API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) · Lesson

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

Implement CORS policies in Nginx to enable secure cross-domain requests for your APIs.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is a free API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) lesson on CoddyKit — lesson 2 of 4. You can read the complete lesson below for free — then practise it hands-on in the browser with a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor. It is part of the API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) learning path, one of 4 lessons in the course, and your progress syncs across the web and the CoddyKit app.

What is CORS?

Imagine you're building a web application. Your frontend (like a React app) runs on app.example.com, but it needs to fetch data from your API running on api.example.com.

This is where Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) comes in. It's a security feature implemented by web browsers to control how web pages from one origin can request resources from another origin.

The Same-Origin Policy

CORS is a relaxation of the browser's Same-Origin Policy. This policy is a critical security mechanism that prevents a malicious website from reading sensitive data from another site.

Origin is defined by the protocol, host, and port.
https://app.example.com:443 is different from http://app.example.com:80 or https://api.example.com:443.

Without CORS, browsers would block your frontend from talking to your API because they have different origins.

How CORS Works

When your browser detects a cross-origin request, it adds an Origin header to the request. The server then needs to respond with specific CORS headers to tell the browser it's allowed.

The most important header is Access-Control-Allow-Origin. If this header is present in the server's response and its value matches the client's origin (or is *), the browser allows the request.

Simple vs. Preflight Requests

CORS requests can be categorized into two types:

Simple Requests: These are direct GET, HEAD, or POST requests with specific content types (like text/plain). The browser sends them immediately, expecting CORS headers in the response.
Preflight Requests: For more complex requests (e.g., PUT, DELETE, custom headers, or specific content types), the browser first sends an OPTIONS request. This 'preflight' checks with the server if the actual request is safe to send.

Nginx for CORS Headers

Since Nginx often acts as a reverse proxy or API gateway, it's the perfect place to manage CORS headers for your backend services. We can use Nginx directives to add the necessary Access-Control-* headers to responses.

The primary directive for this is add_header, which allows us to inject custom HTTP headers into Nginx responses.

Configuring Allow-Origin

Let's configure Nginx to allow requests from a specific origin, https://app.example.com, to your API.

We'll add the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header within a location block that handles your API requests.

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name api.example.com;

  location /api/ {
    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' 'https://app.example.com';
    proxy_pass http://backend_api_service;
  }
}

Handling Multiple Origins

What if you have multiple frontends that need to access your API? You can't list multiple origins in Access-Control-Allow-Origin directly. Instead, you can use Nginx's map directive to dynamically set the header based on the incoming Origin header.

http {
  map $http_origin $cors_origin {
    default "";
    "https://app.example.com" "https://app.example.com";
    "https://dev.example.com" "https://dev.example.com";
  }

  server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.example.com;

    location /api/ {
      if ($cors_origin ~ ".") {
        add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' $cors_origin;
      }
      proxy_pass http://backend_api_service;
    }
  }
}

Configuring Preflight Requests

For preflight (OPTIONS) requests, the browser expects specific headers in response to its OPTIONS call. Nginx needs to intercept these requests and respond with the appropriate CORS headers, often without proxying to the backend.

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name api.example.com;

  location /api/ {
    # Handle preflight OPTIONS requests
    if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' 'https://app.example.com';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS, PUT, DELETE';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'Content-Type, Authorization';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Max-Age' 1728000;
      add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain charset=UTF-8';
      add_header 'Content-Length' 0;
      return 204;
    }

    # For actual requests
    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' 'https://app.example.com';
    proxy_pass http://backend_api_service;
  }
}

Essential CORS Headers

Beyond Access-Control-Allow-Origin, these headers are crucial for full CORS support:

Access-Control-Allow-Methods: Specifies allowed HTTP methods (e.g., GET, POST, PUT).
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Lists headers the client is allowed to send (e.g., Content-Type, Authorization).
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: Set to true if the client can send cookies or HTTP authentication.
Access-Control-Max-Age: How long the preflight response can be cached by the browser (in seconds).

Comprehensive CORS Setup

Here's a more complete Nginx configuration snippet that handles both simple and preflight CORS requests, allowing a specific origin to interact with your API, including sending credentials.

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name api.example.com;

  location /api/ {
    set $cors_origin "https://app.example.com"; # Or use map directive

    if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' "$cors_origin";
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range,Authorization';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Credentials' 'true';
      add_header 'Access-Control-Max-Age' 1728000;
      add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain charset=UTF-8';
      add_header 'Content-Length' 0;
      return 204;
    }

    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' "$cors_origin";
    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Credentials' 'true';
    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS';
    add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range,Authorization';

    proxy_pass http://backend_api_service;
  }
}

CORS Header Check

Which of the following headers are essential for Nginx to respond correctly to a CORS preflight (OPTIONS) request?

Recap: Nginx CORS

In this lesson, you learned about Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) and why it's vital for secure web applications. We covered:

The Same-Origin Policy and why CORS exists.
The difference between simple and preflight requests.
How to configure Nginx using add_header and map directives to manage CORS.
Key CORS headers like Access-Control-Allow-Origin, Access-Control-Allow-Methods, Access-Control-Allow-Headers, and Access-Control-Max-Age.

Properly configuring CORS in Nginx ensures your frontend applications can securely communicate with your backend APIs across different domains.

Frequently asked questions

Is the “Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)” lesson free?

Yes — the full text of “Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)” is free to read here on the web, and the API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) course includes 4 lessons in total. To practise it interactively (a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor) and unlock the rest of the API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) course, upgrade to CoddyKit PRO.

What will I learn in “Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)”?

Implement CORS policies in Nginx to enable secure cross-domain requests for your APIs. You practise API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) with hands-on code you run directly in the browser, and a 24/7 AI tutor answers your questions as you work through the lesson.

Do I need any experience to start API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway)?

No prior experience is required. API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) on CoddyKit is structured for beginners through advanced learners; this is — lesson 2 of 4, so you can start here or from the beginning and move at your own pace.

How long does the “Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)” lesson take?

Most CoddyKit lessons take about 5–10 minutes. Each one is bite-sized and interactive, so you make steady progress and pick up exactly where you left off across the web and the app.

Can I write and run code in this API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) lesson?

Yes. Every API Gateway & Reverse Proxy (Nginx + Spring Cloud Gateway) lesson includes a built-in code editor, so you write and run real code right in your browser and get instant AI feedback — no local setup required.

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