STIGUI
V-214241CAT II — Medium severitySV-214241r1051280_rule

The Apache web server must not be a proxy server.

Rule version AS24-U1-000260 · STIG v3 · 2026-05-28

Discussion

A web server should be primarily a web server or a proxy server but not both, for the same reasons that other multiuse servers are not recommended. Scanning for web servers that will also proxy requests into an otherwise protected network is a very common attack, making the attack anonymous.

Check

If the server has been approved to be a proxy server, this requirement is Not Applicable.

Determine the location of the "HTTPD_ROOT" directory and the "httpd.conf" file:

# apachectl -V | egrep -i 'httpd_root|server_config_file' -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/httpd" -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"

Note: The apachectl front end is the preferred method for locating the Apache httpd file. For some Linux distributions, "apache2ctl -V" or "httpd -V" can also be used.

Search for the directive "ProxyRequests" in the "httpd.conf" file.

If the ProxyRequests directive is set to "On", this is a finding.

Fix

Determine the location of the "HTTPD_ROOT" directory and the "httpd.conf" file:

# apachectl -V | egrep -i 'httpd_root|server_config_file' -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/httpd" -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"

Edit the file and comment out the ProxyRequests directive in the httpd.conf file.

Restart Apache: apachectl restart

Identifiers

Group ID
V-214241
Group title
SRG-APP-000141-WSR-000076
Rule ID
SV-214241r1051280_rule
Check ID
C-15455r1051278_chk
Fix ID
F-15453r1051279_fix