OK, I now see this is an old discussion which I shouldn't have re-visited.
My problem is: I have a security audit done by a reputable organisation (National Computing Centre, UK) and I have to deal with their findings. I'm well aware most serious hackers won't bother with trivia like the "Server:" header. But it was raised as an issue and if I'm not going to do anything about it then I have to justify that to the boss. Having read the Developer list archives I guess I now have the information I need... Simon Ashford. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Joshua Slive Sent: 24 January 2007 21:50 To: users@httpd.apache.org Subject: Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Removing or overwriting "Server" header field. On 1/24/07, Richard de Vries <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have modsecurity running on my apache instances, and > I often see all kinds of IIS exploits hitting my box. > This then gives me time to look thru my various apache > and firewall logs, and take some corrective measures > like for instance slapping some IPTables rules on the > box to block that IP. Have you looked at some of the previous threads on this topic? I'm guessing no. Have you ever investigated how many people who DO NOT hide their apache Server identity also get hit by huge quantities of IIS attacks? The number is close to 100% from my observations. Here's the trick: There are basically two types of "crackers" you need to worry about, script-kiddies, and sophisticated hackers. The first type will try every possible exploit on every server they can find; they rarely if ever bother to look at the Server header or anything else. The latter type can easily figure out what kind of server you're running very unobtrusively whether or not you display the Server header. So in neither case will hiding the Server header buy you anything at all. Your argument seems to be that there may be a small number of crackers in between those two groups that might be delayed by a few minutes if you hide your Server header. I don't see any evidence that such crackers actually exist. And even if they did, your time would be much better spent worrying about real security issues than putting a tiny roadblock in their way. Joshua. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project. See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] " from the digest: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and/or privileged material; it is for the intended addressee(s) only. If you are not a named addressee, you must not use, retain or disclose such information. NPL Management Ltd cannot guarantee that the e-mail or any attachments are free from viruses. NPL Management Ltd. Registered in England and Wales. No: 2937881 Registered Office: Serco House, 16 Bartley Wood Business Park, Hook, Hampshire, United Kingdom RG27 9UY ------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project. See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] " from the digest: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
