Objective

Every resource served from a web server is associated with MIME type (also called content-type).

There is a possibility to execute style sheet and steal content from another site through content type doesn’t match.

You may prevent this vulnerability in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome by adding “nosniff” in the header.

Add X-Content-Type-Options header in Apache to reduce MIME types attack risk.

Solution

Edit your Apache configuration file/etc/apache2/httpd.conf and add the following to your VirtualHost.

# Load the headers module
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

<VirtualHost *:443>
    # Secure MIME Types with X-Content-Type-Options
    Header set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
</VirtualHost>

Reload Apache

[root@nowherelan]# systemctl reload httpd.service

Go to Geek Flare’s Test Site and test your site . The output will tell you if you have everything correct.

My System Configuration

• CentOS 7
• Apache 2.4

References

• https://geekflare.com/secure-mime-types-in-apache-nginx-with-x-content-type-options/
• https://tools.geekflare.com/tools/mime-sniffing-test

Objective

The X-Frame-Options HTTP response header can be used to indicate whether or not a browser should be allowed to render a page in a <frame> or <iframe>. Sites can use this to avoid clickjacking attacks, by ensuring that their content is not embedded into other sites.

Solution

Edit your Apache configuration file/etc/apache2/httpd.conf and add the following to your VirtualHost.

# Load the headers module
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

<VirtualHost *:443>
    # X-Frame-Options to prevent clickjacking attacks
    Header always append X-Frame-Options DENY
</VirtualHost>

Reload Apache

[root@nowherelan]# systemctl reload httpd.service

Go to Geek Flare’s Test Site and test your site . The output will tell you if you have everything correct.

My System Configuration

• CentOS 7
• Apache 2.4

References

• https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security_for_Apache_NGINX_and_Lighttpd.html
• https://geekflare.com/secure-apache-from-clickjacking-with-x-frame-options/
• https://tools.geekflare.com/tools/x-frame-options-test

Objective

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a security feature that lets a web site tell browsers that it should only be communicated with using HTTPS, instead of using HTTP. This tutorial describes how to set up HSTS in Apache.

HSTS addresses the following threats:

• User bookmarks or manually types http://example.com and is subject to a man-in-the-middle attacker
  • HSTS automatically redirects HTTP requests to HTTPS for the target domain
• Web application that is intended to be purely HTTPS inadvertently contains HTTP links or serves content over HTTP
  • HSTS automatically redirects HTTP requests to HTTPS for the target domain
• A man-in-the-middle attacker attempts to intercept traffic from a victim user using an invalid certificate and hopes the user will accept the bad certificate
  • HSTS does not allow a user to override the invalid certificate message

Solution

A minimum of Apache version 2.2.22 is needed to support HSTS.
Edit your Apache configuration file/etc/apache2/httpd.confand add the following to your VirtualHost. You have to set it on the HTTPS VirtualHost, and not in the HTTP VirtualHost .

# Load the headers module
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

<VirtualHost *:443>
    # HSTS (31536000 seconds = 1 year)
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
</VirtualHost>

Once a web browser has been to the site once and received the header it will remember that the site should only be accessed over HTTPS for the duration of the max-age value. This value is reset every time the site is accessed.

To always redirect your visitors to the HTTPS version of your website, use the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://example.com/
</VirtualHost>

Reload Apache

[root@nowherelan]# systemctl reload httpd.service

Go to SSL Labs Test Site and test your site. The output will tell you if you have everything correct.

My System Configuration

• CentOS 7
• Apache 2.4

References

• https://hstspreload.org
• https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/
• https://tools.geekflare.com/tools/hsts-test
• https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security_for_Apache_NGINX_and_Lighttpd.html
• https://itigloo.com/security/how-to-configure-http-strict-transport-security-hsts-on-apache-nginx/