googlesubversion

Enable different Apache modules

LDAP

Bitnami stacks already ship the LDAP module installed in Apache but it is not enabled by default. To enable this module, follow these steps:

  • Enable the LDAP module. Edit the main Apache configuration file located at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf. Uncomment the mod_authnz_ldap line and add the mod_ldap line at the end of the LoadModule section:

      ...
      LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
      ...
      LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so
    
  • Restart Apache server and check it is already enabled:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
      $ /opt/bitnami/apache/bin/apachectl -M | grep ldap
      ...
      authnz_ldap_module (shared)
      ldap_module (shared)
      ...
    

mod_evasive

Follow these steps:

  • Download the latest version:

      $  git clone https://github.com/jzdziarski/mod_evasive/
    
  • Build, configure and install the module:

      $ cd mod_evasive
      $ cp mod_evasive{20,24}.c
      $ sed s/remote_ip/client_ip/g -i mod_evasive24.c
      $ sudo apxs -i -a -c mod_evasive24.c
    
  • Update the Apache module configuration:

      $ echo Include conf/modevasion.conf | sudo tee -a /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf
      $ sudo tee /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/modevasion.conf <<EOF
      #increases size of hash table. Good, but uses more RAM."
      DOSHashTableSize    3097"
      #Interval, in seconds, of the page interval."
      DOSPageInterval     1"
      #Interval, in seconds, of the site interval."
      DOSSiteInterval     1"
      #period, in seconds, a client is blocked.  The counter is reset to 0 with every access within this interval."
      DOSBlockingPeriod   10"
      #threshold of requests per page, per page interval.  If hit == block."
      DOSPageCount        2"
      #threshold of requests for any object by the same ip, on the same listener, per site interval."
      DOSSiteCount        50"
      #locking mechanism prevents repeated calls.  email can be sent when host is blocked (leverages the following by default "/bin/mail -t %s")"
      DOSEmailNotify      mbrown@domainy.com"
      #locking mechanism prevents repeated calls.  A command can be executed when a host is blocked.  %s is the host IP."
      #DOSSystemCommand    \"su - someuser -c \'/sbin/... %s ...\'\""
      #DOSLogDir           \"/var/lock/mod_evasive\""
      #whitelist an IP., leverage wildcards, not CIDR, like 127.0.0.*"
      #DOSWhiteList 127.0.0.1"
      EOF
    
  • Restart Apache:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
    

mod_proxy_html

Follow these steps:

  • Install the libxml2 development system package:

          $ sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev
    
  • Download the latest version and extract the contents:

      $ wget http://apache.webthing.com/mod_proxy_html/mod_proxy_html.tar.bz2
      $ tar -jxf mod_proxy_html.tar.bz2
      $ cd mod_proxy_html/
    
  • Install the module:

      $ sudo apxs -c $(xml2-config --cflags) $(xml2-config --libs) -i mod_proxy_html.c
      $ sudo apxs -c $(xml2-config --cflags) $(xml2-config --libs) -i mod_xml2enc.c
      $ sudo chmod 755 /opt/bitnami/apache/modules/mod_proxy_html.so /opt/bitnami/apache/modules/mod_xml2enc.so
    
  • Enable the module by including the lines below in the /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf configuration file:

      LoadModule proxy_html_module modules/mod_proxy_html.so
      LoadModule xml2enc_module modules/mod_xml2enc.so
    

mod_security

Bitnami stacks using system packages already ship the mod_security2 and mod_security3 modules installed in Apache but they are not enabled by default. To enable mod_security2 module, follow these steps:

  • Enable the mod_security2 and mod_unique_id modules in Apache. Edit the main Apache configuration file and uncomment the unique_id_module and security2_module. Make sure that security3_module is commented:

      ...
      LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
      ...
      LoadModule security2_module modules/mod_security2.so
      #LoadModule security3_module modules/mod_security3.so
    
  • Add the default configuration file for mod_security at the end of the Apache configuration file:

      Include "/opt/bitnami/apache/conf/modsecurity.conf"
    
  • Restart the Apache server:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
      $ tail /opt/bitnami/apache/logs/error_log
    
      ...
      [Fri Nov 26 10:57:44.951009 2021] [:notice] [pid 14032:tid 139935914130304] ModSecurity for Apache/2.9.5 (http://www.modsecurity.org/) configured.
      ...
    

To enable mod_security3 module, follow these steps:

  • Enable the mod_security3 and mod_unique_id modules in Apache. Edit the main Apache configuration file and uncomment the unique_id_module and security3_module. Make sure that security2_module is commented:

      ...
      LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
      ...
      #LoadModule security2_module modules/mod_security2.so
      LoadModule security3_module modules/mod_security3.so
    
  • Enable ModSecurity in each virtual host file. For example, add the following configuration to the /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/vhosts/APPNAME-vhost.conf file:

      <VirtualHost _default_:80>
      ...
      <Directory "/path/to/htdocs">
        ...
        modsecurity on
        modsecurity_rules_file "/opt/bitnami/apache/conf/modsecurity.conf"
    
  • Restart the Apache server:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
      $ tail /opt/bitnami/apache/logs/error_log
    
      ...
      [Thu Jun 04 16:42:24.775180 2020] [:notice] [pid 4634:tid 140252742151040] ModSecurity: ModSecurity-Apache v0.1.1-beta configured.
      ...
    

NOTE: mod_security3 should be considered under development and not production ready.

mod_xsendfile

Follow these steps:

  • Download the latest version of the module:

      $ wget https://tn123.org/mod_xsendfile/mod_xsendfile-0.12.tar.gz
    
  • Extract the content and install the module:

      $ tar -xzvf mod_xsendfile-0.12.tar.gz
      $ cd mod_xsendfile-0.12
      $ sudo apxs -aci mod_xsendfile.c
    

If everything goes well, the module will be installed as /opt/bitnami/apache/modules/mod_xsendfile.so. Check the mod_xsendfile configuration page to find out how to configure this module for your application.

mod_http2

Bitnami stacks ship with the mod_http2 module installed, but it is not enabled by default. To enable this module, follow these steps:

  • Edit the main Apache configuration file at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf and uncomment the line below so that it looks like this:

      ...
      LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so
    
  • Restart Apache and confirm that the module is active:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
      $ sudo apachectl -M | grep http2
    
  • Enable HTTP 2 support in your virtual host.

mod_remoteip

Bitnami stacks ship with the mod_remoteip module installed, but it is not enabled by default. To enable this module, follow these steps:

  • Edit the main Apache configuration file at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf and add the line shown below:

      ...
      LoadModule remoteip_module modules/mod_remoteip.so
    
  • Restart Apache and confirm that the module is active:

      $ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache
      $ sudo apachectl -M | grep remoteip
    

To configure the format in which information is stored in the Apache access log, set the LogFormat value either inside a virtual host configuration file at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf or in the main Apache configuration file at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf.

Additional parameters for the module can be set by creating a file at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/remoteip.conf* file and including it in either the virtual host configuration file or the main Apache configuration file, using the example *Include* directive shown below:

Include "/opt/bitnami/apache/conf/remoteip.conf"
Last modification February 9, 2023