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OWASP ModSec CRS Paranoia Mode
Abstract
This is a page about the development of a paranoia mode aka bringing back the rules that used to yield a high number of false positives. This little project is aimed at inclusion into the 3.0.0 release of the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rules, where some rules have been removed in order to reduce the number of false positives with vanilla installations.
FIXME: Detailed description
Back to the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rules Set.
Sub-Project Infos
- Status: active (January 2016)
- Schedule: Pull request in January 2016
- Who: Christian Folini (dune73), Noël Zindel (zino), Franziska Bühler (franziskabuehler), Manuel Leos (Spartan), Walter Hop (lifeforms)
- Documentation: Here on the OWASP Wiki
- Discussion / Archive: [email protected] / archive: http://lists.owasp.org/pipermail/owasp-modsecurity-core-rule-set/
- Github Link: https://github.com/SpiderLabs/owasp-modsecurity-crs/tree/v3.0.0-rc1
- Final Pull Request: FIXME
Tasks
Open Tasks
Please define state as follows: new, assigned, waiting, closed. When a task it is closed, it is moved to the seperate closed tasks table below.
Task | Who | Status |
Assemble list of disappeared / missing 2.2.X base_rules, which should be brought back | n.n. | new |
Assemble list of 2.2.X optional and experimental rules, which should be brought back | n.n. | new |
Nail down final list of rules which should be moved / recreated into the paranoia mode | group | new |
Write new stricter siblings for existing rules | Noël | assigned |
Define ID-space for strict siblings | n.n. | new |
Sort out mechanics of the paranoia mode | n.n. | new |
Define exact syntax of paranoia mode setup | Christian | waiting |
Sort out name: Is "Paranoia Mode" really the right term? | Christian | waiting |
Write pull request | n.n. | new |
Submit pull request | n.n. | new |
Draw flowchart | n.n. | new |
Write documentation | n.n. | new |
Closed Tasks
Task | Who | Status |
Assemble list of rules, which triggered false positives in 2.2.X frequently | Christian | closed |
Assemble list of 2.2.x rules, which have disappeared from 3.0.0-rc1 | Spartan | closed |
Assemble list of 3.0.0-rc1 rules, which could be accompanied with stricter siblings in paranoia mode (same idea of the rule, but harder limit etc.) |
Christian | closed |
Assemble list of 3.0.0-rc1 rules, which could be moved to the paranoia mode | Franziska | closed |
Rules
Paranoia Mode Candidates
The 3.0.0-rc1 has all rules renumbered. Existing numbering was fairly crazy and the new numbering follows the numbering scheme of the rules files (-> 9<2-digit-rulefile><3-digit-id>) A mapping table exists [IdNumbering.csv] We need to make sure, we do not mess things up, so let's add both IDs to the table, the old one and the new one.
Please set status as follows : candidate, cloning-candidate, unsure, dropped.
- 'cloning-candidates' are rules, that could be cloned into an even stricter variant with a stricter limit in a higher paranoia setting.
- If dropped, please provide reasoning in the remarks.
RuleID 2.2.x | RuleID 3.0.0-rc1 | msg | Status | Remarks |
900050 | 910100 | Client IP is from a HIGH Risk Country Location. | unsure | Franziska's candidate: Do we want to exlude countries? But then easy to configure. |
950001 | 942150 | SQL Injection Attack | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: @pmf file with very short function names, could match frequently. |
950109 | 920230 | Multiple URL Encoding Detected | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives |
950120 | 931130 | Possible Remote File Inclusion (RFI) Attack: Off-Domain Reference/Link | candidate | Walter's 2.2.X candidate: many FP; Chrstian: hardly any FPs, #discuss |
960335 | 920380 | Too many arguments in request | candidate | Walter's 2.2.X candidate: some FP (phpMyAdmin, large forms), alternatively would recommend raising tx.max_num_args to 1000
|
950901 | 942130 | SQL Injection Attack: SQL Tautology Detected. | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: legitimate sentences could match. Walter's 2.2.x experience: many FP in natural text however the rule seems to have merit |
950907 | 932100 | System Command Injection | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: false positives possible because of @pmf, file with short cmds. Maybe we should split the data file #discuss |
950916 | 921170 | HTTP Header Injection Attack via payload (CR/LF detected) | candidate | Franziska's candidate: change action from pass to block and move to paranoia mode. |
958977 | 933110 | PHP Injection Attack: Function Name Found | candidate | Franziska's candidate: false positives possible because of @pmf, file with short function names. Maybe we should split the data file #discuss |
958979 | 933120 | PHP Injection Attack: Configuration Directive Found | candidate | Franziska's candidate: false positives possible because of @pmf, file with short configuration directives. |
959070 | gone | SQL Injection Attack | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives |
959071 | gone | SQL Injection Attack | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives |
959072 | gone | SQL Injection Attack | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives |
959073 | gone | SQL Injection Attack | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives |
960015 | 920300 | Request Missing an Accept Header | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: Not every legitimate client behaves correctly. Walter's experience: many FP (PHP SoapClient) |
