Have Some Fun with ‘HTTP’ Headers

Description

Methods are provided to retrieve and test ‘HTTP’ headers from a website. An ‘HTTP’ request and response header reference/explanatory data frame is also provided via the ‘hsecsecan’ project (https://github.com/riramar/hsecscan)

What’s Inside The Tin

The following functions are implemented:

  • as.data.frame.insensitive: Turn httr::headers() objects into a data frame
  • assess_security_headers: Assess “security” headers for a given URL
  • explain_headers: Explain HTTP headers found from a URL request
  • explore_app: A Shiny App for Exploring HTTP Headers
  • http_headers: HTTP Header Reference

Installation

install.packages("hdrs", repos = "https://cinc.rud.is/")

Usage

library(hdrs)
library(tibble) # for printing

# current version
packageVersion("hdrs")
## [1] '0.2.0'
httr::HEAD("https://rud.is/b") %>% 
  httr::headers() %>% 
  as.data.frame()
## # A tibble: 20 x 2
##    name                   value                                                                                         
##    <chr>                  <chr>                                                                                         
##  1 server                 nginx                                                                                         
##  2 date                   Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:48:08 GMT                                                                 
##  3 content-type           text/html; charset=UTF-8                                                                      
##  4 connection             keep-alive                                                                                    
##  5 vary                   Accept-Encoding                                                                               
##  6 set-cookie             PHPSESSID=h7sdrnt1pmkl41av8sobjs9920; path=/                                                  
##  7 expires                Thu, 07 Mar 2019 12:48:08 GMT                                                                 
##  8 cache-control          max-age=86400                                                                                 
##  9 pragma                 no-cache                                                                                      
## 10 link                   "<https://rud.is/b/wp-json/>; rel=\"https://api.w.org/\""                                     
## 11 link                   <https://wp.me/23idr>; rel=shortlink                                                          
## 12 strict-transport-secu… max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload                                                  
## 13 content-security-poli… default-src 'self' data: fonts.gstatic.com fonts.googleapis.com cdn.ampproject.org *.ampproje…
## 14 x-frame-options        SAMEORIGIN                                                                                    
## 15 referrer-policy        no-referrer-when-downgrade                                                                    
## 16 feature-policy         geolocation 'none';midi 'none';sync-xhr 'none';microphone 'none';camera 'none';magnetometer '…
## 17 x-powered-by           <3                                                                                            
## 18 x-xss-protection       1; mode=block                                                                                 
## 19 x-content-type-options nosniff                                                                                       
## 20 content-encoding       gzip
assess_security_headers("https://cran.r-project.org") %>% 
  dplyr::select(-url) %>% 
  gt::gt()
header value status_code message
access-control-allow-origin NA WARN Header not set
content-security-policy NA WARN Header not set
expect-ct NA WARN Header not set
feature-policy NA WARN Header not set
public-key-pins NA WARN Header not set
referrer-policy NA WARN Header not set
server Apache/2.4.10 (Debian) NOTE Server header found
strict-transport-security NA WARN Header not set
x-content-type-options NA WARN Header not set
x-frame-options NA WARN Header not set
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies NA WARN Header not set
x-powered-by NA WARN Header not set
x-xss-protection NA WARN Header not set

Tsk, tsk…

assess_security_headers("https://rud.is/b") %>% 
  dplyr::select(-url) %>% 
  gt::gt()
header value status_code message
access-control-allow-origin NA WARN Header not set
content-security-policy default-src 'self' data: fonts.gstatic.com fonts.googleapis.com cdn.ampproject.org *.ampproject.org *.w.org w.org wp.com sendpulse.com gravatar.com *.wp.com *.sendpulse.com *.gravatar.com wordpress.com *.wordpress.com http://prefetch.validatorsearch.verisignlabs.com/; script-src 'self' data: 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' fonts.gstatic.com fonts.googleapis.com *.w.org w.org wp.com cdn.ampproject.org *.ampproject.org sendpulse.com gravatar.com *.wp.com *.sendpulse.com *.gravatar.com wordpress.com *.wordpress.com; style-src 'self' data: 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' fonts.gstatic.com fonts.googleapis.com *.w.org w.org wp.com *.sendpulse.com sendpulse.com *.gravatar.com gravatar.com *.wp.com cdn.ampproject.org *.ampproject.org; OK NOTE: Policy present but not parse
expect-ct NA WARN Header not set
feature-policy geolocation 'none';midi 'none';sync-xhr 'none';microphone 'none';camera 'none';magnetometer 'none';gyroscope 'none';speaker 'self';fullscreen 'self';payment 'none'; OK Value present but not verified
public-key-pins NA WARN Header not set
referrer-policy no-referrer-when-downgrade OK Acceptable setting found
server nginx NOTE Server header found
strict-transport-security max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload OK Value present but not evaluated
x-content-type-options nosniff OK Acceptable setting found
x-frame-options SAMEORIGIN OK Acceptable setting found
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies NA WARN Header not set
x-powered-by <3 NOTE X-Powered-By header present
x-xss-protection 1; mode=block WARN Required value ('nosniff') not present

