Nginx: Restrict web access with basic auth
sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
# assign password to "customuser" user
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/.htpasswd customuser
# edit nginx conf usually located in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default or /etc/nginx/sites-available/customsite.com.conf
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
location / {
...
auth_basic "Private Property";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
}
# via https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-basic-http-authentication-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-14-04