This is an old revision of the document!


Server preparation - Linux

This tutorial shows how to prepare the server for test or production usage of CzechIdM. If you are looking for much quicker way of how to start the CzechIdM, use the demo setup described here Getting Started

  • 1 server (can be virtualized) for all: backend, frontend and database.
  • OS Linux with EPEL repository enabled - CENTOS, basic network enabled installation
    • It is possible to use Debian but you have to adjust the installation guide a little. We tested CzechIdM installation on Stretch.
  • PostgreSQL - installed from a new repository
  • Java - distribution repository (OpenJDK 1.8)
  • Apache Tomcat - manually installed into /opt/tomcat
  • Services start via systemd in OS
  • Services run under dedicated user (non-privileged one)

Prerequisities - Basic installation of CentOS 7

# EPEL installation
yum clean all
yum install -y epel-release
yum update -y
# other recommended packages installation
yum install -y net-tools nano wget mc vim-enhanced screen sysstat bzip2 ssmtp bash-completion lsof haveged nmap zip unzip psmisc telnet policycoreutils-python
# enable haveged after OS start
systemctl start haveged.service
systemctl enable haveged.service
# remove unnecessary software
yum remove -y postfix
systemctl stop avahi-daemon.socket avahi-daemon.service
systemctl disable avahi-daemon.socket avahi-daemon.service
yum remove -y avahi-autoipd avahi
# set the hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname FQDN_server_name
hostnamectl status
# check the network configuration, be sure it is static (/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/)
# reboot the server

When installing on Debian, install these packages:

screen dnsutils sysstat lsof haveged nmap tcpdump traceroute tcptraceroute curl iptables-persistent
If you are install CzechIdM on Sql server, please follow this tutorial.

CentOS7 default repository version of PostgreSQL is 9.2. In our tutorial, we will install newer version 9.6. Moreover, we install database data into /data not /var/lib which is the default option.

  • Software installation (versions can vary):
yum install -y https://download.postgresql.org/pub/repos/yum/9.6/redhat/rhel-7-x86_64/pgdg-centos96-9.6-3.noarch.rpm
yum install -y postgresql96-server postgresql96-contrib pgstat2_96 pg_top96  postgresql96-libs
  • create new system directory:
mkdir -p /data/pgsql/9.6/data/
chown -R postgres:postgres /data/pgsql/
chmod 700 /data/pgsql
  • Copy of the configuration file for systemd, in which we will make change of directory for data:
cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql-9.6.service /etc/systemd/system/

In the file /etc/systemd/system/postgresql-9.6.service change the directory for data as follows:

# Location of database directory
Environment=PGDATA=/data/pgsql/9.6/data/
  • In the file ~postgres/.bash_profile change the variable PGDATA value to:
PGDATA=/data/pgsql/9.6/data
  • Reload changes:
systemctl daemon-reload
  • Initialize database:
/usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postgresql96-setup initdb
  • Enable and start database:
systemctl start postgresql-9.6.service
systemctl enable postgresql-9.6.service
  • Check that the database is running:
[root@tomcat1 system]# systemctl status postgresql-9.6.service -l
● postgresql-9.6.service - PostgreSQL 9.6 database server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/postgresql-9.6.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Pá 2016-11-18 23:50:06 CET; 2min 57s ago
 Main PID: 2626 (postmaster)
   CGroup: /system.slice/postgresql-9.6.service
           ├─2626 /usr/pgsql-9.6/bin/postmaster -D /data/pgsql/9.6/data/
           ├─2628 postgres: logger process                              
           ├─2630 postgres: checkpointer process                        
           ├─2631 postgres: writer process                              
           ├─2632 postgres: wal writer process                          
           ├─2633 postgres: autovacuum launcher process                 
           └─2634 postgres: stats collector process                     
 
lis 18 23:50:06 tomcat1.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL 9.6 database server...
lis 18 23:50:06 tomcat1.localdomain postmaster[2626]: < 2016-11-18 23:50:06.608 CET > LOG:  redirecting log output to logging collector process
lis 18 23:50:06 tomcat1.localdomain postmaster[2626]: < 2016-11-18 23:50:06.608 CET > HINT:  Future log output will appear in directory "pg_log".
lis 18 23:50:06 tomcat1.localdomain systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL 9.6 database server.

