Microsoft IIS 8.5 Site Security Technical Implementation Guide

Description

This Security Technical Implementation Guide is published as a tool to improve the security of Department of Defense (DoD) information systems. The requirements are derived from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 and related documents. Comments or proposed revisions to this document should be sent via email to the following address: [email protected].

Details

Version / Release: V2R8

Published: 2023-03-08

Updated At: 2023-05-04 00:35:33

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    Vuln Rule Version CCI Severity Title Description Status Finding Details Comments
    SV-214444r879511_rule IISW-SI-000201 CCI-000054 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website session state must be enabled. When the session information is stored on the client, the session ID, along with the user authorization and identity information, is sent along with each client request and is stored in either a cookie, embedded in the uniform resource locator (URL), or p
    SV-214445r879511_rule IISW-SI-000202 CCI-000054 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website session state cookie settings must be configured to Use Cookies mode. When the session information is stored on the client, the session ID, along with the user authorization and identity information, is sent along with each client request and is stored in either a cookie, embedded in the uniform resource locator (URL), or p
    SV-214446r903081_rule IISW-SI-000203 CCI-000068 MEDIUM A private IIS 8.5 website must only accept Secure Socket Layer connections. Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption is a required security setting for a private web server. Encryption of private information is essential to ensuring data confidentiality. If private information is not encrypted, it can be intercepted and easily r
    SV-214447r903084_rule IISW-SI-000204 CCI-000068 MEDIUM A public IIS 8.5 website must only accept Secure Socket Layer connections when authentication is required. Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption is a required security setting for a private web server. Encryption of private information is essential to ensuring data confidentiality. If private information is not encrypted, it can be intercepted and easily r
    SV-214448r879562_rule IISW-SI-000205 CCI-001462 MEDIUM The enhanced logging for each IIS 8.5 website must be enabled and capture, record, and log all content related to a user session. Log files are a critical component to the successful management of an IS used within the DoD. By generating log files with useful information web administrators can leverage them in the event of a disaster, malicious attack, or other site-specific needs.
    SV-214449r879562_rule IISW-SI-000206 CCI-000139 MEDIUM Both the log file and Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) for each IIS 8.5 website must be enabled. Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows Server 2012 provides basic logging capabilities. However, because IIS takes some time to flush logs to disk, administrators do not have access to logging information in real-time. In addition, text-based log
    SV-214450r879566_rule IISW-SI-000208 CCI-000133 MEDIUM An IIS 8.5 website behind a load balancer or proxy server, must produce log records containing the source client IP and destination information. Web server logging capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Without sufficient and accurate information, a correct replay of the events cannot be determined. Ascertaining the correct source, e.g. source IP, of the events is important durin
    SV-214451r879567_rule IISW-SI-000209 CCI-000134 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must produce log records that contain sufficient information to establish the outcome (success or failure) of IIS 8.5 website events. Web server logging capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Without sufficient and accurate information, a correct replay of the events cannot be determined. Ascertaining the success or failure of an event is important during forensic analy
    SV-214452r879568_rule IISW-SI-000210 CCI-001487 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must produce log records containing sufficient information to establish the identity of any user/subject or process associated with an event. Web server logging capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Without sufficient and accurate information, a correct replay of the events cannot be determined. Determining user accounts, processes running on behalf of the user, and running pr
    SV-214454r879587_rule IISW-SI-000214 CCI-000381 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must have Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) that invoke OS shell programs disabled. Controlling what a user of a hosted application can access is part of the security posture of the web server. Any time a user can access more functionality than is needed for the operation of the hosted application poses a security issue. A user with too
