How to remove date header from apache? - apache

I need to minimize Apache HTTP response headers, by now i reduced them as following
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:57:41 GMT
Server: Apache
Content-Type: text/html
I'd like to know if there is a way to disable Date and Server header, only for a certain virtual host.
Thank you!

The Date header is required at part of the HTTP standard. You can't remove it without being non-compliant with the http standard, so apache doesn't generally allow that.

Related

Apache still load from cache even disable mod_expires

Test on this url
http://getapple.net/phpbb/banners.js
It return 304, File not modified.
I have once enable plugin "mod_expires" and set up js to cache for 1 month.
But now i want to reset the rules. I try to comment this line
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access 1 month"
and then restart apache.
But the file still load from cache. (Response Header return 304 in Chrome Browser)
But after i run this
curl -I http://getapple.net/phpbb/banners.js
in command line, the result are
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 10 May 2015 14:51:59 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Sun, 10 May 2015 14:34:14 GMT
ETag: "9dd2-515bb27cf250a"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 40402
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Type: application/javascript
I don't know what i did wrong. Please suggest how to get the updated version of my file via url.
Thanks a lot.
When you send Expires header to browser, it will cache your response and only check for newer version after the expiration date has passed. Since browser won't check for newer version, changing your server settings won't affect browser's cached data. If you made some mistake in your script or there is an update, you can use query string to force browsers to ask for your script.
Assume this is your current script:
<script src="http://getapple.net/phpbb/banners.js" ></script>
What you need to do:
<script src="http://getapple.net/phpbb/banners.js?v=20150510" ></script>
Since URL is not the same, browser will ask for the one with query string and your new settings will be applied!

Apache: Get rid of Keep-Alive entry in the headers list

I'm using LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server.
Currently the server sends the response with next Headers list. I want to eliminate Keep-Alive entry for security reasons, to have Headers list without it. Is it possible to prevent sending the Keep-Alive entry in the Headers list?
Current Response Headers:
Cache-Control private, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Connection Keep-Alive
Content-Encoding gzip
Content-Type text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Expires Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Keep-Alive timeout=5, max=200
Last-Modified Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Pragma no-cache
Server Apache
Transfer-Encoding chunked
Vary Accept-Encoding
X-DNS-Prefetch-Control off
X-Frame-Options sameorigin
Response Headers I Would Like Instead:
Cache-Control private, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Connection Keep-Alive
Content-Encoding gzip
Content-Type text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Expires Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Last-Modified Thu, 13 Mar 2014 01:43:49 GMT
Pragma no-cache
Server Apache
Transfer-Encoding chunked
Vary Accept-Encoding
X-DNS-Prefetch-Control off
X-Frame-Options sameorigin
Is it possible to prevent sending the Keep-Alive entry in the Headers list?
To my knowledge, no. The whole purpose of the Keep-Alive header is to communicate the need for a persistent connection to the client. So getting rid of the headers gets rid of the main form of communication between the client & the server.
That said, you might be able to get it unset by using unset in your Apache config or .htaccess as explained here. I emphasize might since I have had header directives not behave as expected in some versions of Apache. But assuming good faith, first be sure the headers module is enabled. In Ubuntu 12.04 you would do this:
sudo a2enmod headers
And then add this to your Apache config or .htaccess:
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header unset Keep-Alive
</IfModule>
Now restart Apache:
sudo service apache2 restart
More details on the header directive are here.
There are a few ways to this in apache:
Server-wide using the KeepAlive directive ( KeepAlive ). However you can not have this in per-directory configuration files, so setting KeepAlive Off will turn off keep alive for the entire server.
Using SetEnv or SetEnvIf with mod_env, and set the nokeepalive environmental variable. This will turn off keepalive for the location where the environmental is set, or the rule that is matched by SetEnvIf (depending with you use). e.g.
can be in HTACCESS
SetEnv nokeepalive 1
Using mod_rewrite to again set the environmental for a specific rule, e.g.
RewriteRule some-file.html - [E=nokeepalive:1]
Using PHP (or any other server site language) and sending the header Connection: close. This will cause Apache to omit the Keep-Alive header, since the connection is no longer keepalive. e.g.
php
header('Connection: close');
Use mod_headers to set the connection header to close again, e.g.
Header set Connection "close"
I personally have not tested the last one, but it should work.
KeepAlive behavior (availability and timeouts) is directly configurable:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#keepalive
Changing this is primarily an aspect of performance rather than security, but you're free to test the implications in your own environment.

