Secure the Apache HTTP server

The Apache HTTP Server is one of the most stable and secure services that ships with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There are an overwhelming number of options and techniques available to secure the Apache HTTP Server.

FollowSymLinks

This directive is enabled by default, so be careful when creating symbolic links to the document root of the Web server. For instance, it is a bad idea to provide a symbolic link to /.

The Indexes Directive

This directive is enabled by default, but may not be desirable. To prevent visitors from browsing files on the server, remove this directive.

The UserDir Directive

The UserDir directive is disabled by default because it can confirm the presence of a user account on the system. To enable user directory browsing on the server, use the following directives:

UserDir enabled
UserDir disabled root

These directives activate user directory browsing for all user directories other than /root/. To add users to the list of disabled accounts, add a space delimited list of users on the UserDir disabled line.

Do Not Remove the IncludesNoExec Directive

By default, the server-side includes module cannot execute commands. It is ill advised to change this setting unless absolutely necessary, as it could potentially enable an attacker to execute commands on the system.

Restrict Permissions for Executable Directories

Be certain to only assign write permissions to the root user for any directory containing scripts or CGIs. This can be accomplished by typing the following commands:

chown root
chmod 755

Also, always verify that any scripts running on the system work as intended before putting them into production.