tomcat 6 j_security_check, Apache ProxyPass and the Origin: header

[Tim Watts <ti...@kcl.ac.uk>]

Hi,



Is there a way to *tell* j_security_check that an Origin: header set 
(during the login POST request) to a remote server is permitted (and is 
not an XSS attack)?




We have a tomcat server T running a tomcat webapp that uses 
j_security_check to auth users

(Excuse me - I am not the tomcat programmer, I'm the sysadmin trying to 
help the programmer, so my terminology might be bad).

Basically,

http://T/webapp/jsp/login works OK

On Server A running apache, we have a config:

RewriteRule ^/jsp/(.*)$ http://T/webapp/jsp/$1 [P]

(which is a ProxyPass - we have many rewrite rules so prefer to use 
RewriteRule for consistency)


If we try to login to the tomcat webapp from

http://A/jsp/login

the POST request sends an Origin: header containing http:://A/...

Tomcat seems not to like this as it realises that server A is not where 
it is running.

I made it work with a disgraceful hack in the apache config:

RequestHeader edit Origin http:\/\/A\/ http:\/\/T\/ early

But now Tomcat can log us in but sends the wrong URI host in the 
Location: header when it replies with the 302 redirect. So I "fix" this 
with:

Header edit Location http:\/\/T\/webapp\/jsp\/ http://A/jsp/


It works, but it is horrible and basically leaving a booby trap for the 
unwary.


Many thanks,

Tim

-- 
Tim Watts


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@tomcat.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@tomcat.apache.org