How to configure your server for Client Hints
Client Hints are a set of HTTP request headers that provide useful information to a server about the connecting client such as device type and network conditions. This then allow a server to optimize the content that is served back to the client.Unlike the traditional "User Agent String", Client Hints provide a more efficient and privacy preserving way of retrieving the desired information.
Whilst the "User Agent String" is presented to servers automatically, a web server needs to proactively request the client hint headers they are interested in. The connecting client can then include the requested headers in subsequent requests.
MIDAS (v4.36+) utilizes one of these new Client Hint headers (namely, Sec-CH-UA-Platform-Version) in order to be able to determine the specific operating system version a client is connecting from.
This information is then used to provide users with automated notifications whenever a new or unfamiliar device logs in to their MIDAS account.
Our cloud-hosted client servers are already configured to transparently request the necessary Client Hint headers.
For self-hosted customers however, a small server configuration change will be necessary in order to take advantage of these improvements to device detection in MIDAS v3.46+.
Essentially, you'll need to configure your web server to send an "Accept-CH" (Accept Client Hints) HTTP header with every response. The value of this HTTP header should be "sec-ch-ua-platform-version,ua-platform-version".
Here's how to configure your webserver to send this custom Client Hint HTTP header:
How to configure Apache to send a custom Client Hint HTTP header
With the "mod_headers" Apache module enabled, you can add the following line either to the server's httpd.conf file, or to the .htaccess file for the location where your MIDAS system is installed:Header set Accept-CH "sec-ch-ua-platform-version,ua-platform-version"
How to configure IIS to send a custom Client Hint HTTP header
- Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
- In the connections pane, expand the node for the server, and then expand Sites.
- Select the web site where you want to add the custom HTTP response header.
- In the web site pane, double-click HTTP Response Headers in the IIS section.
- In the actions pane, select Add.
- In the Name box, type the custom HTTP header name, "
Accept-CH". - In the Value box, type the custom HTTP header value, "
sec-ch-ua-platform-version,ua-platform-version". - Select OK.
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