Details
Cookies are used to exchange data between the web server and the client. Cookies, such as a session cookie, may contain session information and user credentials used to maintain a persistent connection between the user and the hosted application since HTTP/HTTPS is a stateless protocol.
When the cookie parameters are not set properly (i.e., domain and path parameters), cookies can be shared within hosted applications residing on the same web server or to applications hosted on different web servers residing on the same domain.
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’
Add or configure the following line:
‘Header always edit Set-Cookie ^(.*)$ $1;HttpOnly;secure’
Add the ‘secure’ attribute to the JavaScript set cookie in any application code:
function setCookie() { document.cookie = ‘ALEPH_SESSION_ID = $SESS; path = /; secure’; }
HttpOnly cannot be used since by definition this is a cookie set by JavaScript.
Restart www_server and Apache.
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-001664
- Rule-ID|SV-214288r612241_rule
- STIG-ID|AS24-U2-000470
- STIG-Legacy|SV-102883
- STIG-Legacy|V-92795
- Vuln-ID|V-214288