[mod_cluster-issues] [JBoss JIRA] (MODCLUSTER-417) Obfuscating jvmRoute as to hide topology

[Radoslav Husar (JIRA)]

    [ https://issues.jboss.org/browse/MODCLUSTER-417?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12976985#comment-12976985 ] 

Radoslav Husar commented on MODCLUSTER-417:
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Currently, this can be only mitigated by setting routes (instance-ids) to random strings. Those will have to remain constant during uptime of that node. Submitting a large number of new requests would expose all the routes and therefore the cluster size. How useful that information is to an attacker is questionable.

> Obfuscating jvmRoute as to hide topology
> ----------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: MODCLUSTER-417
>                 URL: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/MODCLUSTER-417
>             Project: mod_cluster
>          Issue Type: Feature Request
>      Security Level: Public(Everyone can see) 
>          Components: Native (httpd modules)
>    Affects Versions: 1.3.0.Final, 1.2.9.Final
>            Reporter: Radoslav Husar
>            Assignee: Jean-Frederic Clere
>            Priority: Minor
>
> Feature request from https://github.com/jmcabrera
> Hello guys.
> First of all, this is a feature request and not a bug.
> I would like to "obfuscate" the jvmRoute so that an external attacker cannot "guess" the topology of my internal infrastructure.
> The "strong" way would be to have a symmetrical cipher with a configurable key.
> mod_cluster could then cipher the jsessionid before exposing it to the external world, and decipher it to recover the jvmRoute and properly redirect the request.
> But I guess that this would have very undesirable consequences on performance.
> The "weak" way would be just obfuscate, i.e. let's say that the jsessionid is alea + '.' + jvmRoute. We could take a part of the alea to alter the jvmroute in a reversible way (XORing for instance).
> Anyhow, the expected effect would be that the jvmroute would be externally different for each and every request.
> Unfortunately, I have close to no C skills, hence I cannot make this myself.
> (as a side note, coming from mod_jk, I'm quite impressed by the features mod_cluster offers! Thanks for the good work :) )



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