-----s--- bit

Hi, I am running apache server as user/group=apache/httpd And want to access the shadow file to authenticate my users from the system. shadow file is owned by root and chmod to 400. server-root:/5:28pm>ls -al /etc/shadow -r-------- 1 root sys 27695 Feb 22 10:06 /etc/shadow I can access the shadow from cgi-bin / c code by giving the chmod +s bit .. How can I access from my php codes. Giving +s bit to the php source don't solve my problem. Can you give me a solution or documentation about it. Thanks for your advice.