Is it possible to configure nginx to just handle SSL?

I have a web server written in C++ already, but it uses TCP sockets without SSL. I want to connect it to the web, but I want to use something like nginx to handle the SSL, and also basic security like DDOS protection, smurf attack protection, etc.

My question is, can I set up nginx to handle the secure SSL connection, and forward unencrypted http traffic to my web server (on the same machine)?

I feel like this could be a simpler alternative to setting up my application to interface with nginx via FastCGI.

(Any other suggestions, please feel free to suggest)

Yes, this is possible.

1. Make your own software listen on local loopback alone, e.g. on localhost:8080.

2. Terminate TLS with NGINX.

   server { 
       listen 443 ssl; 
       server_name www.example.com;
       ssl_certificate www.example.com.crt;
       ssl_certificate_key www.example.com.key; 
       ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
       ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5; 
       #... 
   }
   

3. As a best practice, redirect HTTP to HTTPS and enable HSTS for client-side upgrade to encrypted connection.

   server { 
       listen 80;
       server_name example.com;
       return 301 https://example.com$request_uri; 
   }
   
   server { 
       listen 443 ssl;
       #... 
       add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;
       #...
   }
   

4. Configure NGINX as reverse proxy, e.g.

       location / { 
           proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/; 
       }