Debugging and trace information used to diagnose the Apache web server must be disabled.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-214340	AS24-W1-000630	SV-214340r879655_rule		Medium

Description
Information needed by an attacker to begin looking for possible vulnerabilities in a web server includes any information about the web server and plug-ins or modules being used. When debugging or trace information is enabled in a production web server, information about the web server, such as web server type, version, patches installed, plug-ins and modules installed, type of code being used by the hosted application, and any backends being used for data storage may be displayed. Since this information may be placed in logs and general messages during normal operation of the web server, an attacker does not need to cause an error condition to gain this information.

Description

Information needed by an attacker to begin looking for possible vulnerabilities in a web server includes any information about the web server and plug-ins or modules being used. When debugging or trace information is enabled in a production web server, information about the web server, such as web server type, version, patches installed, plug-ins and modules installed, type of code being used by the hosted application, and any backends being used for data storage may be displayed. Since this information may be placed in logs and general messages during normal operation of the web server, an attacker does not need to cause an error condition to gain this information.

STIG	Date
Apache Server 2.4 Windows Server Security Technical Implementation Guide	2022-12-14

Details

Check Text ( C-15552r277523_chk )
Review the <'INSTALL PATH'>\conf\httpd.conf file. For any enabled "TraceEnable" directives, verify they are part of the server=level configuration (i.e., not nested in a "Directory" or "Location" directive). Also verify 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 because the default value is "On".

Check Text ( C-15552r277523_chk )

Review the <'INSTALL PATH'>\conf\httpd.conf file.

For any enabled "TraceEnable" directives, verify they are part of the server=level configuration (i.e., not nested in a "Directory" or "Location" directive).

Also verify 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 because the default value is "On".

Fix Text (F-15550r277524_fix)
Edit the <'INSTALL PATH'>\conf\httpd.conf file and add or set the value of "TraceEnable" to "Off". Restart the Apache service.