Since I am using a host header filtering technique in my ASP.NET MVC application, I would like to prevent users from browsing directly to the IP address of my site, and force them to use the FQDN. Is this possible?
I see similar SO question here with no answer
You can do this with Bindings in IIS (assuming you're using IIS): https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731692(v=ws.10).aspx
Open IIS
Right click your site
Click "Edit Bindings"
Edit the entries (http/https) to include a "Host Name" (ex. "YourSite.com", "sub.YourSite.com", etc...)
An alternative would be to force a redirect to the FQDN in your code. You should be able to determine the url using a ServerVariable: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.httprequest.servervariables(v=vs.110).aspx
You can add another Website in IIS, locate it to an empty directory to make it don't do anything useful, use 80 port but don't bind any hostnames. In this case, who access your server by IP directly would just hit this Website, they won't bother you anymore.
Or maybe you can put some helpful webpages in this website to help your client visit by domain name correctly.
I have a site on my test machine I want to bind into IIS with hosts file.
It's not that I haven't done it before, but this time the page is blank when I load it and chrome says the web page is not available.
In the dev tools Network tab I get ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED and the weird part is that I've entered a domain name in hosts file associated with 127.0.0.1 address. The same site loads when I add virtual directory and access it via localhost.
UPDATE
Screenshoot of the web site, bindings and dev tools network tab.
http://oi59.tinypic.com/6zsfau.jpg
I have also tried loading with Firefox and IE, but same results.
Have no idea what might be the problem.
Here's 3 options I can think of:
Check that your binding in iis is set to "All Unassigned" for the IP address (displays in IIS as "*")
Alternatively bind to a specific ip address and use that ip address in the hosts file
Check that your hosts file encode in ANSI
hope this helps
For the default Web Site in IIS I have the following binding on the default website:
I have the following binding on the site I want to access:
When I access the site in the browser with localhost/hostname, I'm pointed to C:\inetpub\wwwroot*hostname*. I have another site set up with a hostname binding that uses the same values for Port and IP Address and it points to the right place (a different folder on my C: drive). I'm running my site locally and I have the correct hostname entry in my hosts file. I don't want to create two separate virtual directories under a single website, I want the sites to be available as separate websites. What am I missing?
When you use the hostname feature in iis, you cant use localhost to access the site any more.
Instead use http://myhostname and setup myhostname to point to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file.
If you want to access the site via localhost, that implies you need to make a virtual directory, or "application" in iis.
I have a Windows 2008 Server with IIS7 on it and a web page running under the name, let's say myApplication. I have a domain name that points to the IP of my server, let's say myApplication.com.
In order to access my application I have to enter http://myApplication.com/myApplication.
If I write http://myApplication.com/ I arrive to the IIS7 start page. Is there a way (besides rewriting the iisstart.htm to make a JavaScript or meta-data redirect) to automatically open the myApplication when someone enters "http://myApplication.com/"?
What I would like is the following:
The user enters in the browser: "http://myApplication.com/"
He/she is taken to "http://myApplication.com/myApplication"
In the URL bar of the browser only "http://myApplication.com/" shows and everything inside the application is relative to this URL.
Generally when I configure IIS, I set the properties for the "default web site" to a folder that doesn't contain anything, then create individual entries within IIS for each web site. For example, you would create a new entry for "MyApplication.com" and set its home directory to the proper folder on the server that contains your root files (usually c:\inetpub\wwwroot\myapplication.com\ but it could be anywhere you like).
It sounds as if you have created a folder for your application, but do not have a specific entry in IIS configured to handle the requests and load files from the proper folder.
If you have a dedicated IP address for the application, be sure to specify that IP within the site settings for that site. If you're using a single IP for multiple sites, configure the IP AND hostnames/domains that will be used to access that site so IIS will know which site entries belong to which domains and where to route the requests.
We've got a webserver running IIS. We'd like to run maybe a shared blog or something to keep track of information. Because of security issues, we'd like for that part to be only viewable from localhost so people have to remote in to use it.
So, to repeat my question, can part of a website be made viewable from localhost only?
For some one doing it in IIS 8 / Windows 2012
1) In Server Manager, go to Manage, Add Roles and Features, Next, Next (get to Server Roles), scroll down to Web Server (IIS), expand that row, then expand Web Server, and finally expand Security. Make sure that IP and Domain Restrictions are installed.
