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52<br />

Web Application Penetration Testing<br />

ries can be simulated that will fill up the logs faster since, typically, a<br />

single request will cause only a small amount of data to be logged,<br />

such as date and time, source IP address, URI request, and server result.<br />

Log rotation<br />

Most servers (but few custom applications) will rotate logs in order<br />

to prevent them from filling up the file system they reside on. The<br />

assumption when rotating logs is that the information in them is only<br />

necessary for a limited amount of time.<br />

This feature should be tested in order to ensure that:<br />

• Logs are kept for the time defined in the security policy, not more<br />

and not less.<br />

• Logs are compressed once rotated (this is a convenience, since it will<br />

mean that more logs will be stored for the same available disk space).<br />

• File system permission of rotated log files are the same (or stricter)<br />

that those of the log files itself. For example, web servers will need<br />

to write to the logs they use but they don’t actually need to write<br />

to rotated logs, which means that the permissions of the files can<br />

be changed upon rotation to prevent the web server process from<br />

modifying these.<br />

Some servers might rotate logs when they reach a given size. If this<br />

happens, it must be ensured that an attacker cannot force logs to rotate<br />

in order to hide his tracks.<br />

Log Access Control<br />

Event log information should never be visible to end users. Even web<br />

administrators should not be able to see such logs since it breaks<br />

separation of duty controls. Ensure that any access control schema<br />

that is used to protect access to raw logs and any applications providing<br />

capabilities to view or search the logs is not linked with access<br />

control schemas for other application user roles. Neither should any<br />

log data be viewable by unauthenticated users.<br />

Log review<br />

Review of logs can be used for more than extraction of usage statistics<br />

of files in the web servers (which is typically what most log-based<br />

application will focus on), but also to determine if attacks take place<br />

at the web server.<br />

In order to analyze web server attacks the error log files of the server<br />

need to be analyzed. Review should concentrate on:<br />

• 40x (not found) error messages. A large amount of these from the<br />

same source might be indicative of a CGI scanner tool being used<br />

against the web server<br />

• 50x (server error) messages. These can be an indication of an<br />

attacker abusing parts of the application which fail unexpectedly.<br />

For example, the first phases of a SQL injection attack will produce<br />

these error message when the SQL query is not properly constructed<br />

and its execution fails on the back end database.<br />

Log statistics or analysis should not be generated, nor stored, in the<br />

same server that produces the logs. Otherwise, an attacker might,<br />

through a web server vulnerability or improper configuration, gain access<br />

to them and retrieve similar information as would be disclosed by<br />

log files themselves.<br />

References<br />

[1] Apache<br />

• Apache Security, by Ivan Ristic, O’reilly, March 2005.<br />

• Apache Security Secrets: Revealed (Again), Mark Cox, November<br />

2003 - http: /www.awe.com/mark/apcon2003/<br />

• Apache Security Secrets: Revealed, ApacheCon 2002, Las Vegas,<br />

Mark J Cox, October 2002 - http: /www.awe.com/mark/apcon2002<br />

• Performance Tuning - http: /httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/<br />

perf-tuning.html<br />

[2] Lotus Domino<br />

• Lotus Security Handbook, William Tworek et al., April 2004, available<br />

in the IBM Redbooks collection<br />

• Lotus Domino Security, an X-force white-paper, Internet Security<br />

Systems, December 2002<br />

• Hackproofing Lotus Domino Web Server, David Litchfield, October<br />

2001,<br />

• NGSSoftware Insight Security Research, available at http: /www.<br />

nextgenss.com<br />

[3] Microsoft IIS<br />

• IIS 6.0 Security, by Rohyt Belani, Michael Muckin, - http: /www.<br />

securityfocus.com/print/infocus/1765<br />

• IIS 7.0 Securing Configuration - http: /technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd163536.aspx<br />

• Securing Your Web Server (Patterns and Practices), Microsoft Corporation,<br />

January 2004<br />

• IIS Security and Programming Countermeasures, by Jason Coombs<br />

• From Blueprint to Fortress: A Guide to Securing IIS 5.0, by John<br />

Davis, Microsoft Corporation, June 2001<br />

• Secure Internet Information Services 5 Checklist, by Michael Howard,<br />

Microsoft Corporation, June 2000<br />

• “INFO: Using URLScan on IIS” - http: /support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=307608<br />

[4] Red Hat’s (formerly Netscape’s) iPlanet<br />

• Guide to the Secure Configuration and Administration of iPlanet<br />

Web Server, Enterprise Edition 4.1, by James M Hayes, The Network<br />

Applications Team of the Systems and Network Attack Center<br />

(SNAC), NSA, January 2001<br />

[5] WebSphere<br />

• IBM WebSphere V5.0 Security, WebSphere Handbook Series, by<br />

Peter Kovari et al., IBM, December 2002.<br />

• IBM WebSphere V<strong>4.0</strong> Advanced Edition Security, by Peter Kovari<br />

et al., IBM, March 2002.<br />

[6] General<br />

• Logging Cheat Sheet, OWASP<br />

• SP 800-92 Guide to Computer Security Log Management, NIST<br />

• PCI DSS v2.0 Requirement 10 and PA-DSS v2.0 Requirement 4,<br />

PCI Security Standards Council<br />

[7] Generic:<br />

• CERT Security Improvement Modules: Securing Public Web Servers<br />

- http: /www.cert.org/security-improvement/<br />

• Apache Security Configuration Document, InterSect Alliance -<br />

http: /www.intersectalliance.com/projects/ApacheConfig/index.<br />

html<br />

• “How To: Use IISLockdown.exe” - http: /msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/secmod/html/secmod113.asp<br />

Test File Extensions Handling for Sensitive<br />

Information (OTG-CONFIG-003)<br />

Summary<br />

File extensions are commonly used in web servers to easily determine<br />

which technologies, languages and plugins must be used to fulfill the<br />

web request. While this behavior is consistent with RFCs and Web

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