RE: [PHP] -----s--- bit

Hi, Why do you want to access /etc/shadow from your PHP?. As a general rules of thumb that's a pretty bad idea. The reason for this is that /etc/shadow is owned by Root and it's *should* only be readable by Root and noone else. Now in answer to your question "Why your PHP" script can't read /etc/shadow is that if you're PHP script is running as Apache module (or even a stand alone CGI). Your User ID would most likely *not* be Root. Thus you are not allowed to read the /etc/shadow. You are able to fix this by running the Apache process as Root! THIS IS A VERY VERY bad idea but possible nonetheless as it is a huge security hazard. To configure Apache to run as Root, check out Apache doc HTH. > 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 .