Title

Debugging and trace information used to diagnose the web server must be disabled. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Information needed by an attacker to begin looking for possible vulnerabilities in a web server includes any information about the web server and plug-ins or modules being used. When debugging or trace information is enabled in a production web server, information about the web server, such as web server type, version, patches installed, plug-ins and modules installed, type of code being used by the hosted application, and any backends being used for data storage may be displayed. Since this information may be placed in logs and general messages during normal operation of the web server, an attacker does not need to cause an error condition to gain this information.

Check Content

Review the web server documentation and deployed configuration to determine if debugging and trace information are enabled. If the web server is configured with debugging and trace information enabled, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the web server to minimize the information given to clients on error conditions by disabling debugging and trace information.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-206413r961167_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-206413

Group Title: SRG-APP-000266

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.