Ubuntu 12.04 Precise LTS: Install ModSecurity for Apache 2 web server

• Install ModSecurity:   

  sudo apt-get install libxml2 libxml2-dev libxml2-utils libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dev libapache-mod-security

  If your Ubuntu is 64bit, you need to fix a bug:   

  sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2 .so.2 /usr/lib/libxml2 .so.2

• Configure ModSecurity:   

  sudo mv /etc/modsecurity/modsecurity .conf-recommended /etc/modsecurity/modsecurity .conf; sudo vi /etc/modsecurity/modsecurity .conf

  Enable the rule engine:   

  SecRuleEngine On

  Increase the request body size limit to 10Mb(Optional, only if your site accepts uploads):   

  SecRequestBodyLimit 10000000 SecRequestBodyInMemoryLimit 10000000

• Check the ModSecurity version:   

  dpkg -s libapache-mod-security | grep Version

  The installed ModSecurity version is:   

  Version: 2.6.3-1ubuntu0.2

• Install OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set:   
  1. Download the rule set(version 2.2.5 because the latest version requires ModSecurity 2.7.0+):       

     wget https: //github .com /SpiderLabs/owasp-modsecurity-crs/tarball/v2 .2.5 -O /tmp/owasp . tar .gz

  2. Extract the package:       

     cd /tmp ; tar -zxvf owasp. tar .gz; rm owasp. tar .gz

  3. Copy the directory to /etc/modsecurity, and set the permissions:       

     sudo mv SpiderLabs-owasp-modsecurity-crs-5c28b52/ /etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs sudo chmod -R 644 /etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs

  4. Link the rules to /etc/modsecruity/owasp-crs/activated_rules directory:       

     sudo mv /etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs/modsecurity_crs_10_setup .conf.example /etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs/modsecurity_crs_10_setup .conf cd /etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs/activated_rules/ sudo ln -s .. /modsecurity_crs_10_setup .conf for f in $( ls .. /base_rules/ ); do sudo ln -s .. /base_rules/ $f; done for f in $( ls .. /optional_rules/ ); do sudo ln -s .. /optional_rules/ $f; done

  5. Modify /etc/apache2/mods-available/mod-security.conf to include the rules:       

     sudo vi /etc/apache2/mods-available/mod-security .conf

     Add the following line:       

     Include "/etc/modsecurity/owasp-crs/activated_rules/*.conf"

  6. Enable headers module:       

     sudo a2enmod headers

     This to fix the following error:

     Syntax error on line 29 of /etc/apache2/conf.d/modsecurity/optional_rules/modsecurity_crs_49_header_tagging.conf: Invalid command 'RequestHeader', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration Action 'configtest' failed. The Apache error log may have more information.     ...fail!

     when restarting apache2.     
• Enable ModSecurity module and restart apache2:   

  sudo a2enmod mod-security; sudo /etc/init .d /apache2 restart