The KeepAlive directive must be enabled.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-13725	WA000-WWA022 A22	SV-32844r2_rule		Medium

Description
The KeepAlive extension to HTTP/1.0 and the persistent connection feature of HTTP/1.1 provide long lived HTTP sessions which allow multiple requests to be sent over the same connection. These requirements are set to mitigate the effects of several types of denial of service attacks. Although there is some latitude concerning the settings themselves, the requirements attempt to provide reasonable limits for the protection of the web server. If necessary, these limits can be adjusted to accommodate the operational requirement of a given system.

Description

The KeepAlive extension to HTTP/1.0 and the persistent connection feature of HTTP/1.1 provide long lived HTTP sessions which allow multiple requests to be sent over the same connection. These requirements are set to mitigate the effects of several types of denial of service attacks. Although there is some latitude concerning the settings themselves, the requirements attempt to provide reasonable limits for the protection of the web server. If necessary, these limits can be adjusted to accommodate the operational requirement of a given system.

STIG	Date
APACHE SERVER 2.2 for Unix Security Technical Implementation Guide	2017-10-02

Details

Check Text ( C-10977r2_chk )
To view the KeepAlive value enter the following command: grep "KeepAlive" /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf. Verify the Value of KeepAlive is set to “On” If not, this is a finding. NOTE: This vulnerability can be documented locally with the ISSM/ISSO if the site has operational reasons for not using persistent connections. If the site has this documentation, this should be marked as Not a Finding.

Check Text ( C-10977r2_chk )

To view the KeepAlive value enter the following command:

grep "KeepAlive" /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf.

Verify the Value of KeepAlive is set to “On” If not, this is a finding.

NOTE: This vulnerability can be documented locally with the ISSM/ISSO if the site has operational reasons for not using persistent connections. If the site has this documentation, this should be marked as Not a Finding.

Fix Text (F-13173r1_fix)
Edit the httpd.conf file and set the value of "KeepAlive" to "On"