4.10 Restrict access to Tomcat context.xml

Information

The context.xml file is loaded by all web applications and sets certain configuration options. It is recommended that access to this file has the proper permissions to properly protect from unauthorized changes.

Solution

Perform the following to restrict access to context.xml:
1. Set the ownership of the $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml to
tomcat_admin:tomcat.
2. Remove read, write, and execute permissions for the world.
3. Remove write permissions for the group.
# chown tomcat_admin:tomcat $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml
# chmod g-w,o-rwx $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/266

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-6

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: 79e835cd0c252f2beddc1c8b0bca9bf4ce1973eb13157f7a14195b4da5073d88