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| <title>Issues Regarding DNS and Apache</title> |
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| <h1 align="CENTER">Issues Regarding DNS and Apache</h1> |
| |
| <p>This page could be summarized with the statement: <em>don't |
| require Apache to use DNS for any parsing of the configuration |
| files</em>. If Apache has to use DNS to parse the configuration |
| files then your server may be subject to reliability problems |
| (it might not boot), or denial and theft of service attacks |
| (including users able to steal hits from other users).</p> |
| |
| <h3>A Simple Example</h3> |
| Consider this configuration snippet: |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre> |
| <VirtualHost www.abc.dom> |
| ServerAdmin webgirl@abc.dom |
| DocumentRoot /www/abc |
| </VirtualHost> |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>In order for Apache to function properly it absolutely needs |
| to have two pieces of information about each virtual host: the |
| <a href="mod/core.html#servername"><code>ServerName</code></a> |
| and at least one IP address that the server responds to. This |
| example does not include the IP address, so Apache must use DNS |
| to find the address of <code>www.abc.dom</code>. If for some |
| reason DNS is not available at the time your server is parsing |
| its config file, then this virtual host <strong>will not be |
| configured</strong>. It won't be able to respond to any hits to |
| this virtual host (prior to Apache version 1.2 the server would |
| not even boot).</p> |
| |
| <p>Suppose that <code>www.abc.dom</code> has address 10.0.0.1. |
| Then consider this configuration snippet:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre> |
| <VirtualHost 10.0.0.1> |
| ServerAdmin webgirl@abc.dom |
| DocumentRoot /www/abc |
| </VirtualHost> |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>Now Apache needs to use reverse DNS to find the |
| <code>ServerName</code> for this virtualhost. If that reverse |
| lookup fails then it will partially disable the virtualhost |
| (prior to Apache version 1.2 the server would not even boot). |
| If the virtual host is name-based then it will effectively be |
| totally disabled, but if it is IP-based then it will mostly |
| work. However if Apache should ever have to generate a full URL |
| for the server which includes the server name then it will fail |
| to generate a valid URL.</p> |
| |
| <p>Here is a snippet that avoids both of these problems.</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre> |
| <VirtualHost 10.0.0.1> |
| ServerName www.abc.dom |
| ServerAdmin webgirl@abc.dom |
| DocumentRoot /www/abc |
| </VirtualHost> |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <h3>Denial of Service</h3> |
| |
| <p>There are (at least) two forms that denial of service can |
| come in. If you are running a version of Apache prior to |
| version 1.2 then your server will not even boot if one of the |
| two DNS lookups mentioned above fails for any of your virtual |
| hosts. In some cases this DNS lookup may not even be under your |
| control. For example, if <code>abc.dom</code> is one of your |
| customers and they control their own DNS then they can force |
| your (pre-1.2) server to fail while booting simply by deleting |
| the <code>www.abc.dom</code> record.</p> |
| |
| <p>Another form is far more insidious. Consider this |
| configuration snippet:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre> |
| <VirtualHost www.abc.dom> |
| ServerAdmin webgirl@abc.dom |
| DocumentRoot /www/abc |
| </VirtualHost> |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <pre> |
| <VirtualHost www.def.dom> |
| ServerAdmin webguy@def.dom |
| DocumentRoot /www/def |
| </VirtualHost> |
| </pre> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>Suppose that you've assigned 10.0.0.1 to |
| <code>www.abc.dom</code> and 10.0.0.2 to |
| <code>www.def.dom</code>. Furthermore, suppose that |
| <code>def.com</code> has control of their own DNS. With this |
| config you have put <code>def.com</code> into a position where |
| they can steal all traffic destined to <code>abc.com</code>. To |
| do so, all they have to do is set <code>www.def.dom</code> to |
| 10.0.0.1. Since they control their own DNS you can't stop them |
| from pointing the <code>www.def.com</code> record wherever they |
