X-Frame-Options
Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.
Warning: Instead of this header, use the frame-ancestors
directive in a Content-Security-Policy
header.
The X-Frame-Options
HTTP response header can be used to indicate whether a browser should be allowed to render a page in a <frame>
, <iframe>
, <embed>
or <object>
. Sites can use this to avoid click-jacking attacks, by ensuring that their content is not embedded into other sites.
The added security is provided only if the user accessing the document is using a browser that supports X-Frame-Options
.
Header type | Response header |
---|---|
Forbidden header name | no |
Syntax
There are two possible directives for X-Frame-Options
:
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Directives
If you specify DENY
, not only will the browser attempt to load the page in a frame fail when loaded from other sites, attempts to do so will fail when loaded from the same site. On the other hand, if you specify SAMEORIGIN
, you can still use the page in a frame as long as the site including it in a frame is the same as the one serving the page.
DENY
-
The page cannot be displayed in a frame, regardless of the site attempting to do so.
SAMEORIGIN
Deprecated-
The page can only be displayed if all ancestor frames are same origin to the page itself.
ALLOW-FROM origin
Deprecated-
This is an obsolete directive. Modern browsers that encounter response headers with this directive will ignore the header completely. The
Content-Security-Policy
HTTP header has aframe-ancestors
directive which you should use instead.
Examples
Warning: Setting X-Frame-Options
inside the <meta>
element (e.g., <meta http-equiv="X-Frame-Options" content="deny">
) has no effect. X-Frame-Options
is only enforced via HTTP headers, as shown in the examples below.
Configuring Apache
To configure Apache to send the X-Frame-Options
header for all pages, add this to your site's configuration:
Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
To configure Apache to set X-Frame-Options
to DENY
, add this to your site's configuration:
Header set X-Frame-Options "DENY"
Configuring Nginx
To configure Nginx to send the X-Frame-Options
header, add this either to your http, server or location configuration:
add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN always;
You can set the X-Frame-Options
header to DENY
using:
add_header X-Frame-Options DENY always;
Configuring IIS
To configure IIS to send the X-Frame-Options
header, add this to your site's Web.config
file:
<system.webServer>
…
<httpProtocol>
<customHeaders>
<add name="X-Frame-Options" value="SAMEORIGIN" />
</customHeaders>
</httpProtocol>
…
</system.webServer>
For more information, see the Microsoft support article on setting this configuration using the IIS Manager user interface.
Configuring HAProxy
To configure HAProxy to send the X-Frame-Options
header, add this to your front-end, listen, or backend configuration:
rspadd X-Frame-Options:\ SAMEORIGIN
Alternatively, in newer versions:
http-response set-header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
Configuring Express
To set X-Frame-Options
to SAMEORIGIN
using Helmet add the following to your server configuration:
const helmet = require("helmet");
const app = express();
app.use(
helmet({
xFrameOptions: { action: "sameorigin" },
}),
);
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-x-frame-options-header |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser