D 2020-12-09T09:44:55.678
L usage
N text/x-markdown
P 8b5fc92c78a5ec0600b5631726603cd1622e8445c7af189f4faae8523f3e7d96
U mario
W 4621
## Usage
### Select a vhost/conf
Select which config file will be shown and edited through the vhost/conf dropdown:
This will change the status icons shown next to the rules, if anything is configured in that vhost/conf file.
And Disable or Enable will influence that very rule state.
Browse for high error counts to check on rules which ***might*** be false positives.
Verify what the rules do with the Info dialog.
Take particular note to the recent log entries there. Recent events will give
a clue if a rule really blocked concrete intrusion attempts, or expected requests.
### Select log file to show
Switching vhosts should automatically select the according log file.
Else use the dropdown box:
For rule scoring it's best to use the error.log.
Audit.logs take much longer to process. (In particular non-JSON audit logs,
or reading concurrent/directory-stored ones.)
Browse through the entries to see more detail in the logview box:
Use the search feature above the log dropdown to filter events by common messages.
See also [Log → Reports / Preprocessors](wiki/scripts)
A handful of common log errors are explained via Log → Advise
### Install
* There's a few packages/scripts in File → Install
* Any entry will bring up a "terminal" prompt before excuting the commands.
* Notably the installation will work on remote servers. If you want to apply the
same package locally, you might need to restart modseccfg without [remoting](wiki/remoting).
### File → Settings
There's a few notable options for modseccfg itself, that change default behaviours
and even how config files are updated.
* Most notably the backup options (albeit there are failsafes, it's still beta software).
* Or where to mount remote filesystems.
* And how to filter logs.
### File → SecOptions
This dialog updates core mod_security directives. Most of those you want to change
in the global mod_security.conf (selected as vhost/conf), or a customized
/www/etc/security.conf if you have such.
But you can of course change these directives on a per-vhost basis. Most notably
SecRuleEngine to DetectionOnly whilst testing the rules.
Note that each option will yield a lengthier tooltip explanation.
### File → CoreRuleSet options
The CoreRuleSet comes with its own set of runtime variables (tx.varname). Generally
you want to edit the crs-setup.conf file globally, if possible.
Some vhosts might need customized handling however. And this is where it gets complicated.
You will need [preconf](wiki/preconf) enabled. And keep in mind that you'll be preempting
setvar: expressions from crs-setup.conf. Which is why the dialog offers an "id" and a
"fn" option atop.
When overriding variables, the according entry from crs-setup needs to be stopped from
running (because it's executed after the *.preconf rule). Hence the CRS options dialog
will usually use id:5999 and a ctl:removeRule= list for each variable.
However, when invoking the dialog on a freshly created preconf file, all the
usual fields will be empty. That's ok for boolean and numberic flags, which are quick
to fill in. But the tx.allowed_request_content_types for example requires appending
on the original list.
* So, you either want to use an text editor in parallel for the long fields,
* Or temporarily enable Settings → CRS options → use defaults to have
them filled with standard values.
* Or select the global crs-setup.conf as vhost/conf first, then start the CRS options
dialog, and set "id" to 5999 and "fn" to the vhost.*.preconf file you actually want
to update.
So the dialog is more of a gimmick here. Editing crs-setup.conf directly is often more
practical, unless there are stark contrasts between vhosts.
### Recipes
See also [recipe](wiki/recipe) on other/conditional SecRule* constructs to control
rules.
### Editor
F4 will bring up the .conf file editor. Because some things are best handled with
a keyboard after all.
And F3 will show the editor (in read-only mode) for the current log file instead.
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