# Basic Tomcat Info

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### Avoid to run with root

In order to not run Tomcat with root a very common configuration is to set an Apache server in port 80/443 and, if the requested path matches a regexp, the request is sent to Tomcat running on a different port.

### Default Structure

```
├── bin
├── conf
│   ├── catalina.policy
│   ├── catalina.properties
│   ├── context.xml
│   ├── tomcat-users.xml
│   ├── tomcat-users.xsd
│   └── web.xml
├── lib
├── logs
├── temp
├── webapps
│   ├── manager
│   │   ├── images
│   │   ├── META-INF
│   │   └── WEB-INF
|   |       └── web.xml
│   └── ROOT
│       └── WEB-INF
└── work
    └── Catalina
        └── localhost
```

* The `bin` folder stores scripts and binaries needed to start and run a Tomcat server.
* The `conf` folder stores various configuration files used by Tomcat.
* The `tomcat-users.xml` file stores user credentials and their assigned roles.
* The `lib` folder holds the various JAR files needed for the correct functioning of Tomcat.
* The `logs` and `temp` folders store temporary log files.
* The `webapps` folder is the default webroot of Tomcat and hosts all the applications. The `work` folder acts as a cache and is used to store data during runtime.

Each folder inside `webapps` is expected to have the following structure.

```
webapps/customapp
├── images
├── index.jsp
├── META-INF
│   └── context.xml
├── status.xsd
└── WEB-INF
    ├── jsp
    |   └── admin.jsp
    └── web.xml
    └── lib
    |    └── jdbc_drivers.jar
    └── classes
        └── AdminServlet.class 
```

The most important file among these is `WEB-INF/web.xml`, which is known as the deployment descriptor. This file stores **information about the routes** used by the application and the classes handling these routes.\
All compiled classes used by the application should be stored in the `WEB-INF/classes` folder. These classes might contain important business logic as well as sensitive information. Any vulnerability in these files can lead to total compromise of the website. The `lib` folder stores the libraries needed by that particular application. The `jsp` folder stores [Jakarta Server Pages (JSP)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta_Server_Pages), formerly known as `JavaServer Pages`, which can be compared to PHP files on an Apache server.

Here’s an example **web.xml** file.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN" "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">

<web-app>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>AdminServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.inlanefreight.api.AdminServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>AdminServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/admin</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>   
```

The `web.xml` configuration above defines a **new servlet named `AdminServlet`** that is mapped to the **class `com.inlanefreight.api.AdminServlet`**. Java uses the dot notation to create package names, meaning the path on disk for the class defined above would be:

* **`classes/com/inlanefreight/api/AdminServlet.class`**

Next, a new servlet mapping is created to **map requests to `/admin` with `AdminServlet`**. This configuration will send any request received for **`/admin` to the `AdminServlet.class`** class for processing. The **`web.xml`** descriptor holds a lot of **sensitive information** and is an important file to check when leveraging a **Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability**.

### tomcat-users

The **`tomcat-users.xml`** file is used to **allow** or disallow access to the **`/manager` and `host-manager` admin pages**.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SNIP>
  
<tomcat-users xmlns="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://tomcat.apache.org/xml tomcat-users.xsd"
              version="1.0">
<!--
  By default, no user is included in the "manager-gui" role required
  to operate the "/manager/html" web application.  If you wish to use this app,
  you must define such a user - the username and password are arbitrary.

  Built-in Tomcat manager roles:
    - manager-gui    - allows access to the HTML GUI and the status pages
    - manager-script - allows access to the HTTP API and the status pages
    - manager-jmx    - allows access to the JMX proxy and the status pages
    - manager-status - allows access to the status pages only

  The users below are wrapped in a comment and are therefore ignored. If you
  wish to configure one or more of these users for use with the manager web
  application, do not forget to remove the <!.. ..> that surrounds them. You
  will also need to set the passwords to something appropriate.
-->

   
 <SNIP>
  
!-- user manager can access only manager section -->
<role rolename="manager-gui" />
<user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="manager-gui" />

<!-- user admin can access manager and admin section both -->
<role rolename="admin-gui" />
<user username="admin" password="admin" roles="manager-gui,admin-gui" />


</tomcat-users>
```

The file shows us what each of the roles `manager-gui`, `manager-script`, `manager-jmx`, and `manager-status` provide access to. In this example, we can see that a user `tomcat` with the password `tomcat` has the `manager-gui` role, and a second weak password `admin` is set for the user account `admin`

## References

* [https://academy.hackthebox.com/module/113/section/1090](https://academy.hackthebox.com/module/113/section/1090)

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