HTTP headers automatically set

I am starting to learn about http correctly.
I am working in lamp stack.
On the command line i am requesting a local page which will be served with apache to see the headers that are returned.
curl -i local.testsite
The page i am requesting has no content and i am not setting any headers but there are already a lot of headers sent in the response such as:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:28:52 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.10-1ubuntu3.4
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Length: 0
Content-Type: text/html
So if i am not setting these, does apache set these automatically?
Yes Apache is setting those by default. By the way, if you only care about the headers, you should use
curl -I local.testsite
-I returns the headers only (HTTP HEAD request), such that even if you had content on the page you would only get the header.
Some are set by PHP:
The X-Powered-By header is set by the expose_php INI setting.
The Content-Type header is set by the default_mimetype INI setting.
The others are set by Apache:
The Server header is set by the ServerSignature directive.
The Vary: Accept-Encoding header is usually sent when mod_deflate is enabled.
Date and Content-Length are not configurable as they are part of the HTTP spec. Date is included as a MUST (except under some conditions) and Content-Length as a SHOULD.
See also How to remove date header from apache? and How to disable the Content-Length response header with Apache?.

How to specify the character set in the HTTP Content-Type response header?

I had my site tested with the Page Speed app from Google and one of the suggestions was to specify the character set in the HTTP Content-Type response header claiming it was better than just in a meta tag.
Here's what I understand I need to write:
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
..but where exactly should I put this? I'm on a shared server.
Thank you!
Apache: add to your .htaccess file in root directory:
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
It will modify the header from this:
Content-Type text/html
...to this:
Content-Type text/html; charset=UTF-8
nginx [doc] [serverfault Q]
server {
# other server config...
charset utf-8;
}
add charset utf-8; to server block (and reload nginx config)
When i added this, my response header looked like this:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html,text/html;charset='UTF-8'
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5
With Apache, you use http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#adddefaultcharset
With IIS you edit the MIME type for the filetype in the list of files.
With most server-side technologies like PHP or ASP.NET there's a method or property provided by that technology. For example in ASP.NET you can set it in config, page, or page code-behind.

mod_proxy_ajp error: renders html as text/plain, prompts user to "save as..."

