cis-tomcat8-v110-2-3

name	cis-tomcat8-v110-2.3
description	Alter the Advertised server.built Date (Scored)
category	cis-tomcat
version	1.0.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","tomcat","linux","java","information-leakage","server-built"]
cis_id	2.3
cis_benchmark	CIS Apache Tomcat 8 Benchmark v1.1.0
tech_stack	["linux","tomcat","java"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

Alter the Advertised server.built Date (Scored)

Description

The server.built date represents the date which Tomcat was compiled and packaged. This value is presented to Tomcat clients when clients connect to the server.

Rationale

Altering the server.built string may increase the complexity for attackers to determine which vulnerabilities affect the server platform.

Audit Procedure

Perform the following to determine if the server.built value has been changed. Extract the ServerInfo.properties file and examine the server.built attribute.

$ cd $CATALINA_HOME/lib
$ jar xf catalina.jar org/apache/catalina/util/ServerInfo.properties
$ grep server.built org/apache/catalina/util/ServerInfo.properties

Remediation

Perform the following to alter the server version string which gets displayed when clients connect to the server.

1. Extract the ServerInfo.properties file from the catalina.jar file:

$ cd $CATALINA_HOME/lib
$ jar xf catalina.jar org/apache/catalina/util/ServerInfo.properties

2. Navigate to the util directory that was created

$ cd org/apache/Catalina/util

3. Open ServerInfo.properties in an editor
4. Update the server.built attribute in the ServerInfo.properties file.

server.built=

5. Update the catalina.jar with the modified ServerInfo.properties file.

$ jar uf catalina.jar org/apache/catalina/util/ServerInfo.properties

Default Value

The default value for the server.built attribute is build date and time. For example, Jul 8 2008 11:40:35.

References

1. https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/security-howto.html
2. https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.5-doc/security-howto.html