X-Frame-Options header

[!NOTE] For more comprehensive options than offered by this header, see the {{HTTPHeader("Content-Security-Policy/frame-ancestors", "frame-ancestors")}} directive in a {{HTTPHeader("Content-Security-Policy")}} header.

The HTTP X-Frame-Options {{Glossary("response header")}} can be used to indicate whether a browser should be allowed to render a page in a {{HTMLElement("frame")}} , {{HTMLElement("iframe")}} , {{HTMLElement("embed")}} or {{HTMLElement("object")}} . Sites can use this to avoid clickjacking 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	`{{Glossary("Response header")}}`
`{{Glossary("Forbidden request header")}}`	No

Syntax

X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

Directives

DENY
- : The page cannot be displayed in a frame, regardless of the site attempting to do so. 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.
SAMEORIGIN
- : The page can only be displayed if all ancestor frames are same origin to the page itself. 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.
ALLOW-FROM origin {{deprecated_inline}}
- : This is an obsolete directive. Modern browsers that encounter response headers with this directive will ignore the header completely. The {{HTTPHeader("Content-Security-Policy")}} HTTP header has a {{HTTPHeader("Content-Security-Policy/frame-ancestors", "frame-ancestors")}} directive which you should use instead.

Examples

[!WARNING] Setting X-Frame-Options inside the {{HTMLElement("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:

import helmet from "helmet";

const app = express();
app.use(
  helmet({
    xFrameOptions: { action: "sameorigin" },
  }),
);

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

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