NPMplus
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NPMplus is an enhanced fork of the nginx-proxy-manager open-source project and comes as a prebuilt docker image that enables you to easily forward traffic to your websites running at home or otherwise, including free TLS, without having to know too much about Nginx or Certbot. NPMplus adds many additional features and improvements to the original NGINX Proxy Manager project. You find all details on the project's GitHub repo: NPMplus project in GitHub: https://github.com/ZoeyVid/NPMplus NGINX Proxy Manager project on GitHub: https://github.com/NginxProxyManager/nginx-proxy-manager
NPMplus provides native integration with open-appsec WAF starting from NPMplus version 2025-01-26-r1
and higher.
The npmplus
container already includes the open-appsec attachment natively, if you want to protect your NPMplus with open-appsec WAF please make sure to activate loading of the attachment module as follows using the relevant environment variable in the NPMplus compose.yaml
file.
Also make sure to uncomment this line in the npmplus
service to allow the open-appsec attachment module to communicate with the openappsec-agent
container:
Learn more about NPMplus and the steps for "Quick Setup" with Docker Compose in the project's GitHub repo: https://github.com/ZoeyVid/NPMplus?tab=readme-ov-file#quick-setup
This integration of open-appsec WAF and NPMplus is not directly maintained by the open-appsec team, you find the relevant repo here: https://github.com/ZoeyVid/NPMplus
Project maintainers:
https://github.com/ZoeyVid
https://github.com/ZoeyVid/NPMplus
As the NPMplus project is actively maintained make sure to also check out the NPMplus project repo for latest changes, updates and documentation as well (see also comments in the compose.yaml
file).
Below you find the full deployment steps to get you started with NPMplus and open-appsec WAF integration:
Linux Docker Host with root permission
Docker-Compose tool installed
(Optional, Recommended) Sign-Up and Login to WebUI Portal If you want to centrally manage your open-appsec WAF deployment via WebUI (SaaS) OR if you want to locally manage your open-appsec WAF deployment but still connect to central WebUI for viewing the local configuration (in read-only), central monitoring, logging and reporting. Follow the instructions below to sign-up and login to the WebUI available at https://my.openappsec.io:
(Optional, Recommended) Create deployment profile for the open-appsec deployment in WebUI Portal If you signed-up and logged in to the WebUI Portal (see prerequisite above), now follow the instructions below to create a new deployment profile for your open-appsec deployment. Once done, don't forget to copy the profile token after policy installation as this is needed in the installation steps further below.
Create a folder for your new open-appsec deployment and switch to that folder, e.g.
Download the docker compose file for NPMplus which includes the open-appsec integration and adjust the configuration:
If you created a deployment profile in the WebUI and copied the Token from it:
Edit the compose.yaml
file and add your token to the env variable AGENT_TOKEN
of the openappsec-agent
container:
Example (add your own token copied from the deployment profile in the open-appsec WebUI):
If you did not create a deployment profile in the WebUI and do not want to connect your deployment to central WebUI (SaaS) at all:
Comment out the following line in the openappsec-agent service definition as shown in the example below: (otherwise you get an error!):
In the compose.yaml
file uncomment the lines for the deployment of the following additional services/containers: openappsec-smartsync
openappsec-shared-storage
openappsec-tuning-svc
openappsec-db.
These are required only when not connected to the WebUI at all (resulting in standalone, locally, declaratively managed deployment).
Replace user@email.com
in the .env file with your own email. (more details below.)
Configure TZ
environment variable for setting Timezone in npmplus
container
(Mandatory for successful start of npmplus
container!)
Example:
Set it to one of the values from the "TZ identifier" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
Configure ACME_EMAIL environment variable for setting email address for acme, optional for letsencrypt, but required for zerossl and google public ca Example:
openappsec-agent
service/container in the compose.yaml
file allowing further customization of the deployment:AGENT_TOKEN: For connecting your open-appsec deployment to central WebUI set APPSEC_AGENT_TOKEN to your own deployment profile token as copied from profile settings in the open-appsec central WebUI (see section Prerequisites above).
USER_EMAIL: (Optional) Associate your email address with your specific deployment by replacing user@email.com
with your own email address.
