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Some fairly informative chapters contain introduction to common configuration, authentication, configuring SSL, using WebDAV and subversion.

But lot of space in the book is wasted on topics that were cool in the last century like compiling apache and compiling single modules, but not relevant anymore. Today you are likely not going to recompile you server every week, but you SHOULD install security patches every week, if you take your job seriously. IMHO there is only one possibility – to rely on the services of your linux distribution.

By the way, Debian and derived distributions also do a great job combating the mess in the httpd.conf by meaningfully dividing it in multiple configuration files, so you have a good place to put your specific settings making an automated upgrade to the newer apache version easy. So do not listen to the author, never edit your httpd.conf.

The author describes in detail topics, that are not relevant anymore in the web application development (assumed that you are creating an application, that goes besides “hello world”). Delivering dynamic content (chapter 6) used to be server-side includes and cgi but it is NOT anymore because of poor programming model and poor performance.

Typical scenario nowadays is to use apache as a front end web server, letting apache serve the static content like pictures and providing a wrapper or proxy to a high performance application server (for example mongrel if you using rails) or using mod_python for python or using zope etc. In this context I would wish elaborative description on mod_rewrite, that is pretty complicated.

My conclusion: if you are beginner, search for a better introductory book. If you are advanced developer/admin/hacker, then use primary resources like [....]

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O’Reilly books are definitely well written; however, I find myself ALWAYS going to this book first, even though it was published in 2004. The Apache Directives, topics, and examples covered are timeless. It puts side-by-side code base 1.3 and 2.0, with strength of focus on the 2.0 code base. If you use the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) online documentation along with this book, then you will be able to perform in the workplace. Nearly everything covered in this book is relevant today and even translates to the 2.2 code base.

I can’t wait for the next revision to cover the 2.2 code base in depth. Unfortunately, publications can’t keep up with ASF releases and the new and re-factored modules. It takes about two years for a solid book to be put into circulation after ASF makes a major release available.

Well done Peter!

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There are better books that deal with some of the specific areas of this text (for example, Hardening Apache is much more thorough on the subject of securing your server) but you won’t find a more comprehensive text in a single volume than this one. Pro Apache, Third Edition is highly recommended and my first choice for anyone looking for a single book to learn how to setup and configure an Apache server or serve as their primary reference.

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The book covers so much more than just Apache security. It covers installation and configuration, and explains a little of how Apache works along the way. There are also chapters or sections on:

- Understanding and securing PHP

- An explanation of SSL

- DOS attacks

- Traffic shaping in Apache

- Logging is covered extensively

- There’s a chapter on web security in general, where all the common attacks are explained

- Using Apache as a proxy or a reverse proxy

I especially enjoyed the Web Security Assessment chapter where the author explained how to systematically analyze and probe web applications/servers, with many real world examples.

There is a large section discussing mod_security, which is an amazing Apache module. Mod_security is an intrusion detection and prevention engine for web applications (a web application firewall). The book is written by the author of mod_security (Ivan Ristic), so he really knows what he’s talking about in this area. Also covered is mod_dosevasive, which, obviously helps prevent against denial of service attacks.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any Apache administrator, user, or web programmer. Its one of my favorite books on my bookshelf.

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The book contains a nice combination of generic web stuff and Apache stuff. It starts with the discussion of security principles, such as defense-in-depth and minimum access privilege. Although not new, they are useful for those just entering the field, such as for beginner apache admins.

The chapter on Apache’s installation and configuration sounds boring and many might be tempted to skip it. But it does contain a gem: a guide on setting Apache in a chroot jail!

PHP, a main web application platform for Apache at the time of this writing, is covered as well. I found some tips on PHP hardening that I didn’t know previously. While the last PHP application I deployed was configured to be ‘hackable’ (it was a honeypot deployment, after all!), I found the tips to be practical.

One entertaining chapter is on denial-of-service attacks. There are many ways to overwhelm a network server, and Apache is now exception. It’s a must-read for those running highly-available sites, where downtime costs a lot.

