Appendex A: Sources of Information .......................................................................................................... 56
Appendix B: List of Acronyms ..................................................................................................................... 56
Section 1: Introduction
The ColdFusion 10 Server Lockdown Guide is written to help server administrators secure their
ColdFusion 10 installations. In this document you will find several tips and suggestions intended to
improve the security of your ColdFusion server. The reader is strongly encouraged to test all
recommendations on an isolated test environment before deploying into production.
1.1 Default File Paths and Usernames
This guide will provide example file system paths for installation, you do not need to use the same
example installation paths provided in this guide.
1.2 Operating Systems and Web Servers
This guide focuses on Windows 2008 / IIS 7, and Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.3 / Apache 2.2. Many
of the suggestions presented in this document can be extrapolated to apply to similar Operating
Systems and Web Servers.
1.3 ColdFusion Version
This guide was written for ColdFusion 10.0 Enterprise Edition.
1.4 Scope of Document
This document does not detail security settings for the Operating System, the Web Server, or Network
Firewalls. It is focused on security settings for the ColdFusion server only.
All suggestions in this document should be tested and validated on a non-production environment
before deploying to production.
Section 2: Installation Prerequisites
Before running the ColdFusion 10 installer follow the steps in this section to prepare your Web Server
for installation.
2.1 Prerequisites for all ColdFusion installations
Create a separate partition / drive for ColdFusion Installation and website assets. This mitigates
1.
the successfulness of path traversal attacks.
Install the latest security patches for your Operating System
2.
Install the latest security patches for your Web Server Software
3.
Configure your Firewall to block all non-administrative traffic to the server during installation.
4.
Download ColdFusion 10 from Adobe.com
5.
Verify that the MD5 checksum of the downloaded file matches the MD5 specified on the
Adobe.com download page.
On Mac OSX:
To obtain the MD5 checksum of a file on Mac OSX launch Terminal.app and type: md5
filename
On Linux:
To obtain the MD5 checksum of a file on RedHat Enterprise Linux open a shell and type:
md5sum filename
On Windows:
Windows installations do not include a MD5 checksum verifier by default. Microsoft
provides a free MD5 checksum verifier called sigcheck.exe as part of SysInternals
toolkit. Download the utility, open the command prompt and type sigcheck -h filename. The sigcheck utility not only generates a MD5 sum, it also verifies the
signature of the ColdFusion installation executable (you should see Verified: Signed in the
program output).
2.2 Prerequisites for a Windows 2008 Server Installation
Read the Microsoft Windows Security Compliance Management Toolkit (see Appendix A.1)
Run Windows Update to ensure all software is up to date
Create Dedicated User Accounts
Ensure that all partitions use NTFS to allow for fine grained access control.
Setup a dedicated website for CF administrator
2.2.1 Create Dedicated User Accounts
Create a new User for the ColdFusion Service to Run As, in the screenshot below we call this user
cfusion, choose a unique username that may not be easily guessed.
Create ColdFusion Service User Account
Next create a new user for the IIS Application Pool:
For both users right click and select Properties. In the Remote Desktop Services Profile tab check the box
that says Deny this user permission to log on to Remote Desktop Session Host server.
If you are setting up multiple instances of ColdFusion for different applications you will want to create
dedicated user accounts for each instance to isolate them from each other. In addition each IIS
application pool can have a dedicated user account, typically each website in IIS is assigned its own
application pool.
If the new users were added to any default groups (such as Users) remove them from that group.
2.2.2 Create Web Root Directory
Created a separate partition for the CFML source and web site assets, for the examples in this guide it is
mapped to drive f:\.
Create a directory to contain the web sites for example f:\web\ and then create a sub directory to
house each web site.
2.2.3 Grant the Permission to Web Site Root Directories
Right click on the Web site partition folder (eg f:\web\), and select properties. Select the Security tab
and click the Advanced button:
In the Advanced Security Settings Dialog click the Edit Button:
Uncheck the checkbox labeled Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent. A confirmation
box will appear, select remove:
permissions to folders or files that CF
must write to)
Click the Add button and add the iisservice user grant Read and List Folder Contents Permission. Add the
cfusion user and grant Read, List Folder Contents Permission. Grant cfusion Write and Delete permission
if your applications make use of the file system via (cffile, cfdirectory, etc). Also give the Administrators
full control over this folder, and remove any unnecessary privileges.
