Cis Tomcat9 V120 4.2

Restrict access to $CATALINA_BASE (Automated)

Description

$CATALINA_BASE is the environment variable that specifies the base directory which most relative paths are resolved. $CATALINA_BASE is usually used when there are multiple instances of Tomcat running. It is important to protect access to this in order to protect the Tomcat-related binaries and libraries from unauthorized modification. It is recommended that the ownership of $CATALINA_BASE be tomcat_admin:tomcat. It is also recommended that the permission on $CATALINA_BASE block read, write, and execute for the world (o-rwx) and block 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_BASE is not secured.

Audit Procedure

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

$ cd $CATALINA_BASE
$ 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_BASE to tomcat_admin:tomcat.

# chown tomcat_admin.tomcat $CATALINA_BASE

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

# chmod g-w,o-rwx $CATALINA_BASE

CIS Controls

v8:

• 3.3 Configure Data Access Control Lists

v7:

• 14.6 Protect Information through Access Control Lists

Profile Applicability

• Level 1