Install the database from OS packages:

apt-get install postgresql-9.6

We will move the database - create directory structure:

mkdir -p /data/pgsql/9.6/data/
chown -R postgres:postgres /data/pgsql/
chmod -R 700 /data/pgsql

Create the file .bash\_profile in postgres user's home (default /var/lib/postgresql) with following contents:

PGDATA=/data/pgsql/9.6/data

Stop the database:

systemctl stop postgresql

Move database directory (run this as root):

mv /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/* /data/pgsql/9.6/data/

In the PostgreSQL configuration file /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf set the data\_directory property to:

data_directory = '/data/pgsql/9.6/data'

Enable and start the database:

systemctl start postgresql
systemctl enable postgresql

First of all, enable the password authentication.

In the file /data/pgsql/9.6/data/pg_hba.conf find lines:

host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            ident
host    all             all             ::1/128                 ident

and change the value at the end of each line into md5 like this:

host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5

Now we can do DB sizing. We presume the system has 3GB dedicated for the db. We can also log the queries logging (those over 200ms). For particular sizing, use a calculator. In a file /data/pgsql/9.6/data/postgresql.conf edit (add those if not exist) lines:

max_connections = 100			# (change requires restart)

shared_buffers = 768MB			# min 128kB
effective_cache_size = 2304MB
work_mem = 7864kB
maintenance_work_mem = 192MB

min_wal_size = 1GB
max_wal_size = 2GB
checkpoint_completion_target = 0.7
wal_buffers = 16MB

default_statistics_target = 100

log_min_duration_statement = 200

Restart DB: systemctl restart postgresql-9.6.service

For Debian installation, edit those configuration files instead:

/etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf
/etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf
If you install the database to a different server than the CzechIdM application itself (Tomcat etc.), don't forget to configure PostgreSQL to allow remote SSL connection from that server.

Installation - CentOS7:

yum install -y tomcat

Installation - Debian:

apt install -y tomcat8
  • Make some adjustments to systemd unit.
systemctl edit tomcat.service

Or if you want use diferent editor than nano( vim) use this comands:

export SYSTEMD_EDITOR="/bin/vim"
sudo -E  systemctl edit tomcat.service
  • Add these lines and save the file:
[Service]
SyslogFacility=local3
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC'
Environment='JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom -Dorg.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.ALLOW_ENCODED_SLASH=true -Djavax.servlet.request.encoding=UTF-8'
  • Values of Xms a Xmx se are closely dependent on server sizing. If you have enough memory it is strongly advised to use Xmx 6128M or more.
  • Tomcat will be started under user tomcat:tomcat.
  • After every systemd configuration change it is necessary to reload:
systemctl daemon-reload
  • Test start:
systemctl start tomcat
  • Check that Tomcat runs with desirable parameters:
[root@tomcat1 logs]# ps -u tomcat -fwww
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
tomcat   14221     1  0 10:17 ?        00:00:03 /usr/lib/jvm/jre/bin/java -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom -Dorg.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.ALLOW_ENCODED_SLASH=true -Djavax.servlet.request.encoding=UTF-8 -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC -classpath /usr/share/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/share/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar:/usr/share/java/commons-daemon.jar -Dcatalina.base=/usr/share/tomcat -Dcatalina.home=/usr/share/tomcat -Djava.endorsed.dirs= -Djava.io.tmpdir=/var/cache/tomcat/temp -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/usr/share/tomcat/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap start
  • Stop Apache Tomcat:
systemctl stop tomcat
  • Enable tomcat start after OS start:
systemctl enable tomcat
  • In file /etc/default/tomcat8 set the basic JVM parameters. If they are there already, change them.
tomcat8
CATALINA_OPTS="-Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC"
JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom -Dorg.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.ALLOW_ENCODED_SLASH=true -Djavax.servlet.request.encoding=UTF-8"
  • Values of Xms a Xmx se are closely dependent on server sizing. If you have enough memory it is strongly advised to use Xmx 6128M or more.
  • Tomcat will be started under user tomcat8:tomcat8.
  • Test start:
systemctl start tomcat8
  • Check that Tomcat runs with desirable parameters:
[root@tomcat1 logs]# ps -u tomcat8 -fwww
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
tomcat8    742     1  0 13:20 ?        00:00:03 /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/var/lib/tomcat8/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager -Djava.awt.headless=true -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom -Dorg.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.ALLOW_ENCODED_SLASH=true -Djavax.servlet.request.encoding=UTF-8 -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048 -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=org.apache.catalina.webresources -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC -classpath /usr/share/tomcat8/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/share/tomcat8/bin/tomcat-juli.jar -Dcatalina.base=/var/lib/tomcat8 -Dcatalina.home=/usr/share/tomcat8 -Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp/tomcat8-tomcat8-tmp org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap start
  • Stop Apache Tomcat:
systemctl stop tomcat8
  • Enable tomcat start after OS start:
systemctl enable tomcat8