960017 | 920350 | Host header is a numeric IP address | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: Not every legitimate client behaves correctly. Walter's experience: low FP (almost all are mass scans) #discuss |
960024 | gone | Meta-Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Repetative Non-Word Characters | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives |
960035 | 920440 | URL file extension is restricted by policy | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives |
970901 | 950100 | The Application Returned a 500-Level Status Code | candidate | Franziska's candidate: too strict, too generic, no data leakage happened so far. Walter: it's useful however to prevent attacker from distinguishing between a failed SQLi attempt (403 blocked by ModSec) or a query error due to vulnerable app (500 from application) #discuss |
973300 | gone | Possible XSS Attack Detected - HTML Tag Handler | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP |
973332 | gone | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP |
973333 | gone | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP |
981172 | gone | Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Total # of special characters exceeded | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: very high FP |
981173 | gone | Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Total # of special characters exceeded | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: very high FP |
981231 | gone | SQL Comment Sequence Detected. | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: high FP but rule seems useful |
981240 | 942300 | Detects MySQL comments, conditions and ch(a)r injections | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP |
981242 | 942330 | Detects classic SQL injection probings 1/2 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: one quote character already matches?? Walter: low FP, but seen in cookies injected by some US ISPs; |
981243 | 942370 | Detects classic SQL injection probings 2/2 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: medium FP |
981244 | 942180 | Detects basic SQL authentication bypass attempts 1/3 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP, #discuss |
981245 | 942260 | Detects basic SQL authentication bypass attempts 2/3 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: medium FP |
981246 | 942340 | Detects basic SQL authentication bypass attempts 3/3 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: medium FP |
981248 | 942210 | Detects chained SQL injection attempts 1/2 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: low FP, #discuss |
981249 | 942310 | Detects chained SQL injection attempts 2/2 | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: low FP but seen in very specific situations |
981257 | 942200 | Detects MySQL comment-/space-obfuscated injections and backtick termination | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Walter: medium FP |
981260 | gone | SQL Hex Encoding Identified | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: very frequently false positives. Walter: high FP in long random strings |
981318 | 942110 | SQL Injection Attack: Common Injection Testing Detected | candidate | Franziska's candidate: one quote character at the beginning/end really not legitimate? Walter 2.2.X candidate: frequent FP |
981319 | 942120 | SQL Injection Attack: SQL Operator Detected | candidate | Christian's 2.2.X experience: frequently false positives. Also Franziska's candidate: very short operators or strings already match. Walter: some FP (WooCommerce) |
981049 | 912100 | Potential Denial of Service (DoS) Attack from ... - # of Request Bursts: ... | cloning-candidate | limit currently at 2; could be set to 1; now, the attacker has to exceed dos_counter_threshold twice. With full reset of counter after first hit. Source: 2.2.X->experimental rules |
960901 | 920270 | Invalid character in request | cloning-candidate | @validateByteRange 1-255; there was a conditional rule with stricter byterange 32-126 in 2.2.X as well |
970003 | 951100 | none | cloning-candidate | rule is only setting tx.sql_error_match. Could also trigger score directly |
950907 | 932100 | Remote Command Execution (RCE) Attempt | cloning-candidate | rule is only triggering in combination with chained rule. Could trigger on its on |
958977 | 933110 | PHP Injection Attack: Function Name Found | cloning-candidate | rule is only triggering in combination with chained rule. Could trigger on its on |
958979 | 933120 | PHP Injection Attack: Configuration Directive Found | cloning-candidate | rule is only triggering in combination with chained rule. Could trigger on its on |
958980 | 933130 | PHP Injection Attack: Variables Found | cloning-candidate | rule is only triggering in combination with chained rule. Could trigger on its on |
950001 | 942150 | SQL Injection Attack | cloning-candidate | rule is only triggering in combination with chained rule. Could trigger on its on |
Rules from 2.2.X, missing in 3.0.0-rc1
It looks as if only the base_rules made it into 3.0.0. In fact there are a few rule ids know from the optional and experimental rule folders in 2.2.X, but it is more likely, these are new 3.0.0 rules reusing old rule ids as the rules (regexes and msg) do not match at all.
When trying to generate the list below, be aware that the rule ids have been renumbered between 3.0.0-dev and 3.0.0-rc1. IdNumbering.csv in your friend.
