Chandra observation of Cepheus A: the diffuse emission of HH 168 resolved

X-ray emission from massive stellar outflows has been detected in several cases. We present a Chandra observation of HH 168 and show that the soft X-ray emission from a plasma of 0.55 keV within HH 168 is diffuse. The X-ray emission is observed on two different scales: Three individual, yet extended, regions are embedded within a complex of low X-ray surface brightness. Compared to the bow shock the emission is displaced against the outflow direction. We show that there is no significant contribution from young stellar objects (YSOs) and discuss several shock scenarios that can produce the observed signatures. We establish that the X-ray emission of HH 168 is excited by internal shocks in contrast to simple models, which expect the bow shock to be the most X-ray luminous.