CyberCertPrepWeb App FundamentalsHTTP & Web BasicsEASYFree question
An analyst observes that an application always returns the same 'Server: Apache/2.4.52 (Ubuntu)' header in responses. Why might a security team recommend suppressing or changing this header?
- A.The Server header causes CORS violations
- B.Browsers block responses with detailed Server headers
- C.The Server header increases response size significantly
- D.Disclosing the exact server software and version allows attackers to quickly look up known CVEs and tailor exploits to that specific version
Why D is correct
Verbose Server headers leak the web server's name, version, and OS. Attackers use this information to look up CVE databases for known vulnerabilities in that exact version. Best practice is to suppress or genericize the Server header. In Apache this is done with ServerTokens Prod; in Nginx with server_tokens off.
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