Fast and safe with the Hiawatha secure web server
Security Wing
The settings thus far have produced a basic web server with very little fancy stuff. You still haven't seen much of Hiawatha's advanced security features. Before touring these additional options, start by telling Hiawatha to talk to the logfiles:
SystemLogfile = /usr/local/var/log/hiawatha/system.log AccessLogfile = /usr/local//var/log/hiawatha/access.log ErrorLogfile = /usr/local//var/log/hiawatha/error.log GarbageLogfile = /usr/local//var/log/hiawatha/garbage.log
The SystemLogfile holds the messages from the daemon; access is logged in AccessLogfile, and ErrorLogfile logs errors. The last line collects the garbage – that is, erroneous or incomplete HTTP requests. Incomplete and erroneous requests are often an indication of a break-in attempt.
Thus far, the web server has only listened on port 80. To bind to this port, Hiawatha needs root privileges. However, it is not a good idea to leave the program running as root. To avoid this problem, Hiawatha changes the user to nobody immediately after launching. The ServerId setting tells the web server to change to another user:
ServerId = www-data
Restricting Resources
The next step is to mitigate the danger of denial-of-service attacks (DoS) by reducing the number of simultaneous connections that Hiawatha can handle – both overall and per IP address:
ConnectionsTotal = 150 ConnectionsPerIP = 10
While you're at it, it is also a good idea to limit the internal cache size to, say, 15MB:
CacheSize = 15
Also, you can tell Hiawatha to restrict the cache to files ranging in size from CacheMaxFilesize (in kilobytes) to CacheMinFilesize (in bytes):
CacheMaxFilesize = 128 CacheMinFilesize = 256
Netiquette
In the opinion of Hiawatha developer Hugo Leisink, clients should behave well if they want the web server to answer them. To punish clients that send malformed or overlong HTTP requests, Hiawatha resorts to the medieval method of banning. For example, with the command
BanOnGarbage = 300
Hiawatha will refuse to respond to a client for 300 seconds if it sends a non-standards-compliant HTTP request, and
BanOnMaxReqSize = 60
bans it for 60 seconds in the case of a request with an illegal length. You can combat flooding with the following command:
BanOnFlooding = 10/1:35
This command bans a client for 35 seconds if it has sent more than 10 request to Hiawatha within a second. The following is also useful:
BanOnCMDi = 60
This setting bans a client for 60 seconds if it has attempted a command injection attack. The following does the same for SQL injection attacks:
BanOnSQLi = 70
Hiawatha also supports blacklists or whitelists:
BanlistMask = allow 192.168.2.111, deny 192.168.0.0/16
If a banned client is really naughty and attempts to access Hiawatha again while exiled, the following command automatically resets the ban:
RebanDuringBan = yes
« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
News
-
KaOS 2022.06 Now Available With KDE Plasma 5.25
The newest iteration of KaOS Linux not only adds the latest KDE Plasma desktop but sets LibreOffice as the default.
-
Manjaro 21.3.0 Is Now Available
Manjaro “Ruah” has been released and includes the latest Calamares installer, GNOME 42, and much more.
-
SpiralLinux is a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity
A new Linux distribution, from the creator of GeckoLinux, is a Debian-based operating system with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
-
HP Dev One Linux Laptop is Now Available for Pre-Order
The System76/HP collaboration Dev One laptop, geared toward developers, is now available for pre-order.
-
NixOS 22.5 Is Now Available
The latest release of NixOS with a much-improved package manager and a user-friendly graphical installer.
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.