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Apache HTTP Server is an open-source web server platform. This article will outline the steps to install, configure, harden a zero-footprint instance of Apache 2.2 & 2.4, with particular focus on the nuances between each.
Prerequisites
If you are building you zero-footprint for the first time you will need a C/C++ compiler available on the initial system. Once compiled, the resulting package is portable to other like-O/S servers. For the most part, most Unix/Linux distributions will come packaged with the gcc compiler.
Unix/Solaris
Check if gcc compiler is installed:
$ which gcc
# dependent on environment variables being set correctly.
# Alternatively check the /usr/bin and /usr/sfw/bin paths.
If no compiler found, install it:
$ pkg install gcc-3 # or whatever version you need
Linux
Chech if gcc compilete is installed:
If no compiler found, install it:
# Debian/Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
$ sudo yum group install "Development Tools"
Initial Installation
1) Get Source Files
The first step is to retrieve the source files from Apache. Grab the compressed files pertinent to the O/S you are using, typically bzip2 for Unix and gunzip for Linux:
# Change dir to whichever working directory you want to use
$ cd /opt
# Change version number/archive type as required
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd/httpd-2.2.23.tar.bz2 [ -e use-proxy=yes -e https_proxy=xxxxx ]
# Apache also provides MD5 hashes to verify your downloads, so you could do the following to generate a local MD5 hash to compare
wget -O - https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd-2.4.29.tar.bz2 | tee httpd-2.2.23.tar.bz2 | md5sum > md5sum.local
Unpack the archive:
Unix/Solaris
# Use -k switch to preserve the original archive
$ bzip2 -d[k] httpd-2.2.32.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvf httpd-2.2.32.tar -C /opt/httpd/
Linux
$ tar -xzvf httpd-2.2.32.tar.gz -C /opt/httpd/
2) Compile Apache
Next, we will compile apache.
$ cd /opt/httpd
# First we configure the build using the following syntax
# ./configure --prefix=/opt/apache2 --enable-mods-shared=few [--enable-{modname}] [--disable-{modname}] [with-apr=included] [with-pcre=/opt/pcre]
# Here is the most common configuration
./configure --prefix=/opt/apache2 --enable-mods-shared=few --enable-rewrite --enable-headers --enable-ssl --disable-userdir --disable-autoindex --disable-status --disable-env --disable-setenvif --disable-cgi --disable-actions --disable-negotiation --disable-alias --disable-include --disable-filter --disable-version --disable-asis --with-apr=included --with-pcre=/opt/pcre
Here it is important to understand what each switch is doing and the implications of each.
Configure Command Switch | What does it do? |
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--prefix | Sets the output directory for the build i.e. where Apache will reside. This direcory specification will have a direct impact on portability of the 0FS package. Read more in the Portability section. |
--enable-mods-shared=value or -- enable-mods-shared={module_names} (space-delimited) | Sets which modules will be compiled as DSOs (shared libraries). Options are "all" | "most" and in 2.4 and higher also "few" | "none" | "reallyall". |
--enable-{module_name} or -- enable-modules={module_names} (space-delimited) | Enables the module for the build. Shared or static inclusion is determined by the underlying APR as will as the --enable-mods-shared directive. For example, with Apache 2.4, the standard APR supports DSOs, so it would compile the module as shared, unless the --enable-mods-shared is set to "none", which will force it to be compiled as static. |
--disable-{module_name} | Disables the module for the build. The module will not be compiled at all, so you will not even be able to add it dynamically later through Apache configuration without either recompiling Apache in full or compiling the module itself and copying it into the modules directory of the Apahce install |
--with-{module_name}=path|included | Used to specify specific path to find compiled modules if not using the defaults included with source. The included value will force the build to use the one included with Apache source. |
Click here to see a description of each module
Here
Module | Min. Apache V2 Version | Included | What does it do? | Reasons to include/exclude |
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Default | Most | Reallyall | Few |
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mod_access_compat | 2.4 | Yes |
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| | Control access based on client hostname, IP address or other characteristics of client request |
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mod_actions | 2.0 | No |
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| Lets you run CGI scripts when a particular file or method is used in a request | Exclude if not using CGI scripts or have no need to execute scripts conditionally based on requests. XSS vulnerability considerations. If included, ensure request parameters are not considered when making decisions based on content type |
mod_alias | 2.0 |
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| Used for simple URL manipulation tasks, including mapping URLs to filesystem paths and standard redirection. |
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mod_allowmethods | 2.4 |
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| Restricts what HTTP methods can be used on a server |
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mod_asis | 2.0 |
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| Allows you to send a document without adding the usual HTTP headers |
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mod_auth_basic | 2.2 |
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| Used to restrict access with HTTP Basic Auth. Should be combined with at least one authentication module and one authorization module. | If this type of authentication is required, it is nearly imperative to use SSL as passwords are sent as almost plain text (base4 encoded). |
mod_auth_digest | 2.0 |
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| Used to implement HTTP Digest Auth. | If this type of authentication is required, it is nearly imperative to use SSL as an attacker can force the browser to downgrade to basic auth. The passwords are stored unsecurely on the server. |
mod_auth_form | 2.4 |
