hdrs

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 12:27:15 GMT                                                                 
##  3 content-type           text/html; charset=UTF-8                                                                      
##  4 connection             keep-alive                                                                                    
##  5 vary                   Accept-Encoding                                                                               
##  6 set-cookie             PHPSESSID=0f2uckd4t1tuf55hhecpk73i63; path=/                                                  
##  7 expires                Thu, 07 Mar 2019 12:27:15 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 12:27:24 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	4535cc47-f085-4bad-80ae-97aa50034956	NA	NA	NA
x-runtime	0.117140	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

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.