Securing n8n front door

Your self-hosted n8n might be wide open to the internet. In this video I show you exactly how I locked mine down with an nginx reverse proxy — HTTPS, a password-protected editor, and a hidden footprint — WITHOUT breaking webhooks or forms. If you're running n8n on a VPS (or you clicked a one-click install), it's probably reachable on a raw IP over port 5678, running as root, with no encryption. I'll walk you through fixing that step by step, on a real server. 🔒 What you'll learn: Why an exposed n8n instance is a real risk (and when it isn't) Setting up an nginx reverse proxy in front of n8n Free HTTPS with Let's Encrypt / Certbot Password-locking the editor while keeping webhooks + forms working Shutting the back door so nobody bypasses the proxy on port 5678 📄 The full nginx config + commands are in the pinned comment. 🎓 Want the complete server-hardening walkthrough — SSH keys, service accounts, firewall, Postgres, and safe updates? That's my full course: smartautomate.me/n8n-lockdown 🛠️ Tools shown: n8n, nginx, Certbot/Let's Encrypt, Ubuntu VPS #n8n #selfhosted #nginx #homelab