WG270 A22 - The web server's htpasswd files (if present) must reflect proper ownership and permissions

Information

In addition to OS restrictions, access rights to files and directories can be set on a web site using the web server software. That is, in addition to allowing or denying all access rights, a rule can be specified that allows or denies partial access rights. For example, users can be given read-only access rights to files, to view the information but not change the files.

This check verifies that the htpasswd file is only accessible by system administrators or web managers, with the account running the web service having group permissions of read and execute. htpasswd is a utility used by Netscape and Apache to provide for password access to designated web sites. I

Solution

The SA or Web Manager account should own the htpasswd file and permissions should be set to 550.

See Also

https://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/U_Apache_2-2_UNIX_V1R11_STIG.zip

Item Details

References: CAT|II, Rule-ID|SV-36478r2_rule, STIG-ID|WG270_A22, Vuln-ID|V-2255

Plugin: Unix

Control ID: b6866b38d1a8cc069e53bf7ff4a88e4e823561432d0e13f8b0e1412c4247d372