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Misconfiguration in LIMIT directive of .htaccess file

medium Web App Scanning Plugin ID 98095

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Synopsis

Misconfiguration in LIMIT directive of .htaccess file

Description

There are a number of HTTP methods that can be used on a webserver (for example `OPTIONS`, `HEAD`, `GET`, `POST`, `PUT`, `DELETE `etc.). Each of these methods perform a different function, and each has an associated level of risk when their use is permitted on the webserver.

The `<Limit>` directive within Apache's `.htaccess` file allows administrators to define which of the methods they would like to block. However, as this is a blacklisting approach, it is inevitable that a server administrator may accidentally miss adding certain HTTP methods to be blocked, thus increasing the level of risk to the application and/or server.

Solution

The preferred configuration is to prevent the use of unauthorised HTTP methods by utilising the `<LimitExcept>` directive.
This directive uses a whitelisting approach to permit HTTP methods while blocking all others not listed in the directive, and will therefor block any method tampering attempts.
Most commonly, the only HTTP methods required for most scenarios are `GET` and `POST`. An example of permitting these HTTP methods is: `<LimitExcept POST GET> require valid-user </LimitExcept>`

See Also

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#limit

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 98095

Type: remote

Family: Web Servers

Published: 3/31/2017

Updated: 4/13/2023

Scan Template: api, basic, full, pci, scan

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 2.5

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: Tenable

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

CVSS Score Source: Tenable

Reference Information