakCmLVmIY23vWJ1bQ~~>
with a form on it that submits to your server, the value in that
place in the logs will be `https://example.com/page.html`
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bMe1AJs-bSscT1yazCR9XS0kzX52Qa1-DwoIBV-QK8xxhHB1slVsgthl_uC3ltg7VPOfB-FhvldHP0mGGnWmK1Q~~>
so that your server can see where the request came from.
Moshe
On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 1:18 PM Benn Boulton
<bboul...@skippingstone.com <mailto:bboul...@skippingstone.com>>
wrote:
Hello Moshe,
Thanks for the reply. I guess I was not clear enough in my
post. I know the /cr-bin/mp.exe is part of the POST request.
What I do not understand is where the
gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>
is coming from. It is not my proxy_pass value.
It is not part of the POST request or part of the nginx
proxy_pass or any thing I can find in my configuration.
Is my post being sent to both my proxy_pass value and this
site in the log? Do I have a hacked nginx?
-Benn
*From:* nginx <nginx-boun...@nginx.org
<mailto:nginx-boun...@nginx.org>> *On Behalf Of *Moshe Katz
*Sent:* Thursday, June 3, 2021 12:14 PM
*To:* nginx@nginx.org <mailto:nginx@nginx.org>
*Subject:* Re: gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>
in the access log
Benn,
That part of the log is not the request URL, it is the
referrer header. The path that was requested on your server is
before that - a POST request to "/cr-bin/mp.exe". The
referrer (which the HTTP standard actually misspells as
"referer") is the web page that is making this request to your
server.
Moshe
On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 12:08 PM Benn Boulton
<bboul...@skippingstone.com
<mailto:bboul...@skippingstone.com>> wrote:
Hello,
I have just installed the NGINX service to help rate limit
connections to my Apache server on Windows.
NGNIX 1.19.10 on Windows 10 64 bit
Everything seems to be working fine but I am getting
access log entries that I do not understand for the pages
I am redirecting.
I am running a process that posts to the server. NGNIX is
processing the request and passing it to the destination
server but it is not gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>
as shown in the access log entries below.
Any Idea why
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:30:07 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:31:07 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:33:35 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:37:42 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:55:03 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
127.0.0.1 - t_skipstone [03/Jun/2021:10:56:34 -0400] "POST
/cr-bin/mp.exe HTTP/1.1" 200 569
"gmer3.itd.sterling.com/home.htm
<https://url.emailprotection.link/?bD5H3QzZ3V5r-EeQ1owgpRQF9oV5l2NRIm985JaimcuSK9Ouf7HkyYPBjb_5XEDTDRBkXtPp653bQj78257vLDzTtdkxNExo4pny7K5hfiSUsrBYzsu0MyJJTFCwqaYuV>"
"brow v1.0 CCI"
Thanks
*Benn *
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