Rule version VCPF-80-000151 · STIG v2 · 2026-08-26
When Tomcat is installed behind a proxy configured to only allow access to certain contexts (web applications), an HTTP request containing "/\../" may allow attackers to work around the proxy restrictions using directory traversal attack methods. If "allow_backslash" is "true", the "\" character will be permitted as a path delimiter. The default value for the setting is "false", but Tomcat must always be configured as if no proxy restricting context access was used, and "allow_backslash" should be set to "false" to prevent directory-traversal-style attacks. This setting can create operability issues with noncompliant clients.
At the command line, run the following command:
# grep ALLOW_BACKSLASH /usr/lib/vmware-perfcharts/tc-instance/conf/catalina.properties
Example result:
org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH=false
If "org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH" is not set to "false", this is a finding.
If the "org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH" setting does not exist, this is not a finding.
Navigate to and open:
/usr/lib/vmware-perfcharts/tc-instance/conf/catalina.properties
Update or remove the following line:
org.apache.catalina.connector.ALLOW_BACKSLASH=false
Restart the service with the following command:
# vmon-cli --restart perfcharts