4.10 Restrict access to Tomcat context.xml

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Information

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

Rationale:

Restricting access to this file will prevent local users from maliciously or inadvertently altering Tomcat's security policy.

Solution

Perform the following to restrict access to context.xml:

Set the ownership of the $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml to tomcat_admin:tomcat.

# chown tomcat_admin:tomcat $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml

Set the permissions for the $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml to 600.

# chmod 600 $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml

Default Value:

The default permissions of context.xml are 600.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3090