Re: user cgi-bin configuration

[Jake Morrison <jacob.morrison@example.com>]

Uli,

This is generally considered dangerous to do, as the CGI programs run under
the apache user account. It is also easy for a user to accidentally compromise
system security with their CGI program. Or it may be possible to affect other
users CGIs or associated files. 

You might want to have a look at Apache's suEXEC support, which can run
the CGI under the account of the user who owns it.

 http://www.apache.org/docs/suexec.html

Regards,
Jake

ulrike@example.com wrote:
> 
> I am running debian if this is of any relevance and tried to install cgi-bin
> directories for users, but am not quite sure whether I understood the Apache FAQ
> correctly, it says:
> 
> 2.Place the cgi-bin directory underneath the public_html directory:
> 
>               <Directory /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin>
>                   Options ExecCGI
>                   SetHandler cgi-script
>               </Directory>
> 
> So I put this text at the very bottom of access.conf. But when I tried to access
> the script I got: "You don't have permission to access /~uli/cgi-bin/wwwkan.pl
> on this server."
> 
> The error.log says:
> [Thu Sep  7 13:35:53 2000] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Options ExecCGI is off in
> this directory: /home/uli/public_html/cgi-bin/wwwkan.pl
> 
> I did restart the server, I have to admit by rebooting, since
> "kill -TERM `cat /usr/local/apache/logs/httpd.pid`" does not work, I cannot
> locate httpd.pid.
> 
> So what do I have to think about "Options ExecCGI is off", and how do I restart
> apache properly (this is this neccessary/the correct way to get it to know that
> I changed the *.conf files, isn't it?)
> 
> Uli
> 
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