An important chapter covers Apache access control, from basic auth to single sign-on. Of course, of particular interest to me was a chapter on logging and monitoring, as it is one of my favorite subjects. Ivan did a great job covering not only logging facilities available within the server, but also log centralization, log analysis for security, integrity monitoring and other stuff. Distributed logging with Spread kit is indeed ‘cool’, just as Ivan mentions.

A brief chapter covers the security of the underlying ‘infrastructure’, such as the OS that Apache runs on. I liked the overview since it is not ‘generic’, but covers material relevant to running Apache web server.

Chapter 10-12 are at the center of the book, providing the core of the new material. Those cover web application attacks, web security assessment and web intrusion detection,. The latter is based on Ivan’s famous mod_security Apache module. While web attacks are covered in many places, I think the overview in the book is clear, focused and useful even for those who do web security for a living. As far as the mod_security chapter is concerned, I would read it with most care since it covers a lot of advanced usage tips, not available elsewhere.

The book is well written, easy to follow and displays clear writing style. I would strongly recommend it to everybody who is involved in running Apache web servers, web applications or has web security as part of his job responsibility. Obviously, everybody who thinks that this subject is fun should also read it Also, check out http://www.apachesecurity.net for some free chapters, ToC, tools covered in the book, as well as a couple presentations given by Ivan. The book focuses on the defensive side, but mentions various attacks against web infrastructure as well.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA, GCIH, GCFA is a Security Strategist with a major security company. He is an author of the book “Security Warrior” and a contributor to “Know Your Enemy II” and the upcoming “Hacker’s Challenge III”. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.org and his blog at O’Reilly. His next book will be about security log analysis.

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So many security related books are very expensive and thousands of pages long, which is great if you have lots of time but no system admin does. Apache Security is both thorough and quick to get through while walking you through the most imporant issues you’ll encounter or never thought about until now.

First off go buy the book, don’t bother to read this review at http://www.webhostgear.com/313.html It’s really that good. I use it on a daily basis and keep a copy at the office and at home. I advise anyone that owns a server or works with Apache to get this book, you won’t be disappointed. It’s not

for somoene that’s completely a newbie to web servers, I recommend it more for someone with a bit of experience or advanced user of Linux. Since this isn’t a book on dummy installations but about security so you need a basic understanding of file permissions and so on.

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Before I go further, I must mention that Ivan Ristic cites me and my books twice, on pages 2 and 229. While humbling, I tried not to let this fact influence my review.

AS is an extremely well-thought-out book. My favorite aspect of AS is the decision to start with a blank httpd.conf file, rather than accepting the file packaged with Apache and making edits as needed. By building up httpd.conf from scratch, the author shows exactly what components are needed in a very clear manner. This was not the approach used by PWAWA. I would like to see other technical books adopt this teaching method.

AS includes better coverage of several topics which I believe are core to securing Apache. I liked AS’ discussion of chroot environments and jails, although the author should distinguish between chroot on Linux or BSD and jail on BSD alone. AS features a whole chapter on proper PHP deployment (Ch 3), and a whole chapter on SSL/TLS (Ch 4). AS devotes another chapter to explaining how to host multiple Web sites on one host (Ch 6), which is critical to many Apache environments. AS’ chapter on Web infrastructure (CH 9) also covers topics not found in PWAWA.

AS is also less explicitly Linux-centric than PWAWA. As a primary FreeBSD user, I found AS’ approach more applicable to my environment. PWAWA seemed to assume everyone was running Red Hat Linux. It’s fine to use a single OS for all examples, but I had to personally identify tools and techniques that would probably only work on Red Hat.

I had very little trouble with any of the text in AS. My main concerns involve Ch 1, where the author spends time on certain security concepts. I would consider the following with regards to threat modeling on p. 5: (asset) what might be compromised; (motivation) why compromise; (vulnerabilities) where compromised; (attack) how compromised; (threat) who compromised you; (risk) threat X vulnerability X asset value. On pp 9-10 the author should also have used the risk equation just mentioned.

Overall, I really liked AS. The book really is about Apache security, so if you are more interested in attacking Apache you might prefer PWAWA. If you want to learn about Web application hacking in general, your best bets are probably Hacking Exposed: Web Applications, 2nd Ed, and Professional Pen Testing for Web Applications. I will read and review those two books shortly.