This allows the open-appsec team to provide you easy assistance in case of any issues you might have with your specific deployment in the future and also to provide you information proactively regarding open-appsec in general or regarding your specific deployment. This is an optional parameter and can be removed. If we send automatic emails there will also be an opt-out option included for receiving similar communication in the future.
APPSEC_HTTPS_PROXY: (Optional) Configure an HTTP(S) proxy server to be used by the agent.
APPSEC_AUTO_POLICY_LOAD: (Optional) When set to true
, allows you to set the open-appsec agent to automatically apply any new changes in the local_policy.yaml file without having to restart the agent container or applying the changes with open-appsec-ctl -ap
(note that this can take up to 30 seconds). This is useful especially in DevOps scenarios with continuous deployment scenarios.
If you want to locally, declaratively manage open-appsec with local_policy.yaml
file:
Download the initial declarative configuration file for open-appsec into the subfolder /opt/openappsec/localconf
:
This example configuration file is already set to mode: prevent-learn
so that open-appsec will prevent attacks right from the start.
Here's the path for an alternative local-config.yaml file set to detect-learn mode.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openappsec/openappsec/main/config/linux/v1beta1/detect/local_policy.yaml
(or simply adjust the setting in the mode
setting in the earlier local_policy.yaml file to detect-learn
)
In production environments it's always recommended to start in detect-learn
mode to allow open-appsec to achieve a certain learning level based on traffic observed before moving to prevent-learn
for better detection accuracy and strongly reduced false positives.
Read more about this here:
Track Learning and Move From Learn/Detect to Prevent
Perform the deployment
Note that the amount of container will vary based between deployments with and without connection to central WebUI.
Verify that all containers are up and running by verifying their status in docker ps output. Note that the amount of container will vary based between deployments with and without connection to central WebUI.
Congratulations, you successfully deployed NPM plus integrated with open-appsec WAF!
For Production usage we recommend to switch from using the Basic to the more accurate Advanced Machine Learning model, as described here:
Now you can login with your web browser to the WebUI of NGINX Proxy Manager with open-appsec integration as follows:
At first login please use the following default administrator user credentials:
You will then be prompted to provide your own user details and asked to change the password, before being presented with the NGINX Proxy Manager Dashboard view:
To learn how to use the WebUI of NPMplus see the NGINX Proxy Manager (NPM) project documentation: https://nginxproxymanager.com (NPM usage and configuration will not be explained here).
Once you created a new Proxy Host within NPMplus WebUI you can now configure open-appsec protection for it in the open-appsec WebUI (https://my.openappsec.io).
If you connected to central WebUI AND configured your deployment profile in the WebUI to "This management" mode for centrally managing open-appsec configuration: Create one or more assets in the WebUI which represent web applications and/or Web APIs which you want to be protected by open-appsec WAF and allows you to adjust the open-appsec configuration specifically for each of them.
Make sure to link your assets to the specific WebUI Profile which you created earlier (General -> Profiles) and adjust the Threat Prevention mode to Detect-Learn or Prevent (Threat Prevention -> Mode), the steps are described here: Protect Additional Assets
Don't forget to Enforce policy in the WebUI after you did any changes for those changes to become effective!
If you decided to locally, declaratively manage open-appsec (with or without connection to central WebUI in "Declarative configuration" mode):
Follow the steps described here to configure your open-appsec deployment using the local_policy.yaml
file:
Configuration Using Local Policy File (Docker)
In case you connected your locally managed deployment also to the central WebUI in "Declarative Configuration" mode, you can check security logs and view agent status and configuration also in the central WebUI at https://my.openappsec.io .
Don't forget to apply the policy using open-appsec-ctl -ap
in the open-appsec-agent container or by setting APPSEC_AUTO_POLICY_LOAD
in the .env
file to true
for automatic application of any configuration changes done in the local_policy.yaml
file for the changes to become effective!
In the open-appsec Web UI: Navigate to the Agents tab and ensure the new agent is successfully connected.
In the open-appsec Web UI: Create one or more assets defining the specific resources that open-appsec should protect and don't forget to install the policy afterwards. One typical approach would be to create one asset in the open-appsec WebUI per each "Proxy Host" you configured in the NGINX Proxy Manager WebUI. This would allow you to have individual open-appsec security settings per each Proxy Host configured in NPM. All required steps are explained here: