Web-svc-mirror Role

Description: Nginx-based privacy proxy that mirrors whitelisted third-party assets under a first-party domain

Variables

• author: Kevin Veen-Birkenbach

• description: Nginx-based privacy proxy that mirrors whitelisted third-party assets under a first-party domain

• license: Infinito.Nexus Community License (Non-Commercial)

• company: Kevin Veen-Birkenbach https://www.veen.world

• min_ansible_version: 2.9

• platforms: [{‘name’: ‘ArchLinux’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Debian’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘EL’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Fedora’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}, {‘name’: ‘Ubuntu’, ‘versions’: [‘all’]}]

• galaxy_tags: [‘nginx’, ‘proxy’, ‘privacy’, ‘cache’, ‘tor’, ‘automation’]

• issue_tracker_url: https://s.infinito.nexus/issues

README

Asset Mirror (Privacy Proxy)

Description

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy. This role wraps Nginx as a first-party mirror for the third-party assets other web applications declare in their CSP whitelists, so browsers fetch those assets from the deployment itself instead of contacting external hosts.

Overview

This role deploys an Nginx vhost behind the project’s standard reverse proxy and exposes the canonical mirror service so that other roles can consume it through services.mirror. The vhost proxies path-prefixed requests (/<origin-host>/<path>) to exactly the external origins aggregated from all deployed applications’ server.csp.whitelist declarations; every other upstream is refused. When an application enables the mirror service, the shared body filter rewrites the external asset URLs in its HTML responses to the mirror domain, and the CSP builder allows the mirror origin in the asset directives.

Cosmos

The diagram places Asset Mirror (Privacy Proxy) in the Infinito.Nexus cosmos: the components it deploys (capabilities), the central services it consumes (dependencies), and its outward reach (federation and bridged external networks).

flowchart LR
    subgraph deps [Dependencies]
        dep_svc_net_tor["svc-net-tor 🐳🐝"]
        dep_web_app_prometheus["web-app-prometheus 🐳🐝"]
    end
    subgraph role [web-svc-mirror 💻]
        svc_dashboard["dashboard"]
        svc_mirror["mirror"]
        svc_prometheus["prometheus"]
        svc_tor["tor"]
    end
    subgraph dependents [Dependents]
        dpt_svc_net_tor["svc-net-tor 🐳🐝"]
    end
    dep_svc_net_tor -. "0..1" .-> svc_tor
    dep_web_app_prometheus -. "0..1" .-> svc_prometheus
    svc_dashboard -- "1:1" --> dpt_svc_net_tor

Solid 1:1 edges are fixed relationships; dashed 0..1 edges are conditional (enabled only in matching deployments); red 0..0 edges are turned off in this role. Node markers show the role’s deploy modes (💻 host, 🐳 compose, 🐝 swarm); ❌ marks a service that is explicitly turned off, and ⚙️ an Ansible role dependency declared in meta/main.yml.

Features

• First-party asset delivery: Browsers never contact third-party CDNs directly; the deployment fetches and caches assets server-side.

• CSP-derived allowlist: Proxy upstreams are generated from the applications’ CSP whitelists, so the mirror can only reach hosts the deployment already trusts.

• Response caching: Mirrored assets are cached with stale-serving, keeping delivery fast and resilient against upstream outages.

• Tor-ready: svc-net-tor depends on this service, so onion deployments serve all whitelisted third-party assets from the onion itself.

• TLS-aware delivery: Runs behind the project’s reverse proxy and inherits its certificate management.

Quick Setup

Development

Clone, set up the workstation, and deploy Asset Mirror (Privacy Proxy) onto the local stack:

git clone https://github.com/infinito-nexus/core.git
cd core
make onboard
make compose-deploy mode=reinstall apps=web-svc-mirror full_cycle=false

Production

Install Asset Mirror (Privacy Proxy) directly onto the target machine: clone the repository, install the OS prerequisites and the repository toolchain, then deploy against localhost over a local connection (no SSH, no container):

git clone https://github.com/infinito-nexus/core.git
cd core
bash scripts/install/package.sh
make install
source scripts/meta/env/load.sh

APP=web-svc-mirror
DOMAIN=<your-domain>
TLS_MODE=self_signed
SSH_PUBLIC_KEY="<your-ssh-public-key>"
INVENTORY=inventories/production
infinito administration inventory provision "$INVENTORY" \
  --inventory-file "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
  --host localhost \
  --include "$APP" \
  --vars "{\"TLS_MODE\": \"$TLS_MODE\", \"DOMAIN_PRIMARY\": \"$DOMAIN\", \"users\": {\"administrator\": {\"authorized_keys\": [\"$SSH_PUBLIC_KEY\"]}}}"
infinito administration deploy dedicated "$INVENTORY/devices.yml" \
  --password-file "$INVENTORY/.password" \
  --diff -vv

Further Resources

• Nginx

• Content Security Policy on MDN

Credits

Implemented by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Part of the Infinito.Nexus Project and maintained by Kevin Veen-Birkenbach. Licensed under the Infinito.Nexus Community License (Non-Commercial).