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Ulrich Berntien edited this page Nov 23, 2020 · 2 revisions

TWA-0701

Message

"Domain is listening on a development/backend port: ${dev_port} (${dev_port_comment})"

In the message output the variable ${dev_port} is replaced by the number of the open TCP port. The variable ${dev_port_comment} is replaced with a comment to the port number, e.g. the typical server listening the port.

Explanation

The standard HTTP port is 80, the standard HTTPS port is 443. Often the web server handles all public access to the content through these two ports.

Sometimes a web server is used also for experiments during development. Then other ports are configured for the web sites during the development.

Access to the development versions should not be granted to a possible attacker. The development version could contain internal information. Also, security issues could be in the development version before the web site passed the release tests.

Therefore, no connection to development ports should be possible for public clients.

Current (November 2020) the twa script checks the port numbers:

port comment
1433 Microsoft SQL Server default port
3000 node.js (express.js), ruby on rails
3050 Interbase, Firebird default port
3306 MySQL and MariaDB default port
4443 common https development port
4567 sinatra default port
5000 Flask and Kestrel default port
5432 PostgreSQL default port
6379 Redis default port
8000 common http development port
8008 common http development port
8080 common http development port
8081 common http development port
8086 InfluxDB HTTP service default port
8088 common http development port
8093 Couchbase Query service REST traffic
8443 common https development port
8888 common http development port
9200 Elasticsearch REST API default port
9292 rack default port
27017 MongoDB default port
33060 MySQL X-Protocol default port

The twa script checks only a few common used ports. It is not the aim to check most ports. The twa script should not be a port scanner tool. There exists specialized tools to scan for all open ports like nmap.

Remediation

Options:

  • Use an internal machine for the development.
  • Configurate the firewall to allow only access from the development team workstation IP numbers.
  • Configurate the development web server to allow connection only to the development team workstation IP numbers.

Hint: A check of all TCP ports with a port scanner like nmap should be started. If twa has found one unintended open port, then there could be more open ports.

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