    SV-214455r903087_rule IISW-SI-000215 CCI-000381 MEDIUM Mappings to unused and vulnerable scripts on the IIS 8.5 website must be removed. IIS 8.5 will either allow or deny script execution based on file extension. The ability to control script execution is controlled through two features with IIS 8.5, “Request Filtering” and "Handler Mappings". For "Request Filtering", the ISSO must do
    SV-214456r903089_rule IISW-SI-000216 CCI-000381 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must have resource mappings set to disable the serving of certain file types. Resource mapping is the process of tying a particular file type to a process in the web server that can serve that type of file to a requesting client and to identify which file types are not to be delivered to a client. By not specifying which files can
    SV-214457r879587_rule IISW-SI-000217 CCI-000381 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must have Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) disabled. A web server can be installed with functionality that, just by its nature, is not secure. Web Distributed Authoring (WebDAV) is an extension to the HTTP protocol that, when developed, was meant to allow users to create, change, and move documents on a ser
    SV-214459r879588_rule IISW-SI-000219 CCI-000382 MEDIUM Each IIS 8.5 website must be assigned a default host header. The web server must be configured to listen on a specified IP address and port. Without specifying an IP address and port for the web server to utilize, the web server will listen on all IP addresses available to the hosting server. If the web server has
    SV-214460r903091_rule IISW-SI-000220 CCI-000197 MEDIUM A private websites authentication mechanism must use client certificates to transmit session identifier to assure integrity. A DoD private website must utilize PKI as an authentication mechanism for web users. Information systems residing behind web servers requiring authorization based on individual identity must use the identity provided by certificate-based authentication to
    SV-214461r879631_rule IISW-SI-000221 CCI-001082 HIGH Anonymous IIS 8.5 website access accounts must be restricted. Many of the security problems that occur are not the result of a user gaining access to files or data for which the user does not have permissions, but rather users are assigned incorrect permissions to unauthorized data. The files, directories, and data
    SV-214462r879639_rule IISW-SI-000223 CCI-001188 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must generate unique session identifiers that cannot be reliably reproduced. Communication between a client and the web server is done using the HTTP protocol, but HTTP is a stateless protocol. In order to maintain a connection or session, a web server will generate a session identifier (ID) for each client session when the sessio
    SV-214463r879643_rule IISW-SI-000224 CCI-001084 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website document directory must be in a separate partition from the IIS 8.5 websites system files. The web document (home) directory is accessed by multiple anonymous users when the web server is in production. By locating the web document (home) directory on the same partition as the web server system file the risk for unauthorized access to these pro
    SV-214464r879650_rule IISW-SI-000225 CCI-001094 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must be configured to limit the maxURL. Request filtering replaces URLScan in IIS, enabling administrators to create a more granular rule set with which to allow or reject inbound web content. By setting limits on web requests, it helps to ensure availability of web services and may also help m
    SV-214465r879650_rule IISW-SI-000226 CCI-001094 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must be configured to limit the size of web requests. By setting limits on web requests, it ensures availability of web services and mitigates the risk of buffer overflow type attacks. The maxAllowedContentLength Request Filter limits the number of bytes the server will accept in a request.
    SV-214466r879650_rule IISW-SI-000227 CCI-001094 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 websites Maximum Query String limit must be configured. By setting limits on web requests, it helps to ensure availability of web services and may also help mitigate the risk of buffer overflow type attacks. The Maximum Query String Request Filter describes the upper limit on allowable query string lengths. Up
    SV-214467r879650_rule IISW-SI-000228 CCI-001094 MEDIUM Non-ASCII characters in URLs must be prohibited by any IIS 8.5 website. By setting limits on web requests, it ensures availability of web services and mitigates the risk of buffer overflow type attacks. The allow high-bit characters Request Filter enables rejection of requests containing non-ASCII characters.
    SV-214468r903093_rule IISW-SI-000229 CCI-001094 MEDIUM Double encoded URL requests must be prohibited by any IIS 8.5 website. Request filtering enables administrators to create a more granular rule set with which to allow or reject inbound web content. By setting limits on web requests, it ensures availability of web services and mitigates the risk of buffer overflow type attack
