Referer: fixed $invalid_referer. The variable was considered non-existent in the absence of any valid_referers directives. Given the following config snippet, location / { return 200 $invalid_referer; } location /referer { valid_referers server_names; } "location /" should work identically and independently on other "location /referer". The fix is to always add the $invalid_referer variable as long as the module is compiled in, as is done by other modules.