Secured connectors must be configured to use strong encryption ciphers.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-222927	SRG-APP-000014-AS-000009	TCAT-AS-000020	SV-222927r960759_rule	2025-02-11	3

Description
The Tomcat <Connector> element controls the TLS protocol and the associated ciphers used. If a strong cipher is not selected, an attacker may be able to circumvent encryption protections that are configured for the connector. Strong ciphers must be employed when configuring a secured connector. The configuration attribute and its values depend on what HTTPS implementation the user is utilizing. The user may be utilizing either Java-based implementation aka JSSE — with BIO and NIO connectors, or OpenSSL-based implementation — with APR connector. TLSv1.2 ciphers are configured via the server.xml file on a per connector basis. For a list of approved ciphers, refer to NIST SP 800-52 section 3.3.1.1.

Description

The Tomcat <Connector> element controls the TLS protocol and the associated ciphers used. If a strong cipher is not selected, an attacker may be able to circumvent encryption protections that are configured for the connector. Strong ciphers must be employed when configuring a secured connector. The configuration attribute and its values depend on what HTTPS implementation the user is utilizing. The user may be utilizing either Java-based implementation aka JSSE — with BIO and NIO connectors, or OpenSSL-based implementation — with APR connector. TLSv1.2 ciphers are configured via the server.xml file on a per connector basis. For a list of approved ciphers, refer to NIST SP 800-52 section 3.3.1.1.

ℹ️ Check
From the Tomcat server console, run the following command: sudo grep -i ciphers $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml. Examine each <Connector/> element that is not a redirect to a secure port. Identify the ciphers that are configured on each connector and determine if any of the ciphers are not secure. For a list of approved ciphers, refer to NIST SP 800-52 section 3.3.1.1. If insecure ciphers are configured for use, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

From the Tomcat server console, run the following command: sudo grep -i ciphers $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml. Examine each <Connector/> element that is not a redirect to a secure port. Identify the ciphers that are configured on each connector and determine if any of the ciphers are not secure. For a list of approved ciphers, refer to NIST SP 800-52 section 3.3.1.1. If insecure ciphers are configured for use, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
As a privileged user on the Tomcat server, edit the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml and modify the <Connector/> element. Add the SSLEnabledProtocols="TLSv1.2" setting to the connector or modify the existing setting. Set SSLEnabledProtocols="TLSv1.2". Save the server.xml file and restart Tomcat: sudo systemctl restart tomcat sudo systemctl reload-daemon