Dries Buytaert

HTTP Headers Analyzer

3 / 10
https://drsetup97.amebaownd.com/posts/55303481/
Website → Nginx → Amazon CloudFront → Browser
8 missing headers, 3 warnings, 3 notices
The site is using a CDN, but the HTML page is not cached.
Header
Value
Explanation
content-type
text/html; charset=utf-8
The type of the message body, specified as a MIME type.
date
fri, 09 may 2025 03:41:23 gmt
The date and time at which the request was made. A browser uses it for age calculations rather than using its own internal date and time; e.g. when comparing against Max-Age or Expires.
server
nginx
cache-control
no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0
no-cache means the response can be stored by any cache, but the stored response must be validated with the origin server before each reuse. If the origin confirms that the response hasn't changed, downloading of the full response body can be skipped.
Warning no-cache will cause a revalidation request to the origin server for every use of the cached response. Consider using public with appropriate max-age to improve caching efficiency.
max-age=0 with must-revalidate means caching is disabled and all requests must be validated with the origin server.
Notice It does not make sense to set must-revalidate with no-cache; must-revalidate is implied.
content-encoding
gzip
Specifies how the resource is compressed. Not to be confused with Transfer-Encoding which specifies how the data is transferred.
gzip means that the data is compressed with gzip.
Warning Add a Content-Length header. The Content-Length header is required, unless the message is transported using chunked encoding. Without a Content-Length header some servers will respond with 400 (bad request) or terminate connections early.
etag
w/"ec5d-j+x+zybxu8bm0762v1t4m9prmne"
A unique identifier that changes every time a page at a given URL changes. It acts as a fingerprint. A cache can compare Etag values to see if the page has changed and became stale. For example, a browsers will send the ETag value of a cached page in an If-None-Match header. The web server compares the ETag value sent by the browser with the ETag value of the current version of the page. If both values are the same, the web server sends back a 304 Not Modified status and no body. This particular Etag value starts with w/ which means that it is a weak identifier; while unlikely, multiple pages might have the same identifier. Weak identifiers are used because strong identifiers can be difficult and costly to generate.
pragma
no-cache
Warning The page can't be cached by any shared caches such as Varnish or a CDN. If the page is something everybody can access, this behavior is not desired.
Notice Pragma is a HTTP/1.0 header. This request uses HTTP/1.1. In HTTP/1.1, Pragma is deprecated and superseded by the Cache-Control header. Remove Pragma to save bandwidth and processing power.
x-content-type-options
nosniff
The X-Content-Type-Options header, when set to nosniff, prevents MIME type sniffing. This enhances security by ensuring browsers respect the declared Content-Type of the response, mitigating MIME confusion attacks.
The value nosniff is correctly set, providing protection against MIME type sniffing attacks.
x-frame-options
sameorigin
X-Frame-Options prevents this URL from being embedded in an iframe. This protects against clickjacking attacks.
sameorigin means that this page can be displayed in a iframe, but only on the currrent origin. It can't be displayed on another domain. Consider setting this to deny for added security.
x-powered-by
express
Some of the software used to generate or serve this page.
x-xss-protection
1; mode=block
This header enables the browser's built-in XSS protection. However, it's considered legacy and modern browsers may ignore it.
1 enables the browser's cross-site scripting (XSS) filtering.
mode=block instructs the browser to block the response if a XSS attack is detected, instead of sanitizing the page.
Notice While this header provides some protection, it's recommended to use Content-Security-Policy instead, as it offers more comprehensive and flexible protection against XSS and other injection attacks.
vary
accept-encoding
The Vary header specifies a list of headers that must be considered when caching responses. For a cached response to be used, these headers must match between the cached response and the new request. This ensures that the appropriate version of a resource is served based on factors like language, encoding, or device type.
x-cache
miss from cloudfront
The page was not served from Amazon CloudFront.
via
1.1 3a9d4d1041bb08dacfca557811c818c0.cloudfront.net (cloudfront)
The Via header tracks how a page is forwarded from proxy to proxy. Beware, not all proxies append themselves to the Via header.
x-amz-cf-pop
iad61-p8
Amazon CloudFront's edge servers that were queried for the request. The first 3 letters are an IATA location code.
x-amz-cf-id
syi1hzkqnhztkhdzn4kkpbkh8h4yijdu6ssje0pbw7qtmh1ppplrfw==
A unique request identifier generated by Amazon CloudFront. This ID can be used to troubleshoot the request and trace it through Amazon's network.
strict-transport-security
missing Add a Strict-Transport-Security header. The Strict-Transport-Security header or HSTS header is used to instruct browsers to only use HTTPS, instead of using HTTP. It helps enforce secure communication.
content-security-policy
missing Add a Content-Security-Policy header. The Content-Security-Policy header helps browsers prevent cross site scripting (XSS) and data injection attacks.
referrer-policy
missing Add a Referrer-Policy header. When a visitor navigates from one page to another, browsers often pass along referrer information. The Referrer-Policy header controls how much referrer information a browser can share. This is important to configure when private information is embedded in the path or query string and passed onto an external destination.
permissions-policy
missing Add a Permissions-Policy header. Restrict access to device features like the camera, microphone, location, accelerometer and much more.
cross-origin-embedder-policy
missing Add a Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy to specify how this page can be loaded by cross-origin resources.
cross-origin-opener-policy
missing Add a Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header to opt-in into better browser isolation.
cross-origin-resource-policy
missing Add a Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy header to specify who can load this page.
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies
missing Add a X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies header to prevent Flash, Adobe Reader and other clients from sharing data across domains.

Questions or feedback? Email dries@buytaert.net.