cis-tomcat8-v110-4.2

DevOps & Security

Restrict access to $CATALINA_BASE (Scored)

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/CyberStrikeus/CyberStrike/blob/HEAD/.cyberstrike/skill/CIS_benchmarks/Server_Software/Apache_Tomcat/CIS_Apache_Tomcat_8_Benchmark_v1.1.0/cis-tomcat8-v110-4.2/SKILL.md

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Restrict access to $CATALINA_BASE (Scored)

Description

$CATALINA_BASE is the environment variable that specifies the base directory from which most relative paths are resolved. $CATALINA_BASE is usually used when there are multiple instances of Tomcat running. It is important to limit access to this in order to protect the Tomcat-related binaries and libraries from unauthorized modification. It is recommended that the ownership of $CATALINA_BASE be tomcat_admin:tomcat. It is also recommended that the permission on $CATALINA_BASE deny read, write, and execute for the world (o-rwx) and prevent write deny to the group (g-w).

Rationale

The security of processes and data which traverse or depend on Tomcat may become compromised if the $CATALINA_BASE is not secured.

Audit Procedure

Perform the following to ensure the permission on the $CATALINA_BASE directory prevent unauthorized modification.

$ cd $CATALINA_BASE
$ find . -follow -maxdepth 0 \( -perm /o+rwx,g=w -o ! -user tomcat_admin -o ! -group tomcat \) -ls

The above command should not produce any output.

Remediation

Perform the following to establish the recommended state:

Set the ownership of the $CATALINA_BASE to tomcat_admin:tomcat.

# chown tomcat_admin.tomcat $CATALINA_BASE

Remove write permissions for the group and read, write, and execute permissions for the world.

# chmod g-w,o-rwx $CATALINA_BASE

Default Value

The default permissions of the top-level Tomcat directory is operating system dependent.

References

CIS Controls

v7:

14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists
- Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims, application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.

Profile Applicability

Level 1