2) In IIS Manager, drill down to the folder that you want to protect and left click select it. In the Features View of that folder select IP and Domain Restrictions In Actions choose Edit Feature Settings. Change 'Access for unspecified clients:' to 'Deny' then OK.
3) Finally go to 'Add Allow Entry' In the Actions menu. Type in the Specific IP address of your server.
Now only requests coming from your server will be allowed access. Or any server that shares that IP address. So in a small network, the office could share the IP address between all of the PCs in that offices, so all of those PCs could access that folder.
Last but not least is to remember that if your network has a dynamic IP address, then if that IP changes, you will expose your blog admin folder to whoever is using that IP now. Also, everyone on that new IP address will lose access to your that folder...
You can also use bindings instead of IP restrictions. If you edit the bindings for the web site you want to restrict access to, you can select which IP address the site is available at. If you set the IP address to 127.0.0.1, then the site is only responding on this IP address, and this IP address will of course only work locally on the machine.
I've tested this using IIS 8.5.
In IIS6 you can bring up the properties for the web and click on the directory security tab. Click the button in the middle of the tab for editing the IP and Domain restrictions. On this tab set all computers as denied, then add an exception for the IPs you want to allow access to this site.
I am not sure how to configure this on IIS7. I looked but couldn't find it, if I find it I will edit this answer.
Edit: Configuring IIS7
Josh
Should anyone wish to do this on the command line, this appears to work on IIS 7+
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config "Default Web Site" -section:system.webServer/security/ipSecurity /+"[ipAddress='0',allowed='False']" /commit:apphost
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config "Default Web Site" -section:system.webServer/security/ipSecurity /+"[ipAddress='127.0.0.1',allowed='True']" /commit:apphost
Reference
I initially wanted to do this in web.config to ease distribution, and it looked like the following might work:
<security>
<ipSecurity allowUnlisted="false"> <!-- this line blocks everybody, except those listed below -->
<clear/> <!-- removes all upstream restrictions -->
<add ipAddress="127.0.0.1" allowed="true"/> <!-- allow requests from the local machine -->
</ipSecurity>
</security>
but as you need to unlock the function in the central IIS config anyway there was no advantage over making the change directly using the first commands.
I agree with the recommendations to use IIS "Directory Security" to block all IP address except 127.0.0.1 (localhost).
That said, I'm wondering how this strategy of requiring users to remote in could possibly be more secure. Wouldn't it be more secure (as well as much simpler) to use standard IIS authentication mechanisms rather than have to manage Windows roles and permissions on the server machine?
As suggested in https://stackoverflow.com/a/39870955/2279059, it is possible to configure the site's bindings to listen only on the loopback interface. This makes the site inaccessible from the network without having to use IP address restrictions.
To support both IPv4 and IPv6, add two bindings, one for 127.0.0.1 and one for [::1], and set the hostname to *, so either IP address or localhost can be used to access it as shown in the screenshot:
To add a "local" site programmatically, you can use:
appcmd add site /name:MyLoalSite /bindings:http/127.0.0.1:7103:*,http/[::1]:7103:* /physicalPath:"C:\path\to\site\"
Depending on exactly what you want to happen if an unauthorized user tries to visit it.
You could try to setup the specific section as a virtual directory, then deny view to anonymous users. However, they will be prompted for login, and if they can login then they could see it.
Judging from the options present in the IIS MMC, you can also have a virtual directory only be accessible by certain IP-ranges. You could block everyone but 127.0.0.1. I have not tried this, however.
You can grant or deny access to a site or folder from certain IPs to a site or folder. In IIS, go into properties for the site or folder in question.
(1) Click to the "Diectory Security" Tab
(2) Click Edit Under the "IP Address and Domain Name Restriction" frame.
(3) Click "Denied Access" (This tells IIS to block every IP except those you list)
(4) Click "Add..."
(5) Click "Single Computer"
(6) Enter 127.0.0.1 (the IP of localhost)
Note that it is best to use an IP here (as I've described) rather than a domain name because domains can be easily forged using a hosts file.
You could simply add this .NET to the top of the page.
string MyWebServerName = currentContext.Request.ServerVariables["SERVER_NAME"];
if ( MyWebServerName == "127.0.0.1" || MyWebServerName == "localhost" )
{
// the user is local
}
else
{
// the user is NOT local
}