Ensure KeepAlive Is Enabled

MediumLevel 1Automatedapache

Description

The KeepAlive directive controls whether Apache will reuse the same TCP connection per client to process subsequent HTTP requests from that client. It is recommended that the KeepAlive directive be set to On. KeepAlive must be On or absent (default On). Reads the main configuration (APACHE_CONF overrides; default /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf or /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf) and every Include/IncludeOptional file.

How it is checked

Audit method: Shell command

shell

c=${APACHE_CONF:-}; if [ -z "$c" ]; then for f in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/httpd.conf; do [ -f "$f" ] && { c=$f; break; }; done; fi; [ -r "$c" ] || exit 1; R=$(awk 'tolower($1)=="serverroot"{v=$2; gsub(/"/,"",v); print v; exit}' "$c"); [ -n "$R" ] || R=$(dirname "$c"); shopt -s nocasematch; inc(){ local p g l; [ ${#FUNCNAME[@]} -lt 16 ] || return 0; p=$1; case $p in /*) ;; *) p=$R/$p;; esac; [ -d "$p" ] && p="$p/*"; for g in $p; do [ -f "$g" ] || continue; while IFS= read -r l || [ -n "$l" ]; do if [[ $l =~ ^[[:space:]]*include(optional)?[[:space:]]+\"?([^\"[:space:]]+) ]]; then inc "${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"; else printf '%s\n' "$l"; fi; done < "$g"; done; }; cfg=$(inc "$c" | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//' -e '/^#/d' -e '/^$/d'); shopt -u nocasematch; printf '%s\n' "$cfg" | awk 'tolower($1)=="keepalive" && tolower($2)!="on"{bad=1} END{print bad?"noncompliant":"compliant"}'

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

Set KeepAlive On. Then run apachectl configtest and reload Apache.

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: apachedos
Reference: CIS Apache HTTP Server 2.4 Benchmark v2.4.0 - 9.2 Ensure KeepAlive Is Enabled

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target apache