Securing The Apache Http Server - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - SECURITY GUIDE Manual

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5.5. Securing the Apache HTTP Server

The Apache HTTP Server is one of the most stable and secure services that ships with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. There are an overwhelming number of options and techniques available to secure
the Apache HTTP Server — too numerous to delve into deeply here.
It is important when configuring the Apache HTTP Server to read the documentation available
for the application. This includes the the chapter titled Apache HTTP Server in the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Reference Guide, the chapter titled Apache HTTP Server Configuration in the Red
Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide, and the Stronghold manuals, available at
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/stronghold/.
Below is a list of configuration options administrators should be careful using.
5.5.1.
FollowSymLinks
This directive is enabled by default, so be careful when creating symbolic links to the document root
of the Web server. For instance, it is a bad idea to provide a symbolic link to
5.5.2. The
Indexes
This directive is enabled by default, but may not be desirable. To prevent visitors from browsing files
on the server, remove this directive.
5.5.3. The
UserDir
The directive is disabled by default because it can confirm the presence of a user account
UserDir
on the system. To enable user directory browsing on the server, use the following directives:
UserDir enabled
UserDir disabled root
These directives activate user directory browsing for all user directories other than
users to the list of disabled accounts, add a space delimited list of users on the
line.
5.5.4. Do Not Remove the
By default, the server-side includes module cannot execute commands. It is ill advised to change this
setting unless absolutely necessary, as it could potentially enable an attacker to execute commands on
the system.
5.5.5. Restrict Permissions for Executable Directories
Be certain to only assign write permissions to the root user for any directory containing scripts or
CGIs. This can be accomplished by typing the following commands:
chown root directory_name
chmod 755 directory_name
Also, always verify that any scripts running on the system work as intended before putting them into
production.
Directive
Directive
IncludesNoExec
Chapter 5. Server Security
Directive
.
/
. To add
/root/
UserDir disabled