Re: PHP priviledges

This is an excellent question. I've run into the same thing myself when setting up my own Linux boxen. Apache + PHP needs to have read access to users' web directories in order to serve them up to the 'net (mode 704), and directories must have the execute bit set (mode 705). Assuming users with virtual hosts are all members of a group (say 'vhusers'), a shell user cannot read other users' files. However, a PHP script (running as the Apache user - usually 'nobody') can read all files, obtain directory listings, etc etc (as can anyone not a member of the 'vhusers' group - on a virtual host server, I'm guessing no one should have priviledged access except the admins). Obviously, this is undesirable from a security standpoint. You don't want some luser snarfing the code you've been working on for weeks! One suggestion I've heard is to make each user have their own group, for example 'joeuser' belongs to the group 'joeuser', etc etc. Then you could start a seperate instance of Apache+PHP for each user - running AS that user. Now joeuser's PHP scripts can't read bobuser's files. However, in my view this opens up another security hole - external services should never run as normal users on a box. If a new buffer overflow was found in Apache, someone could easily wipe out joeuser's files...whereas in the previous example, the damage would be limited to just reading the files. Also, starting so many instances of Apache seems unnecessarily resource-intensive. I'm by no means a security expert - this email merely reflects the results of experimentation on my own boxen. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this situation, please post 'em! Ben Gollmer On Monday, May 14, 2001, at 01:09 PM, bd wrote:

Hello, I have similar concerns with the host I'm trying out right now - though they're running Linux/Apache. My problem is with lack of security with shell access (i.e. access to other client's directories and key server files) and apparently lax monitoring of its privacy policies. I'm not a sys admin so I don't know exactly what is achievable, but I was surprised by the loose config of the server I'm on. I'm looking for a Virtual-Host provider running PHP/MySQL who has mastered the concept of providing a secure, shared environment to it's clients - including ssh/scp access restricted to only what's owned by me, secured administration tools, secured email communication with its clients, and complete logical and physical security of the server and data center. Does anyone have a recommendation? I've seen providers that address these issues for dedicated server configs - but not virtual server configs. Best Regards, bd -----Original Message----- From: José León Serna [mailto:vclcrawler@vclcrawler.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 6:57 AM To: php-general@lists.php.net Subject: [PHP] PHP priviledges Hello:

    In my host, the php is installed in a way that I have access from a php

script to all the webs on that server, (there are almost 60) and I can delete/copy any file of other servers. I don't like this because other user of that server can do the same as I. I have contacted with my host and they doesn't know how to prevent php/IIS to have access to other directories on the server, Is this possible? Best Regards ------------ Visual PHP Studio, RAD development with PHP http://www.visualphpstudio.f2s.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net