cis-tomcat8-v110-4-1

name	cis-tomcat8-v110-4.1
description	Restrict access to $CATALINA_HOME (Scored)
category	cis-tomcat
version	1.0.0
author	cyberstrike-official
tags	["cis","tomcat","linux","java","file-permissions","catalina-home"]
cis_id	4.1
cis_benchmark	CIS Apache Tomcat 8 Benchmark v1.1.0
tech_stack	["linux","tomcat","java"]
cwe_ids	[]
chains_with	[]
prerequisites	[]
severity_boost	{}

Restrict access to $CATALINA_HOME (Scored)

Description

$CATALINA_HOME is the environment variable which holds the path to the root Tomcat directory. It is important to protect access to this in order to protect the Tomcat binaries and libraries from unauthorized modification. It is recommended that the ownership of $CATALINA_HOME be tomcat_admin:tomcat. It is also recommended that the permission on $CATALINA_HOME deny read, write, and execute for the world (o-rwx) and deny write access to the group (g-w).

Rationale

The security of processes and data which traverse or depend on Tomcat may become compromised if the $CATALINA_HOME is not secured.

Audit Procedure

Perform the following to ensure the permission on the $CATALINA_HOME directory prevent unauthorized modification.

$ cd $CATALINA_HOME
$ find . -follow -maxdepth 0 \( -perm /o+rwx,g=w -o ! -user tomcat_admin -o ! -group tomcat \) -ls

The above command should not produce any output.

Remediation

Perform the following to establish the recommended state:

1. Set the ownership of the $CATALINA_HOME to tomcat_admin:tomcat.

# chown tomcat_admin.tomcat $CATALINA_HOME

2. Remove write permissions for the group and read, write, and execute permissions for the world.

# chmod g-w,o-rwx $CATALINA_HOME

Default Value

The default permissions of the top-level Tomcat directory is operating system dependent.

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

CIS Controls

v7:

• 14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists
  • Protect all information stored on systems with file system, network share, claims, application, or database specific access control lists. These controls will enforce the principle that only authorized individuals should have access to the information based on their need to access the information as a part of their responsibilities.