---
title: "WEB-APA-008 Apache Has No Request Filtering Module"
canonical: https://openvapt.com/checks/WEB-APA-008.html
html: https://openvapt.com/checks/WEB-APA-008.html
site: OpenVAPT, https://openvapt.com/
license: OpenVAPT Source-Available Licence 1.3, https://openvapt.com/legal/licence-text.html
modified: 2026-10-14
version: 0.1.0-alpha.6
---

# WEB-APA-008 Apache Has No Request Filtering Module

Neither mod_security (ModSecurity) nor mod_evasive is loaded, so Apache has no request filtering or flood control in front of the application.

- Domain: Web Apps
- Severity: Info
- Control category: Secure Configuration
- Fix effort: low
- CVSS v3.1 vector: `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:N`
- CIS Controls v8: 16.7
- NIST CSF 2.0: PR.PS-01
- CWE: CWE-1188
- OWASP Top 10 2021: A05:2021
- OWASP ASVS 4.0.3: 11.1.4
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: SC-5, SI-10
- Benchmark topic: Web application filtering (topic only, no benchmark text)

## Why It Matters

A web application firewall or flood limiter is a defence-in-depth layer, not a requirement, and a misconfigured one breaks sites. The result is informational so you can decide with the application owner.

## How It Detects

Looks for LoadModule security2_module or evasive20_module in the configuration tree, or security2.load and evasive.load under mods-enabled.

## How to Fix

Consider ModSecurity with the OWASP Core Rule Set in detection-only mode first, or mod_evasive for simple rate limiting, and tune before blocking.

## How to Verify

```
apachectl -M 2>/dev/null | grep -E 'security2|evasive'
```

## Learn the Theory

- [P18 Web Server Hardening: nginx and Apache](https://openvapt.com/academy/p18.md)
- [P25 Availability Without Load Testing](https://openvapt.com/academy/p25.md)

## References

- [OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set](https://coreruleset.org/docs/)
- [Apache HTTP Server, Security Tips](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/misc/security_tips.html)

## Source Code

https://github.com/OpenVAPT/openvapt/blob/574f7f3333c44b75a3c649e2d93a76d507f75adf/internal/checks/web/serverconf.go

Run it: `openvapt scan --only WEB-APA-008`. Read it offline: `openvapt explain WEB-APA-008`.

---

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