ModSecurity 2.5 : securing your Apache installation and web applications : prevent web application hacking with this easy-to-use guide

ModSecurity 2.5 covers the latest release of ModSecurity, "a web application firewall deployed to establish an external security layer that increases security, detects, and prevents attacks before they reach web applications. With over 70% of all attacks now carried out over the web application level, organizations need every help they can get in making their systems secure." - ModSecurity makes full HTTP transaction logging possible, allowing complete requests and responses to be logged. - ModSecurity can monitor the HTTP traffic in real time in order to detect attacks. - ModSecurity can also act immediately to prevent attacks from reaching your web applications. - ModSecurity includes a flexible rule engine and can be deployed embedded or as a reverse proxy. Covering ModSecurity 2.5 comprehensively and intelligibly is no small feat, and Mischel has achieved the goal. His style is concise yet clear, technical but not overly verbose, and well organized. As "complete guides" go ModSecurity 2.5 meets the standard. All the expected content is present, from installation to configuration, audit logging to chroot jails, blocking and protection, Mischel is thorough and takes due care to be precise and accurate. I have already recommended this book to a vendor in dire need of improved protection for their web application. I'll give you one guess regarding why they said "We can't use ModSecurity." Yep, performance. To which I said, "Yeah, but how's your performance with the terrible code you've written and the resulting SQL injection attack that took your site apart?" All of which takes us to my favored highlight of ModSecurity 2.5; specifically an entire chapter dedicated to performance. This was a great decision of Mischel's part. Performance is an important variable when utilizing ModSecurity and Mischel covers the fundamentals. He recommends using httperf and establishing a baseline without rules loaded. Response time, memory usage, and CPU usage are key. Once you've gathered necessary metrics, the same testing pattern with rules loaded will give you all the data you need to optimize. Mischel offers optimization concepts including memory consumption, bypassing static content inspection (think image files, JavaScript, and binary downloads), and using the @pm and @pmFromFile phrase matching operators (new in ModSecurity 2.5) to significantly speed up tasks normally left to regex matching (think 200 times faster). My criticisms of this book are editorial in nature; there is one truly egregious editing flaw and another odd decision. First, the page heading for the entirety of Chapter 5 (Virtual Patching) reads as Chapter 9. That's an error that a high school newspaper editor would catch and is simply unforgivable. Additionally, where Mischel discusses writing rules at great length in Chapter 2, I would have chosen to immediately follow with the REMO (Rule Editor for ModSecurity) content as Chapter 3 rather than sticking it in Chapter 8. Magnus Mischel's ModSecurity 2.5 is a worthy read and a recommended purchase, and earns 3.5 stars out of 5 (very good). As the Web Application Security Consortium releases WASC Threat Classification v2.0, there is much to consider in the way of web application threats; ModSecurity 2.5 will certainly contribute to your protection arsenal.ModSecurity 2.5

In Detail

With more than 67% of web servers running Apache and web-based attacks becoming more and more prevalent, web security has become a critical area for web site managers. Most existing tools work on the TCP/IP level, failing to use the specifics of the HTTP protocol in their operation. Mod_security is a module running on Apache, which will help you overcome the security threats prevalent in the online world.

A complete guide to using ModSecurity, this book will show you how to secure your web application and server, and does so by using real-world examples of attacks currently in use. It will help you learn about SQL injection, cross-site scripting attacks, cross-site request forgeries, null byte attacks, and many more so that you know how attackers operate.

Using clear, step-by-step instructions this book starts by teaching you how to install and set up ModSecurity, before diving into the rule language with examples. It assumes no prior knowledge of ModSecurity, so as long as you are familiar with basic Linux administration, you can start to learn right away.

Real-life case studies are used to illustrate the dangers on the Web today - you will for example learn how the recent worm that hit Twitter works, and how you could have used ModSecurity to stop it in its tracks. The mechanisms behind these and other attacks are described in detail, and you will learn everything you need to know to make sure your server and web application remain unscathed on the increasingly dangerous web. Have you ever wondered how attackers figure out the exact web server version running on a system? They use a technique called HTTP fingerprinting, and you will learn about this in depth and how to defend against it by flying your web server under a "false flag".

The last part of the book shows you how to really lock down a web application by implementing a positive security model that only allows through requests that conform to a specific, pre-approved model, and denying anything that is even the slightest bit out of line.

Stop hackers cold before they get a chance to break into your web application, steal your confidential data, and bring your business to a grinding halt

Approach

This book teaches ModSecurity from the beginning to anyone with basic Linux skills. It starts by focusing on introducing ModSecurity, and explaining the concept of ModSecurity rules and how to write them. Later, it looks at the performance of ModSecurity and what sort of impact ModSecurity has on the speed of your web application.

Who this book is for

This book is written for system administrators or anyone running an Apache web server who wants to learn how to secure that server. It assumes that you are familiar with using the Linux shell and command-line tools, but does its best to explain everything so that those who are not Linux experts can make full use of ModSecurity.

Annotation. With more than 67% of web servers running Apache and web-based attacks becoming more and more prevalent, web security has become a critical area for web site managers. Most existing tools work on the TCP/IP level, failing to use the specifics of the HTTP protocol in their operation. Mod_security is a module running on Apache, which will help you overcome the security threats prevalent in the online world. A complete guide to using ModSecurity, this book will show you how to secure your web application and server, and does so by using real-world examples of attacks currently in use. It will help you learn about SQL injection, cross-site scripting attacks, cross-site request forgeries, null byte attacks, and many more so that you know how attackers operate. Using clear, step-by-step instructions this book starts by teaching you how to install and set up ModSecurity, before diving into the rule language with examples. It assumes no prior knowledge of ModSecurity, so as long as you are familiar with basic Linux administration, you can start to learn right away. Real-life case studies are used to illustrate the dangers on the Web today _ you will for example learn how the recent worm that hit Twitter works, and how you could have used ModSecurity to stop it in its tracks. The mechanisms behind these and other attacks are described in detail, and you will learn everything you need to know to make sure your server and web application remain unscathed on the increasingly dangerous web. Have you ever wondered how attackers figure out the exact web server version running on a system? They use a technique called HTTP fingerprinting, and you will learn about this in depth and how to defend against it by flying your web server under a "false flag". The last part of the book shows you how to really lock down a web application by implementing a positive security model that only allows through requests that conform to a specific, pre-approved model, and denying anything that is even the slightest bit out of line.