Securing BigBlueButton: Restricting access to whitelisted IPs

You can configure the Nginx server of BigBlueButton to allow incoming requests from only the white-listed public IPs.

Here is how to do it:

1. Create a file allow.nginx in /etc/bigbluebutton/nginx
2. Add to the file white-listed IPs in the following format:
   allow xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;
   allow yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy;
   deny all;
3. Edit /etc/bigbluebutton/nginx/web to all the line marked in bold
   [….]
       location /bigbluebutton {
       proxy_http_version 1.1;
       include /etc/bigbluebutton/nginx/allow.nginx;
   [….]
4. Execute “nginx -t” to ensure the syntax is correct
5. Restart Nginx “systemctl restart nginx”

That’s all.

Now only the white-listed IPs can connect to your BigBlueButton server.

For example, if you are using Moodle to conduct your classes on BigBlueButton, you can whitelist the public IP of Moodle server.

Hope this helps!