December 2007
Beginner to intermediate
310 pages
8h 8m
English
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8.13. Running CGI Scripts as a Different User with suexec
Problem
You want to have CGI programs executed by some user other than
nobody (or whatever user the Apache
server runs as). For example, you may have a database that is not
accessible to anyone except a particular user, so the server needs to
temporarily assume that user’s identity to access it.
Solution
When building Apache, enable suexec by passing the --enable-suexec argument to configure.
Then, in a virtual host section, specify which user and group you’d like to use to run CGI programs:
User rbowen Group users
Also, suexec will be invoked for any CGI programs run out of username-type URLs for the affected virtual host.
Discussion
The suexec wrapper is a
suid (runs as the user ID of the user that owns the file) program that
allows you to run CGI programs as any user you specify, rather than as
the nobody user that Apache runs
as. suexec is a standard part of
Apache but is not enabled by default.
Tip
The suexec concept does not fit well into the Windows environment, and so suexec is not available under Windows.
When suexec is installed, there are two different ways that it can be invoked, as shown in the Solution.
A User and Group directive may be specified in a VirtualHost container, and all CGI programs executed within the context of that virtual host are executed as that user and group. Note that this only applies to CGI programs. Normal documents and other types of dynamic content are still accessed as the user and group specified ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.