Laravel API Middleware

A Laravel package providing middleware for API enhancement, including trust proxies, no-cache enforcement, and SSL requirement validation.

A Laravel package offering middleware to enhance API security and performance with trust proxies, cache prevention, and SSL enforcement.

Requirements

• PHP: 8.4, 8.5
• Laravel: 13.x

Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require aporat/laravel-api-middleware

The service provider (ApiMiddlewareServiceProvider) is automatically registered via Laravel's package discovery. If auto-discovery is disabled, add it to config/app.php:

'providers' => [
    // ...
    Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\ApiMiddlewareServiceProvider::class,
],

Publish the configuration file:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\ApiMiddlewareServiceProvider" --tag="api-middleware-config"

This copies api-middleware.php to your config/ directory.

Configuration

Edit config/api-middleware.php to customize the middleware settings:

<?php

return [
    'trust_proxies' => [
        // IPs/CIDRs, a comma separated string, "REMOTE_ADDR", or "*" for any proxy.
        'proxies' => ['127.0.0.1', '10.0.0.0/8'],
        // A Request::HEADER_* bitmask, a named set, or a list of names.
        'headers' => 'x_forwarded_aws_elb',
    ],
    'no_cache' => [
        'cache_control' => 'no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0',
        'pragma' => 'no-cache',
        'expires' => '0',
    ],
    'ssl_required' => [
        // Path patterns for Request::is() — leading slash optional, "*" supported.
        'except_routes' => ['ping'],
        'except_environments' => ['local', 'development', 'testing'],
        'status' => 403,
    ],
];

• trust_proxies: Trusted proxy IPs/CIDRs and which X-Forwarded-* headers to honour. headers accepts a raw Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request::HEADER_* bitmask, one of the named sets below, or a list of names that are OR'd together: forwarded, x_forwarded_for, x_forwarded_host, x_forwarded_proto, x_forwarded_port, x_forwarded_prefix, x_forwarded_aws_elb (the default), x_forwarded_traefik.
• no_cache: Cache-Control, Pragma and Expires values. Setting any of them to null omits the header and strips one set upstream. Symfony normalises Cache-Control — directives come back alphabetised with private appended unless public/s-maxage is present — so the emitted header will not match the configured string character for character.
• ssl_required: Exempt path patterns / environments, and the HTTP status used for rejections.

Usage

Middleware

Apply the middleware to routes using their aliases:

// routes/api.php
Route::middleware(['trust.proxies', 'no.cache', 'ssl.required'])->get('/test', function () {
    return response()->json(['message' => 'API Enhanced!']);
});

• trust.proxies: Trusts the configured proxies so X-Forwarded-* headers are honoured when resolving the client IP, scheme and port.
• no.cache: Prevents caching of API responses.
• ssl.required: Rejects plain-HTTP requests with an SslRequiredException (a Symfony HttpException), except on exempt paths/environments.

Ordering with Laravel's own TrustProxies

Laravel 13 always includes Illuminate\Http\Middleware\TrustProxies in the global stack, and it resets the trusted set on every request. Register this package's TrustProxies as a replacement rather than appending it, so it runs in the right slot instead of racing the built-in:

// bootstrap/app.php
use Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\NoCache;
use Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\TrustProxies;

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->replace(\Illuminate\Http\Middleware\TrustProxies::class, TrustProxies::class);
    $middleware->append(NoCache::class);
})

ssl.required must run after trust.proxies, otherwise every request behind a TLS-terminating load balancer looks insecure.

Error handling

SslRequiredException extends Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\HttpException and deliberately does not define a render() method — Laravel gives an exception's own render() precedence over the application's Exceptions::render() callbacks, so defining one would force the package's error shape onto the host app. Format it however your app formats HTTP errors:

->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
    $exceptions->render(function (HttpException $e) {
        return new JsonResponse([
            'error_code' => $e->getStatusCode(),
            'error_message' => $e->getMessage(),
        ], $e->getStatusCode());
    });
})

Manual Instantiation

use Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\NoCache;
use Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\SSLRequired;
use Aporat\Laravel\ApiMiddleware\TrustProxies;

$trustProxies = new TrustProxies(['192.168.1.1'], 'x_forwarded_for');
$noCache = new NoCache('no-cache, max-age=0', pragma: null);
$sslRequired = new SSLRequired(['health/*'], ['testing']);

Passing null for any constructor argument falls back to the corresponding config value.

Testing

Run the package's unit tests:

vendor/bin/phpunit

With coverage:

vendor/bin/phpunit --coverage-text --coverage-clover coverage.xml --log-junit junit.xml

Requires Xdebug or PCOV for coverage reports.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature).
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add your feature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature).
5. Open a pull request.

License

This package is open-sourced under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Issues: github.com/aporat/laravel-api-middleware/issues
• Source: github.com/aporat/laravel-api-middleware