Skip to content
ATO Pathways
Log In
Overview
Search
Catalogs
SCAP
OSCAL
Catalogs
Profiles
Documents
References
Knowledge Base
Platform Documentation
Compliance Dictionary
Platform Changelog
About
Catalogs
XCCDF
APACHE 2.2 Server for UNIX Security Technical Implementation Guide
WA000-WWA026
The httpd.conf StartServers directive must be set properly.
The httpd.conf StartServers directive must be set properly.
An XCCDF Rule
Details
Profiles
Prose
The httpd.conf StartServers directive must be set properly.
Medium Severity
<VulnDiscussion>These requirements are set to mitigate the effects of several types of denial of service attacks. Although there is some latitude concerning the settings themselves, the requirements attempt to provide reasonable limits for the protection of the web server. If necessary, these limits can be adjusted to accommodate the operational requirement of a given system. From Apache.org: The StartServers directive sets the number of child server processes created on startup. As the number of processes is dynamically controlled depending on the load, there is usually little reason to adjust this parameter. The default value differs from MPM to MPM. For worker the default is StartServers 3. For prefork defaults to 5 and for mpmt_os2 to 2.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility>Web Administrator</Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>