We have an odd, intermittent error that occurs with mod_proxy_ajp, i.e. using apache as a front end to a tomcat server.
The error
User clicks on a link browser prompts
user to "save as...." (e.g. in
Firefox "You have chosen top open
thread.jsp which is a
application/octet-stream"...What
should firefox do with this file)
User says "Huh?" and presses "Cancel"
User clicks again on the same link
Browser displays the page correctly
This error occurs intermittently, but unfortunately rarely on our test server and frequently on production.
In firefox's LiveHttpHeaders I see the following in the above usecase:
first page download (i.e. click on link) is "text/plain"
second download is "text/html"
I thought the problem may stem from ProxyPassReverse (i.e. muddling up whether to use http or ajp), but all these proxypassreverse settings resulted in the same error:
ProxyPassReverse /ajp://localhost:8080/
ProxyPassReverse /pe http://localhost/pe
ProxyPassReverse /pe http://forumstest.company.com/pe
Additionally, I've checked the apache error logs (set to debug) and see no warnings or errors...
** But it works with mod_proxy_http ?? **
It appears that switching to mod_proxy_http 'solves' the problem. Limited testing, I have not been able to recreate the problem in the test environment.
Because the problem is intermittent, I'm not 100% sure that mod_proxy_http "solves" the problem
Environment
Apache 2.2 Windows
Jboss 4.2.2 back end (tomcat 6)
One other data point
For better or worse, a servlet filter in tomcat gzips the html before sending it to apache. (which means extra work as apache must unzip before it performs ProxyPassReverse's "find and replace"). I don't know if "gzip" messes up.
Questions
anyone seen this before?
what tools help analyze the cause?
thanks
Addendum 1: Here is the LiveHttpHeaders output
Browser Incorrectly sees html as "text/plain"
http://forums.customer.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?rootPostID=10842016&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002
GET http://forums.customer.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?rootPostID=10842016&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002 HTTP/1.1
Host: forums.customer.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: __utma=156962862.829309431.1260304144.1297956514.1297958674.234; __utmz=156962862.1296760237.232.50.utmcsr=forumstest.customer.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/pe/action/forums/displaythread; s_vi=[CS]v1|258F5B88051D3FC3-40000105C056085F[CE]; inqVital=xd|0^sesMgr|{"sID":4,"lsts":1292598007}^incMgr|{"id":"755563420055418864","group":"CHAT","ltt":1292598006741,"sid":"755563549194447187","igds":"1290627502757","exempt":false}^inq|{"customerID":"755562378269271622"}^saleMgr|{"state":"UNSOLD","qDat":{},"sDat":{}}; inqState=sLnd|1^Lnd|{"c":4,"flt":1274728016,"lldt":17869990,"pgs":{"201198":{"c":1,"flt":1274728016,"lldt":0},"0":{"c":3,"flt":1274845009,"lldt":17752997}},"pq":["0","0","0","201198"],"fsld":1274728016697}; adv_search_results_page=10; ep_beta=1; visitorID=57307059; JSESSIONID=6jXLNdHRDjR9Th3B5gvTVkw1dZLn1zvhvKLR2r4GTLjylHJgjY3Q!683274050; __utmc=156962862; JSESSIONID=6jXLNdHRDjR9Th3B5gvTVkw1dZLn1zvhvKLR2r4GTLjylHJgjY3Q!683274050; TLTHID=5CCA50304DE99E28DB79A7B3267D4231; TLTSID=9DFCDE8045B374AAB752CC98A30E8311; AreCookiesEnabled=1; s_cc=true; SC_LINKS=%5B%5BB%5D%5D; s_sq=%5B%5BB%5D%5D; __utmb=156962862.64.10.1297958674; memberexists=T; ev1=greywolf%20hdtv%20whmx
Cache-Control: max-age=0
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:38:42 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
X-Cache: MISS from samus.company.com
X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from samus.company.com:3128
Via: 1.0 samus.company.com:3128 (squid/2.6.STABLE20)
Proxy-Connection: close
----------------------------------------------------------
Browser Correctly sees html as "text/html"
http://forums.customer.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?rootPostID=10842016&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002
GET http://forums.customer.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?rootPostID=10842016&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002 HTTP/1.1