    SV-214469r903095_rule IISW-SI-000230 CCI-001094 MEDIUM Unlisted file extensions in URL requests must be filtered by any IIS 8.5 website. Request filtering enables administrators to create a more granular rule set to allow or reject inbound web content. By setting limits on web requests it helps to ensure availability of web services and may also help mitigate the risk of buffer overflow ty
    SV-214470r879652_rule IISW-SI-000231 CCI-001310 MEDIUM Directory Browsing on the IIS 8.5 website must be disabled. Directory browsing allows the contents of a directory to be displayed upon request from a web client. If directory browsing is enabled for a directory in IIS, users could receive a web page listing the contents of the directory. If directory browsing is e
    SV-214472r879655_rule IISW-SI-000233 CCI-001312 MEDIUM Warning and error messages displayed to clients must be modified to minimize the identity of the IIS 8.5 website, patches, loaded modules, and directory paths. HTTP error pages contain information that could enable an attacker to gain access to an information system. Failure to prevent the sending of HTTP error pages with full information to remote requesters exposes internal configuration information to potenti
    SV-214473r903097_rule IISW-SI-000234 CCI-001312 MEDIUM Debugging and trace information used to diagnose the IIS 8.5 website must be disabled. Setting compilation debug to false ensures detailed error information does not inadvertently display during live application usage, mitigating the risk of application information being displayed to users.
    SV-214474r879673_rule IISW-SI-000235 CCI-002361 MEDIUM The Idle Time-out monitor for each IIS 8.5 website must be enabled. The idle time-out attribute controls the amount of time a worker process will remain idle before it shuts down. A worker process is idle if it is not processing requests and no new requests are received. The purpose of this attribute is to conserve syste
    SV-214475r879673_rule IISW-SI-000236 CCI-002361 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 websites connectionTimeout setting must be explicitly configured to disconnect an idle session. Leaving sessions open indefinitely is a major security risk. An attacker can easily use an already authenticated session to access the hosted application as the previously authenticated user. By closing sessions after a set period of inactivity, the web s
    SV-214476r879693_rule IISW-SI-000237 CCI-002322 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must provide the capability to immediately disconnect or disable remote access to the hosted applications. During an attack on the web server or any of the hosted applications, the system administrator may need to disconnect or disable access by users to stop the attack. The web server must provide a capability to disconnect users to a hosted application with
    SV-214477r879730_rule IISW-SI-000238 CCI-001849 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must use a logging mechanism that is configured to allocate log record storage capacity large enough to accommodate the logging requirements of the IIS 8.5 website. In order to make certain that the logging mechanism used by the web server has sufficient storage capacity in which to write the logs, the logging mechanism needs to be able to allocate log record storage capacity. The task of allocating log record stora
    SV-214478r879756_rule IISW-SI-000239 CCI-001762 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 websites must utilize ports, protocols, and services according to PPSM guidelines. Web servers provide numerous processes, features, and functionalities that utilize TCP/IP ports. Some of these processes may be deemed unnecessary or too unsecure to run on a production system. The web server must provide the capability to disable or dea
    SV-214479r879798_rule IISW-SI-000241 CCI-002470 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 private website have a server certificate issued by DoD PKI or DoD-approved PKI Certification Authorities (CAs). The use of a DoD PKI certificate ensures clients the private website they are connecting to is legitimate, and is an essential part of the DoD defense-in-depth strategy.
    SV-214480r879800_rule IISW-SI-000242 CCI-002476 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 private website must employ cryptographic mechanisms (TLS) and require client certificates. TLS encryption is a required security setting for a private web server. Encryption of private information is essential to ensuring data confidentiality. If private information is not encrypted, it can be intercepted and easily read by an unauthorized part
    SV-214481r879810_rule IISW-SI-000244 CCI-002418 MEDIUM IIS 8.5 website session IDs must be sent to the client using TLS. The HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol. To maintain a session, a session identifier is used. The session identifier is a piece of data that is used to identify a session and a user. If the session identifier is compromised by an attacker, the session c
