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V-223003

CAT III (Low)

RECYCLE_FACADES must be set to true.

Rule ID

SV-223003r1135503_rule

STIG

Apache Tomcat Application Server 9 Security Technical Implementation Guide

Version

V3R4

CCIs

CCI-000366

Discussion

If RECYCLE_FACADES is true or if a security manager is in use, a new facade object will be created for each request. This reduces the chances that a bug in an application might expose data from one request to another. This setting is configured using environment variable settings. For Linux OS flavors other than Ubuntu, use the relevant OS commands. For Ubuntu, this setting can be managed in the /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service file via the CATALINA_OPTS variable. This setting is defined in the file and referenced during Tomcat startup in order to load Tomcat environment variables. Technically, the tomcat.service referenced in the check and fix could be called a different name, for STIG purposes and to provide a standard setting that can be referred to and obviously is used for Tomcat, tomcat.service was chosen.

Check Content

From the Tomcat server as a privileged user, run the following command:

sudo grep -i  recycle_facades /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service 

If there are no results, or if the org.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES is not ="true", this is a finding.

Fix Text

From the Tomcat server as a privileged user: 

Edit the /etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service file and either add or edit the org.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES setting.

Set the org.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES=true 

EXAMPLE:
Environment='CATALINA_OPTS -Dorg.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES=true'

Restart the Tomcat server:
sudo systemctl restart tomcat
sudo systemctl daemon-reload