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| Allows the use of an HTML login form to restrict access | Depends on mod_session modules and makes use of HTTP cookies, which is susceptible to XSS attacks. |
mod_authn_anon | 2.2 |
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| Authentication - Provides anonymous user access to authenticated areas |
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mod_authn_core | 2.4 |
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| Authentication - Provides core authentication capabilities |
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mod_authn_dbd | 2.2 |
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| Authentication - Provides authentication against SQL tables |
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mod_authn_dbm | 2.2 |
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| Authentication - Provides authentication against dbm password files |
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mod_authn_file | 2.2 |
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| Authentication - Provides authentication against plain text password files |
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mod_authn_socache | 2.4 |
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| Authentication - Maintains shared object cache of authentication credentials |
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mod_authnz_fcgi | 2.4[.10] |
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| Authorization - FastCGI authorizer application |
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mod_authnz_ldap | 2.2 |
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| Authorization - Provides authorization through an LDAP directory |
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mod_authz_core | 2.4 |
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| Authorization - Provides core authorization capabilities |
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mod_authz_dbd | 2.4 |
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| Authorization - Provides group authorization based on SQL database |
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mod_authz_dbm | 2.2 |
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| Authorization - Provides group authorization based on dbm files |
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mod_authz_groupfile | 2.2 |
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| Authorization - Provides authorization against plain text files |
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mod_authz_host | 2.4[.19] |
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| Authorization - Provides authorization based host (name or IP) |
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mod_authz_owner | 2.2 |
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| Authorization - Provides authorization based on file ownership |
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mod_authz_user | 2.2 |
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| Authorization - Provides authorization based on authenticated user |
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mod_autoindex | 2.0 |
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| Generates directory indexes | Exclude in most cases. Be sure to disable index generation in Apache configuration as shown in Hardering section below. |
mod_brotli | 2.4[.26] |
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| Compresses content using Brotli before its delivered to the client |
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mod_buffer | 2.4 |
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| Support for request buffering | Exclude in most cases. Reads the request into RAM and then repacks into fewest memory buckets possible. However, at the cost of CPU time. If request/response is already efficiently packed, this could have adverse affects on processing time. |
mod_cache | 2.0 |
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| HTTP caching filter | If included be aware that CacheQuickHandler is on by default which circumvents Allow and Deny directives. |
mod_cache_disk | 2.4 |
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| Disk based storage for mod_cache |
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mod_cache_socache | 2.4 |
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| Implements a shared object cache storage for mod_cache |
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mod_cern_meta | 2.0 |
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| Emulate CERN HTTPD Meta file semantics |
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mod_cgi |
| Yes |
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| Allows execution of cgi scripts | Exclude if not required. Considerations for exploits including ShellShock, etc. If invoking bash scripts, ensure bash version is > 4.3 |
mod_cgid | 2.0 |
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| Allows execution of cgi scripts (used for certain Unix multi-threaded environments only) | Ibid. |
mod_charset_lite | 2.0 |
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| Allows the server to change the character set of responses before sending them to the client i.e. if files are stored as EBCDIC, it can be translated to ISO |
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mod_data | 2.4 |
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| Converts response body into an RFC2397 data URL | Exclude if not required. XSS attacks have been reported in applications leveraging mod_data such as Moodle, etc. |
mod_dav | 2.0 |
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| Enables creating, moving, copying, and deleting of resources and collections on a remote web server | This should be excluded unless absolutely necessary. DLL Hijack exploits, etc. are widely known/reported. If including, ensure the server is secure before enabling with some type of authentication. |
mod_dav_fs | 2.0 |
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| Filesystem provider for mod_dav. Prerequisite is mod_dav. | Ibid. |
mod_dav_lock | 2.2 |
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| Generic locking API used by backend provider for mod_dav. Prerequisite is mod_dav and backend provider such as mod_dav_svn | Ibid. |
mod_dbd | 2.2 |
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| Enables APR to manage db connections | Exclude if not required. Considerations for SQL injection attacks especially when using third-party modules in conjunction. |
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