Host: forums.customer.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: __utma=156962862.829309431.1260304144.1297956514.1297958674.234; __utmz=156962862.1296760237.232.50.utmcsr=forumstest.customer.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/pe/action/forums/displaythread; s_vi=[CS]v1|258F5B88051D3FC3-40000105C056085F[CE]; inqVital=xd|0^sesMgr|{"sID":4,"lsts":1292598007}^incMgr|{"id":"755563420055418864","group":"CHAT","ltt":1292598006741,"sid":"755563549194447187","igds":"1290627502757","exempt":false}^inq|{"customerID":"755562378269271622"}^saleMgr|{"state":"UNSOLD","qDat":{},"sDat":{}}; inqState=sLnd|1^Lnd|{"c":4,"flt":1274728016,"lldt":17869990,"pgs":{"201198":{"c":1,"flt":1274728016,"lldt":0},"0":{"c":3,"flt":1274845009,"lldt":17752997}},"pq":["0","0","0","201198"],"fsld":1274728016697}; adv_search_results_page=10; ep_beta=1; visitorID=57307059; JSESSIONID=6jXLNdHRDjR9Th3B5gvTVkw1dZLn1zvhvKLR2r4GTLjylHJgjY3Q!683274050; __utmc=156962862; JSESSIONID=6jXLNdHRDjR9Th3B5gvTVkw1dZLn1zvhvKLR2r4GTLjylHJgjY3Q!683274050; TLTHID=5CCA50304DE99E28DB79A7B3267D4231; TLTSID=9DFCDE8045B374AAB752CC98A30E8311; AreCookiesEnabled=1; s_cc=true; SC_LINKS=%5B%5BB%5D%5D; s_sq=%5B%5BB%5D%5D; __utmb=156962862.64.10.1297958674; memberexists=T; ev1=greywolf%20hdtv%20whmx
Cache-Control: max-age=0
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:38:44 GMT
X-Powered-By: Servlet 2.4; JBoss-4.2.1.GA (build: SVNTag=JBoss_4_2_1_GA date=200707131605)/Tomcat-5.5
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 24739
X-Cache: MISS from samus.company.com
X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from samus.company.com:3128
Via: 1.0 samus.company.com:3128 (squid/2.6.STABLE20)
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
----------------------------------------------------------
Addendum 2: Additional Information
The browser did receive the "gzipped" file. I had earlier clicked "save as..." when a few of these errors occurred. Gunzip successfully processed the files and converted them to html.
Answer is here: How to preserve the Content-Type header of a Tomcat HTTP response sent through an AJP connector to Apache using mod_proxy
set DefaultType to None in apache configuration.
# DefaultType: the default MIME type the server will use for a document
# if it cannot otherwise determine one, such as from filename extensions.
# If your server contains mostly text or HTML documents, "text/plain" is
# a good value. If most of your content is binary, such as applications
# or images, you may want to use "application/octet-stream" instead to
# keep browsers from trying to display binary files as though they are
# text.
#
DefaultType None
The first page download is of mime type "application/octet-stream". May be the zipped stream is being sent back to the browser? (You can confirm by saving the file and looking inside it.)
It would be really helpful to post the Live HTTP Header request / response traces for problematic and normal cases. If the content is same in both cases - the response HTML - may be forcing the mime type to be text/html (using ForceType directive) for that particular context can fix the issue.
If it turns out to be the case that gzipped content is being sent to the browser in the problematic case - then digging deeper would be necessary. Is this browser specific - only happens with Firefox or happens with all browsers?
Ok, based on the new information provided - looks like Squid is caching the problematic response and not sending the right headers back to the client. So the browsers are doing the right thing here - without the Content-Encoding and right Content-Type they cannot do much else.
Missing response headers for the problematic request :
X-Powered-By: Servlet 2.4; JBoss-4.2.1.GA (build: SVNTag=JBoss_4_2_1_GA date=200707131605)/Tomcat-5.5
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
X-Powered-By : It sounds like the problematic requests don't actually hit your JBoss server. Can you verify this by checking access logs? Is Squid caching the response and then sending it back as text/plain?
Reconfiguring Squid to not cache that particular URL should help - see http://www.lirmm.fr/doc/Doc/FAQ/FAQ-7.html section 7.8 for example (which is specific to Squid 2 but later versions should have similar capabilities.)
Seems like a content-negotiation problem. Apache is guessing the content type using the "magic" byte and setting the content type incorrectly. That explains why it happens intermittently. Try disabling mod_negotiation and see what happens. See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/content-negotiation.html for more info.
I saw the following in your settings
ProxyPassReverse /ajp://localhost:8080/
But port 8080 is not ajp port. The default ajp port is 8009. Could this be your problem?
There is most likely something wrong with your web application, not Apache. If your web app sends back the correct Content-Type, Apache will gladly forward it to the client. No content negotiation will be done in that case. If you do not return any Content-Type, Apache will almost surely substitute text/plain, which is not what you want.
Test your web app without Apache in the middle, make sure that it sends back the correct Content-Type.
It uses to be when apache serves secure content in a non secure channel.