tc Server ALL must not have the Web Distributed Authoring (WebDAV) servlet installed.

From VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.x tc Server Security Technical Implementation Guide

Associated with: CCI-000381

SV-99573r1_rule tc Server ALL must not have the Web Distributed Authoring (WebDAV) servlet installed.

Vulnerability discussion

A web server can be installed with functionality that, just by its nature, is not secure. Web Distributed Authoring (WebDAV) is an extension to the HTTP protocol that, when developed, was meant to allow users to create, change, and move documents on a server, typically a web server or web share. Allowing this functionality, development, and deployment is much easier for web authors.WebDAV is not widely used and has serious security concerns because it may allow clients to modify unauthorized files on the web server.As an extension to Tomcat, tc Server uses the “org.apache.catalina.servlets.WebdavServlet” servlet to provide WebDAV services. Because the WebDAV service has been found to have an excessive number of vulnerabilities, this servlet must not be installed.

Check content

At the command prompt, execute the following command: find / -name 'web.xml' -print0 | xargs -0r grep -HEn 'webdav' If the command produces any output, this is a finding.

Fix text

Navigate to and open all listed web.xml files. Navigate to and locate the mapping for the JSP servlet. It is the node that contains webdav. Remove the WebDav servlet and any mapping associated with it.

Pro Tips

Lavender hyperlinks in small type off to the right (of CSS class id, if you view the page source) point to globally unique URIs for each document and item. Copy the link location and paste anywhere you need to talk unambiguously about these things.

You can obtain data about documents and items in other formats. Simply provide an HTTP header Accept: text/turtle or Accept: application/rdf+xml.