QPR ProcessAnalyzer Security Hardening

This article provides recommendations for improving (hardening) the security of QPR ProcessAnalyzer Server installation. In addition to the server hardening, there are also hardening instructions for the QPR ScriptLauncher.

Disable SSL, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is used to encrypt connections with clients, such as web browsers. SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are no longer adequately secure, so it's recommended to only allow clients to connect with TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3 (preferred). However, some client devices might not support TLS 1.2, so you might need to keep TLS 1.0 and/or TLS 1.1 enabled.

Here is a Powershell script to disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 and enable TLS 1.2:

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client\" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client\" -Name Enabled -Type Dword -Value 0
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server\" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server\" -Name Enabled -Type Dword -Value 0
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client\" -Force

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client\" -Name DisabledByDefault -Type Dword -Value 1
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server\" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server\" -Name DisabledByDefault -Type Dword -Value 1

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client\" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client\" -Name DisabledByDefault -Type Dword -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client\" -Name Enabled -Type Dword -Value 1
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server\" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server\" -Name DisabledByDefault -Type Dword -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server\" -Name Enabled -Type Dword -Value 1

More information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/187498/how-to-disable-pct-1-0-ssl-2-0-ssl-3-0-or-tls-1-0-in-internet-informat

Disable Weak Ciphers

Use only cipher suites that are considered secure. The up-to-date information regarding security of specific ciphers can be checked here: https://ciphersuite.info/ (use only the ciphers that are classified as recommended or secure). The up-to-date list of the recommended ciphers (maintained by Mozilla) are also available as json format: https://ssl-config.mozilla.org/guidelines/5.6.json (use only the ciphers in the modern and intermediate sections).

PowerShell commands to manage ciphers:

• Get list of all allowed ciphers in computer: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/tls/get-tlsciphersuite
• Disable ciphers: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/tls/disable-tlsciphersuite
• Enable ciphers: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/tls/enable-tlsciphersuite

More information about how to configure ciphers on Windows systems: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/245030/how-to-restrict-the-use-of-certain-cryptographic-algorithms-and-protoc

Database User Least Privileges

While it's easiest to run QPR ProcessAnalyzer with a database user assigned the db_owner permissions, it's more safe to restrict the database permissions only to needed. The minimum permissions for QPR ProcessAnalyzer are the following:

• db_datareader fixed database role
• db_datawriter fixed database role
• user defined role with the following permissions:
  • VIEW DATABASE STATE
  • EXECUTE on TYPE::PA_TABLETYPE_BigInt
  • EXECUTE on TYPE::PA_TABLETYPE_NVarCharMax
  • ALTER
  • REFERENCES

Configure QPR ProcessAnalyzer to run with minimum permissions as follows:

1. In the QPR ProcessAnalyzer database, click Security > Roles > Database Roles > Create Database Role....
2. Give a name to the role (e.g. AdditionalPermissions) and click OK.
3. To give permissions to the role, run the following commands:

GRANT VIEW DATABASE STATE to AdditionalPermissions
GRANT EXECUTE on TYPE::PA_TABLETYPE_BigInt to AdditionalPermissions
GRANT EXECUTE on TYPE::PA_TABLETYPE_NVarCharMax to AdditionalPermissions
GRANT ALTER to AdditionalPermissions
GRANT REFERENCES to AdditionalPermissions

4. Assign needed roles to the database user by clicking Security > Users and double click the database user. Go to Membership tab and check that following roles are assigned:

• db_datareader
• db_datawrite
• user defined role created earlier

Disable 8.3 File Name Creation

In order to disable short names creation, add a registry key named NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and set its value to 1. Note that in the computer, there may be other applications that require 8.3 file names and thus may stop working.

Example Powershell script to disable 8.3 file name creation:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem -Name NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation -Value 1

More information: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/121007/how-to-disable-8-3-file-name-creation-on-ntfs-partitions

White-list source IP addresses

Security can be improved by restricting (white-listing) from which source IP addresses the connection to the QPR ProcessAnalyzer UI and API can be established. This restriction is typically set in the firewall which can be part of the network infrastructure or it can also be in the server machine. If taking this method into use, considered the effort to maintain the up-to-date list of allowed IP addresses versus the gained benefit of the restriction.

HTTP Response Headers

This chapter contains information about security related HTTP response headers that are added or removed in QPR ProcessAnalyzer. Thus, no actions are required regarding these HTTP response headers.

Added HTTP Headers

Following security related HTTP headers are set:

1. Content-Security-Policy
   • Name: Content-Security-Policy
   • Value: default-src 'none';script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval';style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';img-src 'self' data: blob:;connect-src 'self';font-src 'self' data:;manifest-src 'self';child-src 'self';frame-src *;
2. Strict-Transport-Security (Note: HTTPS is required)
   • Name: Strict-Transport-Security
   • Value: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains
3. X-Frame-Options:
   • Name: X-Frame-Options
   • Value: sameorigin
4. X-Content-Type-Options:
   • Name: X-Content-Type-Options
   • Value: nosniff

More information:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CSP
• https://content-security-policy.com/
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Strict-Transport-Security
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Frame-Options
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Content-Type-Options

Removed HTTP Headers

By default, IIS returns the X-Powered-By HTTP response header that has been removed in QPR ProcessAnalyzer. More information: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/varunm/2013/04/23/remove-unwanted-http-response-headers/

By default, IIS 10.0 returns Server header in http response that has been removed in QPR ProcessAnalyzer. More information: https://www.saotn.org/remove-iis-server-version-http-response-header/#removeserverheader-requestfiltering-in-iis-10-0