I am getting unexpected requests in nginx access log on my server (aws-ec2). Sample shown below -
54.80.128.131 - - [05/Jul/2015:03:15:22 +0000] "HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 404 0 "-" "Cloud mapping experiment. Contact [email protected]"
204.15.135.116 - - [05/Jul/2015:03:29:23 +0000] "POST /cgi-bin/php?%2D%64+%61%6C%6C%6F%77%5F%75%72%6C%5F%69%6E%63%6C%75%64%65%3D%6F%6E+%2D%64+%73%61%66%65%5F%6D%6F%64%65%3D%6F%66%66+%2D%64+%73%75%68%6F%73%69%6E%2E%73%69%6D%75%6C%61%74%69%6F%6E%3D%6F%6E+%2D%64+%64%69%73%61%62%6C%65%5F%66%75%6E%63%74%69%6F%6E%73%3D%22%22+%2D%64+%6F%70%65%6E%5F%62%61%73%65%64%69%72%3D%6E%6F%6E%65+%2D%64+%61%75%74%6F%5F%70%72%65%70%65%6E%64%5F%66%69%6C%65%3D%70%68%70%3A%2F%2F%69%6E%70%75%74+%2D%64+%63%67%69%2E%66%6F%72%63%65%5F%72%65%64%69%72%65%63%74%3D%30+%2D%64+%63%67%69%2E%72%65%64%69%72%65%63%74%5F%73%74%61%74%75%73%5F%65%6E%76%3D%22%79%65%73%22+%2D%64+%63%67%69%2E%66%69%78%5F%70%61%74%68%69%6E%66%6F%3D%31+%2D%64+%61%75%74%6F%5F%70%72%65%70%65%6E%64%5F%66%69%6C%65%3D%70%68%70%3A%2F%2F%69%6E%70%75%74+%2D%6E HTTP/1.1" 404 5 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0"
What should I make of this? Should I be concerned?
Probably not. What you see there is somebody hitting your server and requesting something that is not there (hence the 404s). The "CloudMapping Experiment" part is just the user agent that was passed in with the request.