It is advised to follow these steps for production usage:

- In file /etc/tomcat/server.xml( /etc/tomcat8/server.xml on debian)

  • Turn off the shutdown port:
    • Set value -1 from 8005 to the Server port tag, thus you deactivate it:
<Server port="-1" shutdown="SHUTDOWN">

- In same file do this:

  • Make Tomcat listen only on localhost:
    • Add the address="127.0.0.1" property to configuration of 8009 and 8080 ports.
    • In Debian you need to uncoment AJP conector on port 8009.
  • Change logging into localhost\_access\_log.
    • Find these lines and comment them.
<!--
<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve" directory="logs"
               prefix="localhost_access_log." suffix=".txt"
               pattern="%h %l %u %t &quot;%r&quot; %s %b" />
-->

And add these lines:

<Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve" directory="logs"
               prefix="localhost_access_log." suffix="log"
               pattern="%h %l %u %t &quot;%r&quot; %s %b"
               rotatable="false" />

- In the file /etc/tomcat/web.xml( /etc/tomcat8/web.xml on debian)

  • Do not show aplication server version:
    • Set showServerInfo to false (default is true):
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>debug</param-name>
            <param-value>0</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>listings</param-name>
            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>showServerInfo</param-name>
            <param-value>false</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

We need to tell Tomcat where idm.war will be. Create context file /etc/tomcat/Catalina/localhost/idm.xml( /etc/tomcat8/Catalina/localhost/idm.xml on debian) with these lines:

<Context
	docBase="/opt/czechidm/app/idm.war"
	path=""
/>

- in file /etc/tomcat/logging.properties( /etc/tomcat8/logging.properties on debian)

  • Change logging properties
    • Add/change lines( 1catalina, 2localhost, 3manager, 4host-manager) into this(leave the other lines as they are):
1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = ALL
1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = tomcat.
1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.rotatable = false
1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.suffix = log

2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.rotatable = false
2localhost.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.suffix = log

3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.rotatable = false
3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.suffix = log

4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.rotatable = false
4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.suffix = log

On Debian make these extra changes:

handlers = 1catalina.org.apache.juli.AsyncFileHandler, 2localhost.org.apache.juli.AsyncFileHandler, 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler, 4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler
#, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler

.handlers = 1catalina.org.apache.juli.FileHandler
#, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler

############################################################
# Handler specific properties.
############################################################

3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE
3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs
3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = manager.

4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.level = FINE
4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.directory = ${catalina.base}/logs
4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler.prefix = host-manager.

#java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = FINE
#java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = org.apache.juli.OneLineFormatter

############################################################
# Facility specific properties.
############################################################

org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/manager].level = INFO
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/manager].handlers = 3manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/host-manager].level = INFO
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/host-manager].handlers = 4host-manager.org.apache.juli.FileHandler

On CentOS for redirect logging from /var/log/messages. Add this rule into /etc/rsyslog.d/tomcat.conf file.

### tomcat log
$template TomcatForm,"%msg%\n"
if ($syslogfacility-text == 'local3' and  $syslogtag contains "server") then{
        action(type="omfile" file="/var/log/tomcat/catalina.out" FileCreateMode="0644" fileOwner="tomcat" fileGroup="tomcat" template="TomcatForm" )
        & stop
}

Then restart rsyslog

systemctl restart rsyslog

Tomcat logger appneds to the logfile at /var/log/tomcat/. Tomcat also sets up logrotate at /etc/logrotate.d/tomcat. Change logrotate file into following and adjust log retention (the COUNT) as necessary - for production deployments we recommend at least 90 days.

tomcat
/var/log/tomcat/tomcat.log
/var/log/tomcat/manager.log
/var/log/tomcat/localhost_access_log.log
/var/log/tomcat/localhost.log
/var/log/tomcat/host-manager.log{
	rotate COUNT
	daily
	dateext
	copytruncate
	missingok
	notifempty
	compress
	create 0644 tomcat tomcat
}
/var/log/tomcat/catalina.out
{
        rotate COUNT
        daily
        dateext
        copytruncate
        missingok
        notifempty
        compress
        create 0644 tomcat tomcat
        sharedscripts
        postrotate
        	/bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid 2> /dev/null` 2> /dev/null || true
         endscript
}