Check the Replace all existing inheritable auditing entries on all descendants with inheritable auditing entries from this object checkbox to propagate this setting to all sub folders and files existing or created
below this folder.
Select the Auditing tab in the Advanced Security Settings dialog. Click the Edit button and ensure that
some level of auditing exists. Auditing can generate a large amount of logs, and if too verbose can make
the job of monitoring the server logs difficult. Auditing every successful file read in this directory may
not be necessary. Use your judgement to determine an appropriate auditing policy based on your
security requirements. A good minimal policy would be to audit all Fails, and certain Success events
(Delete, Change Permissions, etc).
2.2.4 Add / Remove IIS Server Roles
On a clean Windows 2008 install IIS may need to be installed. This is done by opening the Server
Manager and selecting Roles:
Next Click Add Roles, and select the checkbox next to Web Server (IIS):
The IIS role includes a number of optional sub-components called “Role Services”. ColdFusion requires
that the ASP.NET, CGI, ISAPI Extensions and ISAPI Filters Role Services are selected. After we have
configured the ColdFusion 10 IIS connection we can actually remove the ASP.NET and CGI Role Services.
Review the list of Role Services and remove any that may not be necessary (for example Directory
Browsing). You may find other Role Services to be useful or necessary, such as Logging Tools, HTTP
Redirection, Request Filtering, and IP and Domain Restrictions.
2.2.5 Delete Default IIS Web Site
A web site is installed with IIS called Default Web Site, right click and select Remove.
2.2.6 IIS Application Pool Settings
Click on Application Pools in IIS Manager and then click Set Application Pool Defaults in the Actions
menu. This allows you to change the defaults used when a new Application Pool is created. By default
each new web site in IIS gets it’s own Application Pool. Remove any unused application pools (such as
the one created by default).
Change the .NET Framework Version to No Managed Code if your web sites do not require .NET.
Under Process Model change the Identity to be the IIS user you created (for example iisservice). You will
be prompted for the password of this user:
Remove any Application Pools that are defined and not in use, such as the DefaultAppPool.
2.2.7 Anonymous Access Identity
By default IIS7 is setup to use the built-in Windows user account called IUSR for anonymous request
authentication. This means that when a request is made to your web site without authenticating with
the web server will use IUSR for the NTFS file permissions.
The IUSR account is setup to be a low privilege account, but there may be cases where you want to
change this to another account, for example if you want to isolate between multiple web sites or
applications. The IUSR account is inherently a member of the Users group which may allow for
additional unnecessary access to files.
2.2.8 Setup Request Filtering
Make sure that you have the Request Filtering Role Service for IIS installed. Under the IIS root
(applicable for all web sites) click on Request Filtering. Select the URL tab and click Deny Sequence.
When a string is added to the Deny Sequence if it is matched in the url IIS will return a 404 Not Found
response, and the request will not reach the ColdFusion server.
Our strategy here is to block all URI’s that do not need to be accessible to the public. Some of the
resources we will block here may not pose any known threat but could be used to determine the version
of ColdFusion you are running. Ideally we could block all /CFIDE, however if you use cfchart the
generated graphics are rendered from /CFIDE/GraphData.cfm
It is not possible using request filtering to deny the URI /CFIDE but then allow /CFIDE/GraphData.cfm for
example.
URI
Purpose
Safe to Block
/CFIDE/administrator
ColdFusion Administrator
Yes, we will create a dedicated
/CFIDE/adminapi
Admin API
Yes, if the admin api is called
/CFIDE/AIR
AIR Sync API
Usually, unless AIR sync API is
used.
/CFIDE/appdeployment
Yes
/CFIDE/classes
Contains java applets for cfgrid,
cftree, and cfslider
Usually, unless java applets are
used.
/CFIDE/componentutils
CFC Documentation viewer
Yes
/CFIDE/debug
Used when debugging is
enabled on the server.
