Issues Regarding DNS and Apache HTTP Server - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.
4 01-04-18 01'44
Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4
Issues Regarding DNS and Apache HTTP Server
This page could be summarized with the statement: don't configure Apache HTTP Server in such a way that it relies
on DNS resolution for parsing of the configuration files. If httpd requires DNS resolution to parse the configuration
files then your server may be subject to reliability problems (ie. it might not start up), or denial and theft of service
attacks (including virtual hosts able to steal hits from other virtual hosts).
A Simple Example
Denial of Service
The "main server" Address
Tips to Avoid These Problems
See also
Comments
A Simple Example
# This is a misconfiguration example, do not use on your server
<VirtualHost www.example.dom>
ServerAdmin
[email protected] DocumentRoot "/www/example"
</VirtualHost>
In order for the server to function properly, it absolutely needs to have two pieces of information about each virtual
host: the ServerName and at least one IP address that the server will bind and respond to. The above example
does not include the IP address, so httpd must use DNS to find the address of www.example.dom. If for some
reason DNS is not available at the time your server is parsing its config file, then this virtual host will not be
configured. It won't be able to respond to any hits to this virtual host.
Suppose that www.example.dom has address 192.0.2.1. Then consider this configuration snippet:
# This is a misconfiguration example, do not use on your server
<VirtualHost 192.0.2.1>
ServerAdmin
[email protected] DocumentRoot "/www/example"
</VirtualHost>
This time httpd needs to use reverse DNS to find the ServerName for this virtualhost. If that reverse lookup fails
then it will partially disable the virtualhost. 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 httpd should ever have to generate a full URL for
the server which includes the server name (such as when a Redirect is issued), then it will fail to generate a valid
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Issues Regarding DNS and Apache HTTP Server - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4 01-04-18 01'44
URL.
Here is a snippet that avoids both of these problems:
<VirtualHost 192.0.2.1>
ServerName www.example.dom
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot "/www/example"
</VirtualHost>
Denial of Service
Consider this configuration snippet:
<VirtualHost www.example1.dom>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot "/www/example1"
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost www.example2.dom>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot "/www/example2"
</VirtualHost>
Suppose that you've assigned 192.0.2.1 to www.example1.dom and 192.0.2.2 to www.example2.dom.
Furthermore, suppose that example1.dom has control of their own DNS. With this config you have put
example1.dom into a position where they can steal all traffic destined to example2.dom. To do so, all they
have to do is set www.example1.dom to 192.0.2.2. Since they control their own DNS you can't stop them from
pointing the www.example1.dom record wherever they wish.
Requests coming in to 192.0.2.2 (including all those where users typed in URLs of the form
http://www.example2.dom/whatever) will all be served by the example1.dom virtual host. To better
understand why this happens requires a more in-depth discussion of how httpd matches up incoming requests with
the virtual host that will serve it. A rough document describing this is available ( vhosts/details.html) .
The "main server" Address
Name-based virtual host support ( vhosts/name-based.html) requires httpd to know the IP address(es) of the host
that httpd is running on. To get this address it uses either the global ServerName (if present) or calls the C
function gethostname (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.
If you fear that this lookup might fail because your DNS server is down then you can insert the hostname in
/etc/hosts (where you probably already have it so that the machine can boot properly). Then ensure that your
machine is configured to use /etc/hosts in the event that DNS fails. Depending on what OS you are using this
might be accomplished by editing /etc/resolv.conf, or maybe /etc/nsswitch.conf.
If your server doesn't have to perform DNS for any other reason then you might be able to get away with running
httpd with the HOSTRESORDER environment variable set to "local". This all depends on what OS and resolver
libraries you are using. It also affects CGIs unless you use mod_env to control the environment. It's best to consult
the man pages or FAQs for your OS.
Tips to Avoid These Problems
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Issues Regarding DNS and Apache HTTP Server - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4 01-04-18 01'44
use IP addresses in VirtualHost
use IP addresses in Listen
ensure all virtual hosts have an explicit ServerName
create a <VirtualHost _default_:*> server that has no pages to serve
Comments
Notice:
This is not a Q&A section. Comments placed here should be pointed towards suggestions on improving the
documentation or server, and may be removed again by our moderators if they are either implemented or
considered invalid/off-topic. Questions on how to manage the Apache HTTP Server should be directed at
either our IRC channel, #httpd, on Freenode, or sent to our mailing lists.
Copyright 2018 The Apache Software Foundation.
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
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