Details
Generating a session identifier (ID) that is not easily guessed through brute force is essential to deter several types of session attacks. By knowing the session ID, an attacker can hijack a user session that has already been user authenticated by the hosted application. The attacker does not need to guess user identifiers and passwords or have a secure token since the user session has already been authenticated.
Generating session IDs that are at least 128 bits (16 bytes) in length will cause an attacker to take a large amount of time and resources to guess, reducing the likelihood of an attacker guessing a session ID.
Solution
Configure the web server to generate session identifiers that are at least 128 bits in length.
Ensure that ‘session_crypto_module’ is enabled.
Determine the location of the ‘httpd.conf’ file by running the following command:
httpd -V
Review the ‘HTTPD_ROOT’ path.
Navigate to the ‘HTTPD_ROOT’/conf directory.
Edit the ‘httpd.conf’ file.
SessionCryptoCipher aes256
Restart Apache: apachectl restart
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: System and Communications Protection.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.
References
- 800-53|SC-23(3)
- CAT|II
- CCI|CCI-001188
- Rule-ID|SV-214252r612240_rule
- STIG-ID|AS24-U1-000510
- STIG-Legacy|SV-102775
- STIG-Legacy|V-92687
- Vuln-ID|V-214252