Fedora C2
Apache 2.0

Ok, I'm use to seeing those attempts to hit an IIS webserver in my apache logs, however, the last couple of days I have noticed these entries in the access_log:

64.114.199.1 - - [05/Nov/2004:16:42:24 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 683 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3"

64.114.199.1 - - [05/Nov/2004:16:42:25 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 683 "-" "-"

Normally, when someone hits my webpage and gets the "200", I see more entries like this [IP was removed to protect the innocent]:

[05/Nov/2004:15:39:12 -0600] "GET /icons/apache_pb2.gif HTTP/1.1" 200 2414 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"

[05/Nov/2004:15:39:12 -0600] "GET /icons/powered_by_fedora.png HTTP/1.1" 200 2243 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"

Any ideas what this person may be up to?

Jeff

Looks suspicious to me. Apache is pretty secure however, and I'd assume 97% of those hijack attempts are prone to fail. If, however, one does break in, depending on the exploit they will get varying degrees of access.

If apache runs under it's own account (say username httpd) in the worst case scenario someone could gain the privilages apache has. That would allow them to delete stuff such as /var/www, change the apache configuration, and other stuff. Oh, they'd have RWX permissions to any file set to 777 too.

Really not too much to worry about, no need to iptable the user, as theres millions more out there you'll encounter.

If you're really paranoid though, install apache 2, and keep everything up to date.

I may be blind, but I see nothing at all suspicious about those lines. What exactly makes you think there is a problem?

I believe apache is running under it's own id (apache), and I'm assuming this is the default? As far as /var/www, root owns all files under that directory, and the permissions are rwx r-- r--

If this is not how it should be, can you let me know how I should have it setup?

Jeff

I find it suspicious, because my domain name isn't included in these calls. All the legitimate attempts list my domain name in the log. See below:


(questionable call)

64.114.199.1 - - [05/Nov/2004:16:42:24 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 683 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3"

64.114.199.1 - - [05/Nov/2004:16:42:25 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 683 "-" "-"


(legitimate call)

[05/Nov/2004:10:31:44 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 683 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 4.0)"

[05/Nov/2004:10:31:44 -0600] "GET /main.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1346 "http://mydomain.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 4.0)"


So they are bypassing my domain, and getting a "200". Just sounds fishy to me.

the mydomain.com is the referrer. whoever visited your site probably just had that turned off somewhere (i think it can be done at the browser level somehow).

This is, as far as I can tell, perfectly fine behavior unless they are, as pointed out above, redirected from a link or another page on your site.