Hosting Provided By

CGI Scripts running as user that started apache

From: Travis Gillitzer <tgmlists(at)kc.rr.com>
Date: Sat Mar 15 2003 - 13:15:28 EST

I may be overlooking something simple here, but I can't seem to figure out why Apache is behaving the way it is...

I am installing Twiki (twiki.org). One of the steps is to run a CGI script that tests the environment. It gives the following info regarding the user that is running the script.

Below is part of the output of the script.

PATH_INFO: /
Note: For a URL such as
http://www.therawvegan.org/wiki/bin/testenv/foo/bar, the correct PATH_INFO is /foo/bar, without any prefixed path components. Test this now - particularly if you are using Apache or IIS, or are using a web hosting provider. The page resulting from the test link should have a PATH_INFO of /foo/bar.
mod_perl: Not used for this script (mod_perl loaded)

User: root

Note: Your CGI scripts are executing as this user.

Warning: Since your CGI script is not running as user nobody, you need to change the locks in the *,v RCS files of the TWiki distribution from nobody to root. Otherwise, changes to topics will not be logged by RCS.

Group(s):

The user it lists is root, which is the user that started Apache. The user Apache is running as is www, and it is chrooted. I feel the scripts should be running as the user that Apache is running as, not the user that started Apache.

Do you need help?

Any assistance would be helpful. Thanks

Below is the entire CGI script.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
# TWiki Collaboration Platform, http://TWiki.org/
#
# Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Peter Thoeny, peter@thoeny.com
#
# For licensing info read license.txt file in the TWiki root.
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

package TWiki;

# Set library paths in @INC, at compile time
BEGIN {
# Try to use setlib.cfg, use default path if missing if ( -r './setlib.cfg' ) {

require './setlib.cfg';
} else {

unshift @INC, '../lib';
}
}

use vars qw( $useLocale );

# ===========================
# Read the configuration file at compile time in order to set locale
BEGIN {
do "TWiki.cfg"; # Includes OS detection

Do you need more help?

# Do a dynamic 'use locale' for this script if( $useLocale ) {

        require locale;
        import locale ();

}
}

# use strict; # Recommended for mod_perl, enable for Perl
5.6.1 only

# Doesn't work well here, due to 'do
"TWiki.cfg"'
# use diagnostics; # Debug only

my $setlibAvail = -r './setlib.cfg';

&main();

sub checkBasicModules {

# Check whether basic CGI modules exist (some broken installations of

# Perl don't have this, even though they are standard modules), and warn user

Can we help you?

my @basicMods = @_;

    my $modMissing = 0;
    my $mod;
    foreach $mod (@basicMods) {

	eval "use $mod";
	if ($@) {
	    unless ($modMissing) {
		print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
		print "Perl Module(s)
missing\n";
		print "\n";
		print "Perl Module(s) missing\n";
	    }
	    $modMissing = 1;
	    print "Warning: ";
	    print "Essential module $mod not installed - please
check your Perl\n";
	    print "installation, including the setting of \@INC,
and re-install Perl if necessary.</p>\n";
	}

}
# If any critical modules missing, display @INC and give up if ($modMissing) {

	print "\@INC setting:
 ";
	print join "
\n", @INC;
	print "\n";
	print "\n\n";
	exit;

}
}

sub main
{

my $perlverRequired = 5.00503; # Oldest supported version of Perl

my $perlverRequiredString = '5.005_03';
my $perlverRecommended = '5.6.1';
my $ActivePerlRecommendedBuild = 631;	# Fixes PERL5SHELL bugs

my $rcsverRequired = 5.7;

my @basicMods = qw( CGI CGI::Carp ); # Required for testenv to work

my @requiredMods = ( 			# Required for TWiki
    	@basicMods,  
	'File::Copy',

);

# Required on non-Unix platforms (mainly Windows)
my @requiredModsNonUnix = (

	'Digest::SHA1', 	# For register script
	'MIME::Base64', 	# For register script
	'Net::SMTP',		# For registration emails and mailnotify

);

# Optional modules on all platforms

my @optionalMods = (

	'Algorithm::Diff', 	# For RcsLite
	'MIME::Base64', 	# For outbound HTTP Authentication to

proxies 'POSIX', # For internationalisation (core module) );

Can't find what you're looking for?

open(STDERR,'>&STDOUT'); # redirect errors to browser

$| = 1;                  # no buffering - FIXME: mod_perl issue?

