# Caching Objects, Passing Through and Rewrites

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/caching-objects-passing-through-and-rewrites/229481>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [February 1, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/caching-objects-passing-through-and-rewrites/229481 "2013-02-01T18:34:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jwilson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jwilson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jwilson)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/caching-objects-passing-through-and-rewrites/229481/1 "2013-02-01T18:34:19Z")

</div>

I’m trying to set up nginx to reverse proxy for our CDN to prevent  
unauthorized access to raw video feeds. The idea is to restrict it to a  
set  
user-agent and referer, and if doesn’t match, to instead call the page  
for  
that video.

I would also like it to cache said video objects as well as any other  
cachable objects, and to just pass other URLs through to origin.

Here’s my config so far:

```
upstream mainsite {
    server www.example.com;
}

upstream cdn {
    server example.cdnprovider.com;
}

server {
    listen *:80;

    # cachable objects, no restrictions
    location ~ (^/img|^/css|^/js|^/video/thumbnail|^/user/avatar) {
        proxy_pass http://cdn$request_uri;
        proxy_set_header Host "content.example.com";
    }

    # raw video requests
    location ~ ^/video/raw {
        rewrite_log on;
        valid_referers *.example.com example.com;

        # get the video id from the end of the string
        if ($uri ~* ^/video/raw/(.*)$) {
            set $vidid $1;
        }

        # The app is automatically passed
        if ($http_user_agent ~* Example-App) {
            proxy_pass http://cdn$request_uri;
        }

        # redirect requests for raw video to page for that video
        if ($invalid_referer) {
            rewrite ^(.*)$ /!$vidid break; # example.com/!vidid
        }

        proxy_pass http://mainsite$request_uri;
        proxy_set_header Host "www.example.com";
    }

    # everything else goes to origin, no caching
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://mainsite$request_uri;
        proxy_set_header Host "www.example.com";
    }
}

```

The issue is that even without providing the correct user-agent or  
referer,  
I still get the raw video returned. Any help appreciated!

Posted at Nginx Forum:

> **[Caching Objects, Passing Through and Rewrites](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,235825,235825#msg-235825)**
>
> I'm trying to set up nginx to reverse proxy for our CDN to prevent unauthorized access to raw video feeds. The idea is to restrict it to a set user-agent and referer, and if doesn't match, to instead call the page for that video. I would also like it...