    SV-214482r903100_rule IISW-SI-000246 CCI-002418 MEDIUM Cookies exchanged between the IIS 8.5 website and the client must use SSL/TLS, have cookie properties set to prohibit client-side scripts from reading the cookie data and must not be compressed. A cookie is used when a web server needs to share data with the client's browser. The data is often used to remember the client when the client returns to the hosted application at a later date. A session cookie is a special type of cookie used to remembe
    SV-214483r903103_rule IISW-SI-000249 CCI-002420 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must maintain the confidentiality and integrity of information during preparation for transmission and during reception. Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during preparation for transmission, including, for example, during aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during packing/unpacking. These unauthorized disclosures
    SV-214484r879887_rule IISW-SI-000251 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The IIS 8.5 website must have a unique application pool. Application pools isolate sites and applications to address reliability, availability, and security issues. Sites and applications may be grouped according to configurations, although each site will be associated with a unique application pool.
    SV-214485r879887_rule IISW-SI-000252 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The maximum number of requests an application pool can process for each IIS 8.5 website must be explicitly set. IIS application pools can be periodically recycled to avoid unstable states possibly leading to application crashes, hangs, or memory leaks. By default, application pool recycling is overlapped, which means the worker process to be shut down is kept runni
    SV-214488r881088_rule IISW-SI-000255 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The application pool for each IIS 8.5 website must have a recycle time explicitly set. Application pools can be periodically recycled to avoid unstable states possibly leading to application crashes, hangs, or memory leaks.
    SV-214489r879887_rule IISW-SI-000256 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The maximum queue length for HTTP.sys for each IIS 8.5 website must be explicitly configured. In order to determine the possible causes of client connection errors and to conserve system resources, it is important to both log errors and manage those settings controlling requests to the application pool.
    SV-214490r879887_rule IISW-SI-000257 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The application pools pinging monitor for each IIS 8.5 website must be enabled. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) manages application pool configurations and may flag a worker process as unhealthy and shut it down. An application pool’s pinging monitor must be enabled to confirm worker processes are functional. A lack of res
    SV-214491r879887_rule IISW-SI-000258 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The application pools rapid fail protection for each IIS 8.5 website must be enabled. Rapid fail protection is a feature that interrogates the health of worker processes associated with websites and web applications. It can be configured to perform a number of actions such as shutting down and restarting worker processes that have reached
    SV-214492r879887_rule IISW-SI-000259 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The application pools rapid fail protection settings for each IIS 8.5 website must be managed. Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) manages application pool configuration and may flag a worker process as unhealthy and shut it down. The rapid fail protection must be set to a suitable value. A lack of response from the worker process might mean t
    SV-214493r879587_rule IISW-SI-000261 CCI-000381 MEDIUM Interactive scripts on the IIS 8.5 web server must be located in unique and designated folders. CGI and ASP scripts represent one of the most common and exploitable means of compromising a web server. All CGI and ASP program files must be segregated into their own unique folder to simplify the protection of these files. ASP scripts must be placed in
    SV-214494r879587_rule IISW-SI-000262 CCI-000381 MEDIUM Interactive scripts on the IIS 8.5 web server must have restrictive access controls. CGI is a programming standard for interfacing external applications with information servers, such as HTTP or web servers. CGI, represented by all upper case letters, should not be confused with the .cgi file extension. The .cgi file extension does repres
    SV-214495r879587_rule IISW-SI-000263 CCI-000381 MEDIUM Backup interactive scripts on the IIS 8.5 server must be removed. Copies of backup files will not execute on the server, but they can be read by the anonymous user if special precautions are not taken. Such backup copies contain the same sensitive information as the actual script being executed and, as such, are useful
    SV-214496r879887_rule IISW-SI-000264 CCI-000366 MEDIUM The required DoD banner page must be displayed to authenticated users accessing a DoD private website. A consent banner will be in place to make prospective entrants aware that the website they are about to enter is a DoD web site and their activity is subject to monitoring. The document, DoDI 8500.01, establishes the policy on the use of DoD information s