On Debian logs are in /var/log/tomcat8/ and logrotate config is in /etc/logrotate.d/tomcat8.

tomcat8
/var/log/tomcat8/tomcat.log
/var/log/tomcat8/manager.log
/var/log/tomcat8/localhost_access_log.log
/var/log/tomcat8/localhost.log
/var/log/tomcat8/host-manager.log
/var/log/tomcat8/catalina.out {
        rotate COUNT
        daily
        dateext
        copytruncate
        missingok
        notifempty
        compress
        create 0644 tomcat8 tomcat8
}

It is possible that, on some distros, SELinux will deny acces to the logfile for logrotate because logrotate_t is only allowed in the /var/log and subfolders. The logrotate will error to the /var/log/messages line similar to Sep 3 03:48:01 server.tld logrotate: ALERT exited abnormally with [1].

If this happens, set the permissive mode for logrotate:

semanage permissive -a logrotate_t
Evaluate impact of SELinux adjustments before you implement them. Proper mitigation heavily depends on habits and security policies of your organization.

There are some possibilities:

  • Set permissive mode for logrotate as above.
  • Set permissive mode for whole SELinux. (This will drop the SELinux's protective function.)
  • Adjust particular SELinux labels. Example (here).

Please note that the log does not rotate during the first day, but after the second day.

If you installed two additional applications for tomcat management follow this part to complete tomcat configuration.

These applications are available at:

If you want to use them, it is necessary to do following steps.

First of all, create a database user that you will use for the access to those applications. If you plan to connect to the applications remotely (not only from localhost) you have to also allow communication from your IP.

Create user like this:

Create the a new user in the file /etc/tomcat/tomcat-users.xml( on Debian /etc/tomcat8/tomcat-users.xml) and assign him roles "manager-gui" and "admin-gui". The documentation of available roles as well as overall configuration of the application is a part of application installation available at http://localhost:8080/docs/manager-howto.html#Configuring_Manager_Application_Access

The file /etc/tomcat/tomcat-users.xml( on Debian /etc/tomcat8/tomcat-users.xml) looks like this:

tomcat-users.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tomcat-users xmlns="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml tomcat-users.xsd"
              version="1.0">
  <role rolename="manager-script"/>
  <role rolename="manager-gui"/>
  <role rolename="manager-jmx"/>
  <role rolename="manager-status"/>
  <role rolename="admin-gui"/>
  <user username="admin" password="*****store it somewhere safe*****" roles="manager-gui,manager-status,admin-gui"/>
</tomcat-users>

If you plan to connect to the applications remotely (not only from localhost) you have to also allow communication from your IP. If you see 403 Access Denied it might be you did not do this setting.

Add your IP address into application configuration files. In files /var/lib/tomcat/webapps/manager/META-INF/context.xml and /var/lib/tomcat/webapps/host-manager/META-INF/context.xml( on Debian /var/lib/tomcat8/webapps/…) add net mask for your IP (both files should have the same content):

In my case, I want to access to Tomcat management from network 192.168.0.0/24:

context.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context antiResourceLocking="false" privileged="true" >
  <Valve className="org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteAddrValve"
         allow="127\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+|::1|0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1|192\.168\.\d+\.\d+" />
</Context>

Again, restart the tomcat:

service tomcat8 restart

Apache httpd as a reverse proxy

It is possible to open Apache Tomcat to the network directly, but little inconvenient. You want the users to access the CzechIdM on user-friendly ports 80/tcp or 443/tcp, which is not easy to setup in Tomcat itself running under nonprivileged user. So we use Apache httpd as a reverse proxy. Apache httpd will allow access to data via https on port 443/tcp and http on port 80/tcp. Communication via http protocol will be enabled, but we will redirect all communication to https. Communication between Apache httpd and Tomcat will take place on local machine via AJP protocol. In httpd, there will be mod_security installed (optional but recommended), which serves as an application firewall.

The configuration example is written for the server which allows access to its services under the name "demo.czechidm.com".

