Chapter 1. Apache Security Principles

This book contains 12 chapters. Of those, 11 cover the technical issues of securing Apache and web applications. Looking at the number of pages alone it may seem the technical issues represent the most important part of security. But wars are seldom won on tactics alone, and technical issues are just tactics. To win, you need a good overall strategy, and that is the purpose of this chapter. It has the following goals:

• Define security

• Introduce essential security principles

• Establish a common security vocabulary

• Present web application architecture blueprints

The Web Application Architecture Blueprints section offers several different views (user, network, and Apache) of the same problem, with a goal of increasing understanding of the underlying issues.