Yes
/CFIDE/images
Contains two image files that do
Yes
/CFIDE/multiservermonitor-
Used to set a policy for allowing
Yes - the server monitor now
/CFIDE/orm
Contains interfaces used with
Yes
/CFIDE/portlets
Contains API for building
Yes
If you are not using cfchart and do not need access to any of the URIs below you may simply deny
/CFIDE instead of listing each sub directory.
2.2.8.1 CFIDE URIs
web site for ColdFusion
administrator access.
from internal CFML code it will
still work when the URI is
blocked. If the admin api is
accessed through a remote cfc
function call then use another
method to protect this uri (eg IP
restriction). Do not leave this
URI open to the public.
access-policy.xml
not appear to be used anymore
viewing the server monitor
from multiple domains.
ORM. These interfaces do not
need to be accessible through
the web server.
portlets with JSR-286, JSR-168
or WSRP. The API does not need
to be accessible through the
web server.
runs on its own web server on
port 5500.
/CFIDE/probe.cfm
You can configure probes in the
Yes, however if you want to use
/CFIDE/scheduler
Contains an interface for
Yes
/CFIDE/scripts
Contains javascript and other
Yes - we will create a new, non
/CFIDE/ServerManager
Contains the AIR application
Yes
/CFIDE/services
Contains CFCs that can act as a
Yes
/CFIDE/websocket
API for web socket listener
Yes
/CFIDE/wizards
Possibly used for IDE
Yes
/CFIDE/GraphData
Used to render cfgraph and
Only if cfchart and cfgraph is
/CFIDE/main
Used for RDS
Yes
URI
Purpose
Safe to Block
ColdFusion administrator which
are used to monitor a URL for
failures. This will throw an
exception if not run over
127.0.0.1.
scheduled task event handlers.
Does not need to be accessible
through the web server.
assets for several ColdFusion
features cfform, cfchart, ajax
tags, etc.
binary for the Server Manager.
service layer to Flex, or other
client side applications. The
client application must have a
username / password and also
an allowed IP. Enabling this
feature can open up a large
amount of security risk to the
application server.
probes you should create a web
site that only listens on
127.0.0.1 and remove this
block.
default URI for this folder, and
specify the new URI in the
ColdFusion administrator.
Additional URI Sequences to consider blocking
CFCs. Does not need to be open
via the web server if used.
integration, not needed on
production.
cfchart assets.
not used.
Application.cf
Block Application.cfc and
Yes
WEB-INF
WEB-INF contains configuration
Yes
/cfformgateway
Used for <cfform format=flash>
Only if Flash Forms are not
used.
/flex2gateway
Flex Remoting
Only if Flex Remoting is not
/cfform-internal
Used for <cfform format=flash>
Only if Flash Forms are not
used.
/flex-internal
Flex Remoting
Only if Flex Remoting is not
used.
/cffileservlet
Serves dynamically generated
Only if cfreport, cfpresentations
/rest
Used for CF10 Rest web services
Only if CF10 REST web services
/WSRPProducer
Web Services Endpoint for
Usually, unless WSRP is used.
.svn
If you use subversion to deploy
Yes
Application.cfm requests which
result in an error when
accessed directly.
data used by the java
application server. The Tomcat
connector will block this
already, but you can block it at
the web server level as well.
used.
assets. It supports the cfreport,
cfpresentation, and cfimage
(with action=captcha and
action=writeToBrowser) tags
support.
WSRP.
your ColdFusion applications
you can block the .svn folders,
which may allow source code
disclosure.
2.2.9 Create a Website For ColdFusion Administrator
First create a self signed certificate (or preferably utilize a certificate from a trusted certificate authority)
by clicking on the Server Certificates icon under the IIS root. Click on the link to Create Self-Signed Certificate on the right.
and cfimage are not used.
are not used.
Create an empty directory for the web site root of the ColdFusion administrator web site (For instance,
f:\web\cfadmin\)
Next click on Sites and Add Web Site to create a new website for ColdFusion Administrator, point the
web root or content directory to the directory you just created. Bind the new site to 127.0.0.1 (or
another IP address only accessible to system administrators). Select HTTPS for the protocol, and select
the self signed certificate.
Consider disabling anonymous access to this site and require web server authentication for an additional
layer of protection and auditing.
Next Require SSL Connections for this website by double clicking on the SSL Settings icon for the cfadmin
website:
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