Base rules
2.2.X rule id | msg | remarks |
950002 | System Command Access | |
950006 | System Command Injection | |
950007 | Blind SQL Injection Attack | |
950008 | Injection of Undocumented ColdFusion Tags | |
950010 | LDAP Injection Attack | |
950011 | SSI injection Attack | |
950018 | Universal PDF XSS URL Detected. | Walter: medium FP (foo.pdf#javascript) |
950019 | Email Injection Attack | |
950908 | SQL Injection Attack. | |
950921 | Backdoor access | |
950922 | Backdoor access | |
958000 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958001 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958002 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958003 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958004 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958005 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958006 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958007 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958008 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958009 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958010 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958011 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958012 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958013 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958016 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958017 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958018 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958019 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958020 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958022 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958023 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958024 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958025 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958026 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958027 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958028 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958030 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958031 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958032 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958033 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958034 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958036 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958037 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958038 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958039 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958040 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958041 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958045 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958046 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958047 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958049 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958051 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958052 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958054 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958056 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958057 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958059 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958291 | Range: field exists and begins with 0. | Walter: high FP (Chrome PDF viewer) and not useful. |
958404 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958405 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958406 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958407 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958408 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958409 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958410 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958411 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958412 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958413 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958414 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958415 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958416 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958417 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958418 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958419 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958420 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958421 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958422 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958423 | Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack | |
958976 | PHP Injection Attack | |
959070 | SQL Injection Attack | |
959071 | SQL Injection Attack | |
959072 | SQL Injection Attack | |
959073 | SQL Injection Attack | |
960014 | Proxy access attempt | |
960018 | Invalid character in request | |
960020 | Pragma Header requires Cache-Control Header for HTTP/1.1 requests. | Walter: some FP |
960022 | UNKNOWN | |
960024 | Meta-Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Repetative Non-Word Characters | Walter: many FP |
960902 | UNKNOWN | |
960913 | Invalid request | |
970007 | Zope Information Leakage | |
970008 | Cold Fusion Information Leakage | |
970010 | ISA server existence revealed | |
970011 | File or Directory Names Leakage | |
970012 | Microsoft Office document properties leakage | |
970016 | Cold Fusion source code leakage | Walter: some FP but not using this language |
970018 | IIS installed in default location | |
970021 | WebLogic information disclosure | |
970903 | ASP/JSP source code leakage | Walter: some FP but not using this language |
973300 | Possible XSS Attack Detected - HTML Tag Handler | |
973301 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973302 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973303 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973304 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973305 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973306 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973307 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973308 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973309 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973310 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973311 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973312 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973313 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973314 | XSS Attack Detected | |
973316 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973325 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973327 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973328 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973329 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973330 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973331 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973332 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973333 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
973334 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | Walter: many FP in text |
973335 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | Walter: many FP in text |
973347 | IE XSS Filters - Attack Detected. | |
981000 | Possibly malicious iframe tag in output | Walter: medium FP |
981001 | Possibly malicious iframe tag in output | Walter: medium FP (iframes with display:none) |
981003 | Malicious iframe+javascript tag in output | |
981004 | Potential Obfuscated Javascript in Output - Excessive fromCharCode | Walter: many FP (Wordpress 4.4 inlined emoji javascripts) |
981005 | Potential Obfuscated Javascript in Output - Eval+Unescape | |
981006 | Potential Obfuscated Javascript in Output - Unescape | |
981007 | Potential Obfuscated Javascript in Output - Heap Spray | |
981018 | UNKNOWN | |
981022 | UNKNOWN | |
981133 | UNKNOWN | |
981134 | UNKNOWN | |
981136 | UNKNOWN | |
981172 | Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Total # of special characters exceeded | Walter: many FP |
981173 | Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Total # of special characters exceeded | Walter: many FP |
981177 | UNKNOWN | |
981178 | UNKNOWN | |
981231 | SQL Comment Sequence Detected. | |
981260 | SQL Hex Encoding Identified | |
981300 | UNKNOWN | |
981301 | UNKNOWN | |
981302 | UNKNOWN | |
981303 | UNKNOWN | |
981304 | UNKNOWN | |
981305 | UNKNOWN | |
981306 | UNKNOWN | |
981307 | UNKNOWN | |
981308 | UNKNOWN | |
981309 | UNKNOWN | |
981310 | UNKNOWN | |
981311 | UNKNOWN | |
981312 | UNKNOWN | |
981313 | UNKNOWN | |
981314 | UNKNOWN | |
981315 | UNKNOWN | |
981316 | SQL SELECT Statement Anomaly Detection Alert | |
981317 | SQL SELECT Statement Anomaly Detection Alert | |
990012 | Rogue web site crawler |
Optional, experimental, slr rules
900048 | Identifies Reflected XSS (optional_rules) | Walter: could be very interesting candidate but have not used it in production |
920021, 920022, 920023 | Possible Credit Card Track 1 Data Leakage. (experimental_rules) | Walter: could be interesting candidates but have not used it in production |
981080, 920020, 920006 | Detect CC# in output and block transaction (optional_rules) | Walter: could be interesting candidate but have not used it in production |
900047, 900048, 981180, 981182 | Identifies Stored XSS (optional_rules) | Walter: could be somewhat interesting candidate but have not used it in production |
Stricter siblings for existing rules
The siblings detection rates and the anomaly ratings are drastically adjusted. To prevent loads of false positives, the rules can be filtered for common FP cases through chaining.
