Apache HTTP Server
TMA-APACHE-7.8
Ensure Medium Strength SSL/TLS Ciphers Are Disabled
Description
The SSLCipherSuite directive specifies which ciphers are allowed in the negotiation with the client. Disable the medium strength ciphers such as Triple DES (3DES) and IDEA by adding !3DES and !IDEA in the SSLCipherSuite directive. The effective SSLCipherSuite (last one at server level and in each virtual host) is expanded with the local openssl ciphers -v; no resulting suite may use 3DES or IDEA. Fails when no SSLCipherSuite is configured. 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. CIS marks this recommendation Manual; the automated check implements its audit procedure.
How it is checked
Audit method: Shell command
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 '/^$/d'); shopt -u nocasematch; eff(){ printf '%s\n' "$cfg" | awk -v k="$1" '{l=tolower($0)} l~/^<virtualhost/{vh=1; next} l~/^<\/virtualhost>/{if(v!="") print v; v=""; vh=0; next} tolower($1)==tolower(k){if(vh) v=$0; else g=$0} END{if(g!="") print g}'; }; s=$(eff SSLCipherSuite | awk 'tolower($1)=="sslciphersuite"{v=(NF>=3 && ($2=="SSL"||$2=="TLSv1.3"))?$3:$2; if(NF>=3 && $2=="TLSv1.3") next; gsub(/"/,"",v); print v}'); [ -n "$s" ] || { echo noncompliant; exit 0; }; command -v openssl >/dev/null || exit 1; bad=0; while IFS= read -r v; do o=$(openssl ciphers -v "$v" 2>/dev/null) || { bad=1; continue; }; printf '%s\n' "$o" | awk '$5~/3DES|IDEA/' | grep -q . && bad=1; done <<< "$s"; [ "$bad" = 0 ] && echo compliant || echo noncompliant- Expected output
compliant
How it is fixed
Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch
Add !3DES:!IDEA to every SSLCipherSuite, e.g. SSLCipherSuite ALL:!EXP:!NULL:!LOW:!SSLv2:!RC4:!aNULL:!3DES:!IDEA Then run apachectl configtest and reload Apache.
Properties
- Operating systems
- Any
- Tags
- apachetls
- Reference
- CIS Apache HTTP Server 2.4 Benchmark v2.4.0 - 7.8 Ensure Medium Strength SSL/TLS Ciphers Are Disabled
Check this host
Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.
tmaegis scan --target apache