The TRACE method must be disabled.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-26325	WA00550 W22	SV-33183r1_rule	DCSP-1	Medium

Description
Use the Apache TraceEnable directive to disable the HTTP TRACE request method. Refer to the Apache documentation for more details http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#traceenable. The HTTP 1.1 protocol requires support for the TRACE request method which reflects the request back as a response and was intended for diagnostics purposes. The TRACE method is not needed and is easily subject to abuse and should be disabled.

Description

Use the Apache TraceEnable directive to disable the HTTP TRACE request method. Refer to the Apache documentation for more details http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#traceenable. The HTTP 1.1 protocol requires support for the TRACE request method which reflects the request back as a response and was intended for diagnostics purposes. The TRACE method is not needed and is easily subject to abuse and should be disabled.

STIG	Date
APACHE SERVER 2.2 for Windows	2013-12-27

Details

Check Text ( C-33815r1_chk )
Locate the Apache httpd.conf file. Open the httpd.conf file with an editor such as Notepad, and search for the following uncommented directive: TraceEnable For any enabled TraceEnable directives ensure they are part of the server level configuration (i.e. not nested in a or directive). Also ensure that the TraceEnable directive is set to “Off”. If the TraceEnable directive is not part of the server level configuration and/or is not set to “off” this is a finding. If the directive does not exist in the conf file this is a finding as the default value is "On".

Check Text ( C-33815r1_chk )

Locate the Apache httpd.conf file.

Open the httpd.conf file with an editor such as Notepad, and search for the following uncommented directive: TraceEnable

For any enabled TraceEnable directives ensure they are part of the server level configuration (i.e. not nested in a or directive). Also ensure that the TraceEnable directive is set to “Off”.

If the TraceEnable directive is not part of the server level configuration and/or is not set to “off” this is a finding. If the directive does not exist in the conf file this is a finding as the default value is "On".

Fix Text (F-29467r1_fix)
Disable the TraceEnable directive by setting it to "off".