981173 : SQL Injection Character Anomaly Usage
Original ID (2.2.X): 981173
Change: Regex counter decreased to '1', anomaly score set to 'critical'
FP Filter: UUIDs
# # -=[ SQL Injection Character Anomaly Usage ]=- # # This is a paranoid sibling to 2.2.9 Rule 981173. # The regex limit is set to {1,}, adjust to your own needs. # For dealing with false positives caused by uuids, the rule is now chained. # Also the anomaly score is now set to critical. # SecRule ARGS_NAMES|ARGS|XML:/* "([\~\!\@\#\$\%\^\&\*\(\)\-\+\=\{\}\[\]\|\:\;\"\'\´\’\‘\`\<\>].*?){1,}"\ "chain,\ phase:request,\ rev:'2',\ ver:'OWASP_CRS/3.0.0',\ maturity:'5',\ accuracy:'6',\ t:none,t:urlDecodeUni,\ block,\ msg:'Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert - Total # of special characters exceeded',\ id:'10000',\ tag:'OWASP_CRS/WEB_ATTACK/SQL_INJECTION',\ logdata:'Matched Data: %{TX.1} found within %{MATCHED_VAR_NAME}: %{MATCHED_VAR}',\ severity:'CRITICAL',\ setvar:'tx.msg=%{rule.msg}',\ setvar:tx.%{rule.id}-OWASP_CRS/WEB_ATTACK/RESTRICTED_SQLI_CHARS-%{matched_var_name}=%{tx.0}" SecRule MATCHED_VARS "!@rx ^[a-f0-9-]{36}$"\ "t:lowercase,\ setvar:tx.anomaly_score=+%{tx.critical_anomaly_score},\ setvar:tx.sql_injection_score=+1"
Project Status
Project Status January 30, 2016
Hello everybody,
It's time to do a status report of our little core rules project.
I am including Franziska Bühler and Walter Hop in this status mail. Both are experienced ModSec sysadmins. Franziska contributed to this first stage, Walter told me he does not have much time, but he was interested in participating at least in the discussions about the rules.
All in all, this is taking more time than anticipated. But we have also done things very throughly than I thought. Which is generally a good thing.
Done so far:
- Manuel has provided us with a list of rules removed between 2.2.x and 3.0.0rc1
- I have assembled a list of rules known to trigger false positives frequently in the 2.2.x ruleset, they are thus candidates for the paranoia mode
- Franziska has looked through the 3.0.0rc1 rules and identified a set of rules which look like good candidates.
- Noël has sharpened his skills by re-writing 981173 in a way that ignores innocent UUIDs. In my eyes, he found a very elegant solution.
- With the development of 3.0.0-dev, Chaim unfortunately reused rule ids formerly used with optional and experimental rules. Now this has all been renumbered. I have pointed this out in the mailinglist and had private contact with Chaim where he confirmed the fact - and promised to resolve the issue.
We have not really looked at the disappeared rules and identified those who should be brought back and have not been picked so far. This includes the 2.2.X base_rules, but also the optional, experimental, and huge stock of slr rules. Of these three groups, only the anti-ddos rules have made it into 3.0.0. There are probably more interesting candidates.
If somebody among you wants to look into these, then that would be welcome, but I do not want to have these tasks delay us any further. After all, Old rules can also be brought back in subsequent releases if we see a benefit.
So the next real tasks are:
- Looking through the list of candidates and cloning-candidates (the latter are those rules we might accompany with a clone with stricter limits in paranoia mode).
- Defining the exact working of the paranoia mode.
Please sit down and look through the rule lists in the wiki and add remarks with regards to the candidate rules. If you think a rule should be included, if you think an individual rule should not be included etc.
I am also going to invite the people on the mailinglist to take look at the rules as well and add their remarks in the wiki (or respond via mail). This should allow us to nail down the list of rules which will actually be included in the paranoia mode.
As for defining the exact working of the paranoia mode, I guess I need to write down the idea I have in mind and see if it makes sense to you.
Thank you for contributing so far! It is a lot of fun to work in a team!
Christian