Using PAM & HTTP Auth for reverse proxy

nginx -v nginx version: nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu)

nano /etc/pam.d/nginx

@include common-auth

In nginx site server config add

location /secure {
        auth_pam                "My secured location";
        auth_pam_service_name   "nginx";
}

add permission for nginx user to /etc/shadow

sudo usermod -aG shadow www-data

Check /etc/nginx/nginx.conf for the account used for nginx www-data. It can sometimes be configured to nobody.

add user

adduser myuser --gecos ""

Handling Requests