Skip to main content

Deny access to .svn folders on Apache


We have a rails application in subversion that we deploy with Capistrano but have noticed that we can access the files in '/.svn', which presents a security concern.



I wanted to know what the best way to do this. A few ideas:



  • Global Apache configuration to deny access

  • Adding .htaccess files in the public folder and all subfolders

  • Cap task that changes the permissions



I don't really like the idea of deleting the folders or using svn export, since I would like to keep the 'svn info' around.


Source: Tips4allCCNA FINAL EXAM

Comments

  1. The best option is to use Apache configuration.

    Using htaccess or global configuration depends mainly on if you control your server.

    If you do, you can use something like


    <DirectoryMatch .*\.svn/.*>
    Deny From All
    </DirectoryMatch>


    If you don't, you can do something similar in .htaccess files with FilesMatch

    ReplyDelete
  2. One other way to protect the .svn files would be to use a redirect in the Apache config:

    RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/|$)


    So instead of getting a 403 forbidden (and providing clues to would be attackers) you get a 404, which is what we would expect when randomly typing in paths.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do not like the idea of 404ing each file startig wit a dot.
    I'd use a more selective approach, either with the cvs I'm using in the project (svn in the example)

    RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/|$)


    or a catch all cvs systems

    RedirectMatch 404 /\\.(svn|git|hg|bzr|cvs)(/|$)


    -- outdated answer follows (see comments) --

    I cant write comments yet so...
    The answer of csexton is incorrect, because an user cannot access the .svn folder, but can access any files inside it !
    e.g. you can access
    http://myserver.com/.svn/entries

    The correct rule is

    RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/.*|$)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think Riccardo Galli got it right. Even apache already had .svn setup as forbidden for me, but .svn/entries was certainly available...exposing my svn server, port number, usernames, etc.

    I actually figure, why not restrict .git as a preventative measure (say you don't use git yet but may someday at which time you will not be thinking about directory restrictions).

    And then I thought, why not restrict everything that should be hidden anyway? Can anyone conceive of a problem with this?

    RedirectMatch 404 /\\..*(/.*|$)


    I added the '.*' after the initial period - only difference from Riccardo. Seems to 404 .svn, .git, .blah, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A RedirectMatch will respond with a 404, which is great.

    However, if "Options +Indexes" is enabled, then users will still be able to see the '.svn' directory from the Parent directory.

    Users won't be able to enter the directory-- this is where the '404 Not Found' comes in. However, they will be able to see the directory and provide clues to would be attackers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I seems to me, Apache conf should be :

    <Directory ~ "\.svn">
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all
    </Directory>

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm not all that fond of RewriteMatch, so I used a RewriteRule instead:

    RewriteRule /\..*(/.*|$) - [R=404,L]


    The hyphen means "don't do any substitution". I also could not figure out why, in the examples above, the regex had two backslashes:

    /\\..*(/.*|$)


    So I took one out and it works fine. I can't figure out why you would use two there. Someone care to enlighten me?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would rather deny access to all dot-files (eg: .htaccess, .svn, .xxx, etc.), as they normally don't need to be web-accessible.

    Here's the rule to achieve this:

    <LocationMatch "\/\..*">
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all
    </LocationMatch>

    ReplyDelete
  9. Create a access rights file in your subversion server installation.

    e.g if you folder structure is

    /svn

    /svn/rights/svnauth.conf

    create a configuration file and enter the path of that file in your apache subversion configuration file which you would normally find at /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf

    In your svnauth.conf file define the rights as :

    access rights for Foo.com

    [foo.com:/trunk/source]

    dev1=rw

    dev2=rw
    .....

    This way you can control the access rights from one single file and at much granular level.

    For more information peruse through the svn red book.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[韓日関係] 首相含む大幅な内閣改造の可能性…早ければ来月10日ごろ=韓国

div not scrolling properly with slimScroll plugin

I am using the slimScroll plugin for jQuery by Piotr Rochala Which is a great plugin for nice scrollbars on most browsers but I am stuck because I am using it for a chat box and whenever the user appends new text to the boxit does scroll using the .scrollTop() method however the plugin's scrollbar doesnt scroll with it and when the user wants to look though the chat history it will start scrolling from near the top. I have made a quick demo of my situation http://jsfiddle.net/DY9CT/2/ Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Why does this javascript based printing cause Safari to refresh the page?

The page I am working on has a javascript function executed to print parts of the page. For some reason, printing in Safari, causes the window to somehow update. I say somehow, because it does not really refresh as in reload the page, but rather it starts the "rendering" of the page from start, i.e. scroll to top, flash animations start from 0, and so forth. The effect is reproduced by this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/fYmnB/ Clicking the print button and finishing or cancelling a print in Safari causes the screen to "go white" for a sec, which in my real website manifests itself as something "like" a reload. While running print button with, let's say, Firefox, just opens and closes the print dialogue without affecting the fiddle page in any way. Is there something with my way of calling the browsers print method that causes this, or how can it be explained - and preferably, avoided? P.S.: On my real site the same occurs with Chrome. In the ex