Install httpd and mod\_security:

yum install -y httpd httpd-tools mod_ssl mod_security mod_security_crs

On Debian install those packages and allow modules:

apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-security2 modsecurity-crs
a2enmod ssl
a2enmod proxy
a2enmod proxy_ajp
a2enmod proxy_http
a2enmod security2
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod headers

HTTPd basic configuration:

Change MPM to worker (lower system requirements) - in the file /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-mpm.conf comment the lines with mod\_mpm\_prefork.so and uncomment mod\_mpm\_worker.so:

# Select the MPM module which should be used by uncommenting exactly
# one of the following LoadModule lines:
 
# prefork MPM: Implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server
# See: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/prefork.html
#LoadModule mpm_prefork_module modules/mod_mpm_prefork.so
 
# worker MPM: Multi-Processing Module implementing a hybrid
# multi-threaded multi-process web server
# See: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/worker.html
#
LoadModule mpm_worker_module modules/mod_mpm_worker.so
 
# event MPM: A variant of the worker MPM with the goal of consuming
# threads only for connections with active processing
# See: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/event.html
#
#LoadModule mpm_event_module modules/mod_mpm_event.so

Disable "welcome" page:

cd /etc/httpd/conf.d
mv welcome.conf welcome.conf-DISABLED
touch welcome.conf

Virtualhost configuration to forward the communication from port 80 to 443. Add following section and change string 'server' to the real servername in the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/vhost-redirect.conf (or /etc/apache2/sites-available/vhost-redirect.conf for Debian):

<VirtualHost _default_:80>
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html
   Redirect permanent / https://server
</VirtualHost>

Set the proxy in the virtualhost for https (443/tcp) - at the end of the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf (or /etc/apache2/sites-available/ssl.conf for Debian) add following before ending "tag" VirtualHost:

  ProxyRequests     off
  ProxyPreserveHost on
  ProxyAddHeaders on
  ProxyPass / ajp://127.0.0.1:8009/
  ProxyPassReverse / ajp://127.0.0.1:8009/

In IE 11, CzechIdM has problems with missing icons. Icons are created by special fonts and those fonts are handled badly in the IE. It is necessary to set Cache-Control HTTP header. We need to set it only for font files:

# workaround for bad font handling in IE 11
<LocationMatch "/idm/.*(\.ttf|\.woff2|\.eot)$">
        Header set Cache-Control "no-cache, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate" 
</LocationMatch>

Identity manager CzechIdM will be available on address https://server/idm/ It is possible to forward from / to /idm/, so that the user does not need to type the whole URL. To do so, add following lines to the virtualhost config file (ssl.conf):

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteRule "^/$"  "/idm/" [R] 

In the file ssl.conf we also have to disable SSLv3. Edit the line with SSLProtocol directive:

SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3

On Debian, create symlinks to sites-enabled:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled
ln -s ../sites-available/vhost-redirect.conf 01vhost-redirect.conf
ln -s ../sites-available/ssl.conf 02ssl.conf

Syntax check before httpd restart:

httpd -t -D DUMP_VHOST

httpd restart and reload configuration changes:

systemctl restart httpd

Enable httpd after OS start:

systemctl enable httpd.service

Mod_security files locations (on CentOS7):

  • Audit log: /var/log/httpd/modsec\_audit.log
  • Directory with activated rules: /etc/httpd/modsecurity.d/activated\_rules/
  • basic configuration file for mod\_security: /etc/httpd/modsecurity.d/modsecurity\_crs\_10\_config.conf
  • The file for chosen rules deactivation: /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

The default set of rules is relatively strict. CzechIdM cannot run with the default configuration of mod_security.

Each rule is identified by a unique ID. If you want to deactivate the whole rule, it is advised to write the rule ID into ssl.conf like this:

  <IfModule mod_security2.c>
    SecRuleRemoveById RULE_ID
  </IfModule>

In the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf (or /etc/apache2/sites-available/ssl.conf for Debian) deactivate following rules and set their logging:

<IfModule mod_security2.c>
        SecRuleRemoveById 981173
        SecRuleRemoveById 960015
        SecRuleRemoveById 950109
 
        # Allow Czech signs
        SecRuleRemoveById 981318
        SecRuleRemoveById 981242
        SecRuleRemoveById 960024
        SecRuleRemoveById 981245
 
        # Too restrictive for login format
        SecRuleRemoveById 960035
 
        # Needed by Websockets 
        <Location "/idm/api/v1/websocket-info/">
                SecRuleRemoveById 970901
        </Location>
 
        # These break Certificate Authority module
	<Location "/idm/api/v1/crt/certificates/action/validate">
		SecRuleRemoveById 960915
		SecRuleRemoveById 200003
	</Location>
 
