How to Hide Nginx Version and Set a Custom Server Header

nginx can not only hide its version information but also display a custom Server header.

First, download the latest stable source package:

wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.14.1.tar.gz

Extract and enter the source directory:

tar -xf nginx-1.14.1.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.14.1

Modify the C source files to set a custom header:

Edit src/http/ngx_http_header_filter_module.c (line 49) and replace the default string with:

static u_char ngx_http_server_string[] = "Server: Please guess it!
";

Edit src/http/ngx_http_special_response.c (line 36) and add the same string wrapped in HTML: "<hr><center>Please guess it!</center>" \r\n Configure, compile, and install Nginx:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/nginx
make && make install

Update the main configuration to turn off the default server token:

vim /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf
# inside the http block add:
server_tokens off;

Start Nginx: /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx Verify the custom header:

[root@node1 nginx-1.14.1]# curl -I http://127.0.0.1
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Please guess it!
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:43:00 GMT
...

Browser access shows the same custom header (screenshot omitted for brevity).

Notes:

If you only want to hide the version number without a custom header, skip the source‑code modifications (step 3).

When upgrading Nginx, you can apply the same modifications before running ./configure and make.

For detailed upgrade instructions, refer to the linked blog post.