Looks like I gots some ’splainin to do as well.

hdrs::explain_headers("https://community.rstudio.com/") %>% 
  dplyr::select(header,value, enable, security_reference, recommendations) %>% 
  gt::gt()
header value enable security_reference recommendations
cache-control no-cache, no-store TRUE https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7234#section-8 Do not store unnecessarily sensitive information in the cache.
connection keep-alive FALSE
content-encoding gzip TRUE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREACH_(security_exploit) Another suggested approach is to disable HTTP compression whenever the referrer header indicates a cross-site request, or when the header is not present. This approach allows effective mitigation of the attack without losing functionality, only incurring a performance penalty on affected requests.
content-security-policy base-uri 'none'; object-src 'none'; script-src 'unsafe-eval' 'report-sample' https://community.rstudio.com/logs/ https://community.rstudio.com/sidekiq/ https://community.rstudio.com/mini-profiler-resources/ https://community.rstudio.com/assets/ https://community.rstudio.com/brotli_asset/ https://community.rstudio.com/extra-locales/ https://community.rstudio.com/highlight-js/ https://community.rstudio.com/javascripts/ https://community.rstudio.com/plugins/ https://community.rstudio.com/theme-javascripts/ https://community.rstudio.com/svg-sprite/ https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js; worker-src 'self' blob: TRUE https://www.owasp.org/index.php/List_of_useful_HTTP_headers Read the reference http://www.w3.org/TR/CSP/ and set according to your case. This is not a easy job.
content-type text/html; charset=utf-8 TRUE https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-3.1.1.5 Properly configure their origin server to provide the correct Content-Type for a given representation.
date Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:48:10 GMT FALSE
referrer-policy strict-origin-when-cross-origin NA NA NA
server nginx TRUE https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-7.4.2 An origin server SHOULD NOT generate a Server field containing needlessly fine-grained detail and SHOULD limit the addition of subproducts by third parties.
strict-transport-security max-age=31536000 TRUE https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6797 Please at least read this reference: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security.
vary Accept-Encoding FALSE
x-content-type-options nosniff TRUE https://www.owasp.org/index.php/List_of_useful_HTTP_headers Always use the only defined value, "nosniff".
x-discourse-route list/latest NA NA NA
x-download-options noopen NA NA NA
x-frame-options SAMEORIGIN TRUE https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7034 In 2009 and 2010, many browser vendors ([Microsoft-X-Frame-Options] and [Mozilla-X-Frame-Options]) introduced the use of a non-standard HTTP [RFC2616] header field "X-Frame-Options" to protect against clickjacking. Please check here https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Clickjacking_Defense_Cheat_Sheet what's the best option for your case.
x-permitted-cross-domain-policies none NA NA NA
x-request-id 10620be4-a46b-41d3-8522-13002b9b99d2 NA NA NA
x-runtime 0.100181 NA NA NA
x-xss-protection 1; mode=block TRUE https://www.owasp.org/index.php/List_of_useful_HTTP_headers Use "X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block" whenever is possible (ref. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2011/01/31/controlling-the-internet-explorer-xss-filter-with-the-x-xss-protection-http-header.aspx).

Reference

data(http_headers)

dplyr::glimpse(http_headers)
## Observations: 184
## Variables: 14
## $ header_field_name    <chr> "A-IM", "Accept", "Accept-Additions", "Accept-Charset", "Accept-Datetime", "Accept-Encod…
## $ type_1               <chr> "Permanent", "Permanent", "Permanent", "Permanent", "Permanent", "Permanent", "Permanent…
## $ protocol             <chr> "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", "http", …
## $ status               <chr> "", "standard", "", "standard", "informational", "standard", "", "standard", "", "standa…
## $ reference            <chr> "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3229#section-10.5.3", "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc72…
## $ type_2               <chr> "Request", "Request", "Request", "Request", "Request", "Request", "Request", "Request", …
## $ enable               <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE, …
## $ required             <lgl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, TRUE, TRUE, NA, TRUE, NA, NA, NA, TRUE, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ https                <lgl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, TRUE, TRUE, NA, TRUE, NA, NA, NA, TRUE, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ security_description <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Sometimes an HTTP intermediary might try to detect viru…
## $ security_reference   <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5789#section-5", "https:…
## $ recommendations      <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "Antivirus software scans for viruses or worms.", "Serve…
## $ cwe                  <chr> "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "CWE-509: Replicating Malicious Code (Virus or Worm)", "…
## $ cwe_url              <chr> "\r", "\r", "\r", "\r", "\r", "\r", "\r", "\r", "https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/…

hdrs Metrics

Lang # Files (%) LoC (%) Blank lines (%) # Lines (%)
R 11 0.92 186 0.9 37 0.57 85 0.63
Rmd 1 0.08 21 0.1 28 0.43 50 0.37

Code of Conduct

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