Details
Leaving sessions open indefinitely is a major security risk. An attacker can easily use an already authenticated session to access the hosted application as the previously authenticated user. By closing sessions after a set period of inactivity, the Apache web server can make certain that those sessions that are not closed through the user logging out of an application are eventually closed. mod_reqtimeout is an Apache module designed to shut down connections from clients taking too long to send their request, as seen in many attacks. This module provides a directive that allows Apache to close the connection if it senses that the client is not sending data quickly enough.
Acceptable values are 5 minutes for high-value applications, 10 minutes for medium-value applications, and 20 minutes for low-value applications.
Solution
Determine the location of the ‘HTTPD_ROOT’ directory and the ‘httpd.conf’ file:
# httpd -V | egrep -i ‘httpd_root|server_config_file’
-D HTTPD_ROOT=’/etc/httpd’
-D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE=’conf/httpd.conf’
Load the ‘reqtimeout_module’.
Set the ‘RequestReadTimeout’ directive to specific values applicable to the website.
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Access Control.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.
References
- 800-53|AC-12
- CAT|II
- CCI|CCI-002361
- Rule-ID|SV-214258r612240_rule
- STIG-ID|AS24-U1-000650
- STIG-Legacy|SV-102793
- STIG-Legacy|V-92705
- Vuln-ID|V-214258