        # do not log request/response body
        SecAuditLogParts ABFHZ
</IfModule>

In the file /etc/httpd/modsecurity.d/modsecurity\_crs\_10\_config.conf, find the rule with id=900012 and add support for content\_type=application/json, application/hal+json and text/plain on the line starting with tx.allowed\_request\_content\_type, then allow PUT DELETE and PATCH methods on the line with tx.allowed\_methods. Whole rule after the changes looks like this:

SecAction \
  "id:'900012', \
  phase:1, \
  t:none, \
  setvar:'tx.allowed_methods=GET HEAD POST OPTIONS PUT PATCH DELETE', \
  setvar:'tx.allowed_request_content_type=application/hal+json|application/json|text/plain|application/x-www-form-urlencoded|multipart/form-data|text/xml|application/xml|application/x-amf', \
  setvar:'tx.allowed_http_versions=HTTP/0.9 HTTP/1.0 HTTP/1.1', \
  setvar:'tx.restricted_extensions=.asa/ .asax/ .ascx/ .axd/ .backup/ .bak/ .bat/ .cdx/ .cer/ .cfg/ .cmd/ .com/ .config/ .conf/ .cs/ .csproj/ .csr/ .dat/ .db/ .dbf/ .dll/ .dos/ .htr/ .htw/ .ida/ .idc/ .idq/ .inc/ .ini/ .key/ .licx/ .lnk/ .log/ .mdb/ .old/ .pass/ .pdb/ .pol/ .printer/ .pwd/ .resources/ .resx/ .sql/ .sys/ .vb/ .vbs/ .vbproj/ .vsdisco/ .webinfo/ .xsd/ .xsx/', \
  setvar:'tx.restricted_headers=/Proxy-Connection/ /Lock-Token/ /Content-Range/ /Translate/ /via/ /if/', \
  nolog, \
  pass"

Enable mod\_security configuration:

cd /etc/modsecurity
cp modsecurity.conf-recommended modsecurity.conf

Uncomment following rules in the /etc/modsecurity/crs/crs-setup.conf and change them accordingly (add allowed content types and allowed HTTP methods):

SecAction \
 "id:900200,\
  phase:1,\
  nolog,\
  pass,\
  t:none,\
  setvar:'tx.allowed_methods=GET HEAD POST OPTIONS PUT PATCH DELETE'"

SecAction \
 "id:900220,\
  phase:1,\
  nolog,\
  pass,\
  t:none,\
  setvar:'tx.allowed_request_content_type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded|multipart/form-data|text/xml|application/xml|application/x-amf|application/json|text/plain|application/hal+json'"

It is advised to set up gzip so the users get minimum of data from the frontend server. In the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf we add following configuration and restart the server:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
        # Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/json
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/hal+json
 
        # Remove browser bugs (only needed for really old browsers)
        BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
        BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
        BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
        Header append Vary User-Agent
</IfModule>

In some RHEL/CentOS versions Apache HTTPD shutsdown or restarts itself very slowly. It is caused by https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=906321. Workaround is to edit '/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service' and add the option:

KillMode=none

Then reload systemd:

systemctl daemon-reload

It is absolutely correct to create new versions of unity in /etc, that has the option:

cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service
vim /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service # add parametr KillMode=none
systemctl daemon-reload

The patch of httpd should come soon so the first option is OK too.

If you want to enable SSO to CzechIdM, additional configuration must be done with mod\_auth\_kerb. See SSO installation guide for more details.

nginx as reverse proxy

In case that you want to use nginx instead of Apache httpd, the configuration is as follows.

server {
	listen   *:443 ssl http2;
	server_name  idm.domain.tld;
	client_max_body_size 1G;
	ssl on;
	ssl_certificate      /path/to/fullchain.pem;
	ssl_certificate_key  /path/to/privkey.pem;
	gzip on;
	gzip_proxied any;
	gzip_types
        	text/css
       		text/javascript
        	text/xml
       		text/plain
        	application/javascript
       		application/x-javascript
        	application/json;
 
	location / {
		proxy_hide_header X-Frame-Options;
		add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
		proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/;
		proxy_set_header Host $host;
		proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto "https";
		proxy_ssl_session_reuse off;
		proxy_redirect off;
 
		# WebSocket support
		proxy_http_version 1.1;
    		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    		proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
	}
}
  • by kolycheva