| wish.</p> |
| |
| <p>Requests coming in to 10.0.0.1 (including all those where |
| users typed in URLs of the form |
| <code>http://www.abc.dom/whatever</code>) will all be served by |
| the <code>def.com</code> virtual host. To better understand why |
| this happens requires a more in-depth discussion of how Apache |
| matches up incoming requests with the virtual host that will |
| serve it. A rough document describing this <a |
| href="vhosts/details.html">is available</a>.</p> |
| |
| <h3>The "main server" Address</h3> |
| |
| <p>The addition of <a href="vhosts/name-based.html">name-based |
| virtual host support</a> in Apache 1.1 requires Apache to know |
| the IP address(es) of the host that httpd is running on. To get |
| this address it uses either the global <code>ServerName</code> |
| (if present) or calls the C function <code>gethostname</code> |
| (which should return the same as typing "hostname" at the |
| command prompt). Then it performs a DNS lookup on this address. |
| At present there is no way to avoid this lookup.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you fear that this lookup might fail because your DNS |
| server is down then you can insert the hostname in |
| <code>/etc/hosts</code> (where you probably already have it so |
| that the machine can boot properly). Then ensure that your |
| machine is configured to use <code>/etc/hosts</code> in the |
| event that DNS fails. Depending on what OS you are using this |
| might be accomplished by editing <code>/etc/resolv.conf</code>, |
| or maybe <code>/etc/nsswitch.conf</code>.</p> |
| |
| <p>If your server doesn't have to perform DNS for any other |
| reason then you might be able to get away with running Apache |
| with the <code>HOSTRESORDER</code> environment variable set to |
| "local". This all depends on what OS and resolver libraries you |
| are using. It also affects CGIs unless you use <a |
| href="mod/mod_env.html"><code>mod_env</code></a> to control the |
| environment. It's best to consult the man pages or FAQs for |
| your OS.</p> |
| |
| <h3><a id="tips" name="tips">Tips to Avoid these |
| problems</a></h3> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>use IP addresses in <code><VirtualHost></code></li> |
| |
| <li>use IP addresses in <code>Listen</code></li> |
| |
| <li>use IP addresses in <code>BindAddress</code></li> |
| |
| <li>ensure all virtual hosts have an explicit |
| <code>ServerName</code></li> |
| |
| <li>create a <code><VirtualHost _default_:*></code> |
| server that has no pages to serve</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3>Appendix: Future Directions</h3> |
| |
| <p>The situation regarding DNS is highly undesirable. For |
| Apache 1.2 we've attempted to make the server at least continue |
| booting in the event of failed DNS, but it might not be the |
| best we can do. In any event requiring the use of explicit IP |
| addresses in configuration files is highly undesirable in |
| today's Internet where renumbering is a necessity.</p> |
| |
| <p>A possible work around to the theft of service attack |
| described above would be to perform a reverse DNS lookup on the |
| IP address returned by the forward lookup and compare the two |
| names. In the event of a mismatch the virtualhost would be |
| disabled. This would require reverse DNS to be configured |
| properly (which is something that most admins are familiar with |
| because of the common use of "double-reverse" DNS lookups by |
| FTP servers and TCP wrappers).</p> |
| |
| <p>In any event it doesn't seem possible to reliably boot a |
| virtual-hosted web server when DNS has failed unless IP |
| addresses are used. Partial solutions such as disabling |
| portions of the configuration might be worse than not booting |
| at all depending on what the webserver is supposed to |
| accomplish.</p> |
| |
| <p>As HTTP/1.1 is deployed and browsers and proxies start |
| issuing the <code>Host</code> header it will become possible to |
| avoid the use of IP-based virtual hosts entirely. In this event |
| a webserver has no requirement to do DNS lookups during |
| configuration. But as of March 1997 these features have not |
| been deployed widely enough to be put into use on critical |
| webservers. <!--#include virtual="footer.html" --> |
| </p> |
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