# Check for modules required by this script
&checkBasicModules( @basicMods );

# Load CGI modules (run-time, after checking they are accessible)
require CGI;
require CGI::Carp;
import CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser );

my $query = new CGI;

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print <<EOM;


Test TWiki environment

Test the environment for TWiki

Please read the <a
href="http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiInstallationNotes">TWikiI nstallationNotes</a> for more information on TWiki installation. <h3>Environment variables:</h3>
<table>
EOM
my $key;
for $key ( sort keys %ENV ) {

print "<tr><th align=\"right\">$key</th><td>$ENV{$key}</td></tr>\n"; }
print <<EOM;

CGI Setup:

# Set $detailedOS if not using later versions of TWiki.cfg for
BeijingRelease
# - this code enables the latest testenv to be used with Dec 2001 and
# earlier releases.

if ( !defined $detailedOS ) {

require Config;
$detailedOS = $Config::Config{'osname'}; # print "$detailedOS ";
}

my $thePathInfo = $query->path_info();
# my $theRemoteUser = $query->remote_user();
my $theTopic = $query->param( 'topic' ); my $theUrl = $query->url;

# Detect whether we are actually running under mod_perl
# - test for MOD_PERL alone, which is enough.
my $USE_MOD_PERL = ( exists $ENV{'MOD_PERL'} ) && "Used" || "Not used";

# OS

print "<tr><th align=\"right\">Operating system:</th><td>" . ucfirst(lc($OS));
print " ($detailedOS)" if ( $detailedOS ne '' ); print "</td></tr>\n";

# Perl @INC (lib path)

print "<tr><th align=\"right\" valign=\"top\">\@INC library path:</th><td>" .

# Turn off fatalsToBrowser while checking module loads, to avoid load
errors in
# browser in some environments.

$CGI::Carp::WRAP = $CGI::Carp::WRAP = 0; # Avoid warnings...

# Check that the TWiki.pm module can be found
print "<tr><th align=\"right\">TWiki module in \@INC path:</th><td>"; $mod = 'TWiki';
eval "use $mod";
print "<tr><th></th><td>\n";
my $twikiFound = 0;
if ($@) {

$twikiFound = 1;
 my $mod_version = eval '$TWiki::wikiversion'; $mod_version ||= 'unknown';
 print "OK, $mod.pm found (TWiki version: $mod_version)"; print "</td></tr>\n";
}
print "</td></tr>\n";

# Check that each of the required Perl modules can be loaded, and
# print its version number.

print "<tr><th align=\"right\">Required Perl modules:</th><td>"; foreach $mod (@requiredMods) {

# Check that each of the optional Perl modules can be loaded, and
# print its version number.

print "<tr><th align=\"right\">Optional Perl modules:</th><td>"; foreach $mod (@optionalMods) {

# All module checks done, OK to enable fatalsToBrowser
import CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser );

# Run command without stderr output, to avoid CGI giving error. # Get names of primary and other groups. $grp = lc(qx(sh -c '( id -un ; id -gn) 2>/dev/null' 2>nul )); if ($?) {

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$wikiHomeUrl:</th><td>$wikiHomeUrl</td></tr>\n"; my $junk1 = $wikiHomeUrl; # Avoid warning

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$defaultUrlHost:</th><td>$defaultUrlHost</td></tr>\n"; print "<tr><th></th><td>Note: "; print "This must be the protocol and host part (with optional port number) of ";
print "the TWiki URL.";
print "</td></tr>\n";
my $val = $ENV{"HTTP_HOST"} || '';
if( $defaultUrlHost !~ /$val/ ) {

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$scriptUrlPath:</th><td>$scriptUrlPath</td></tr>\n";

print "<tr><th></th><td>Error: "; print "Directory does not exist or file <tt>wikiHome.gif</tt> does not exist in this directory.";

print "</td></tr>\n";
} elsif( ! testFileIsWritable( "$pubDir/testenv.test" ) ) {

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$templateDir:</th><td>$templateDir</td></tr>\n"; print "<tr><th></th><td>Note: "; print "This is the TWiki template directory, as seen from the file system. ";
print "</td></tr>\n";
if( ! ( -e "$templateDir/view.tmpl" ) ) {

print "<tr><th></th><td>Error: "; print "Directory does not exist or file <tt>view.tmpl</tt> does not exist in this directory.";

print "</td></tr>\n";
} elsif( testFileIsWritable( "$templateDir/testenv.test" ) ) {

# directory is writable
print "<tr><th></th><td>Warning: ";

print "Security issue: This directory should not be writable by the $usr user.";

# Check 'sendmail'

$val = $mailProgram;
$val =~ s/([^\s]*).*/$1/g;
# Don't warn on Windows, as Net::SMTP is normally used
if( $OS ne 'WINDOWS' && ! ( -e $val ) ) {

print "Mail program <tt>$val</tt> not found. Check the path."; print "</td></tr>\n";
}

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$mailProgram:</th><td>$mailProgram</td></tr>\n"; print "<tr><th></th><td>Note: "; if( $OS ne 'WINDOWS' ) {

print "This is not typically used on Windows - the Perl Net::SMTP module is used instead.";
}
print "</td></tr>\n";

# RCS not installed
print "<tr><th></th><td>Warning: ";

print "<tr><th align=\"right\">RCS Version:</th><td>$rcsVerNum"; print "  (Cygwin package <tt>rcs-$cygwinRcsVerNum</tt>)" if defined($cygwinRcsVerNum);

print "List program <tt>$val</tt> not found. Check the path."; print "</td></tr>\n";
}

# Check 'grep'

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$egrepCmd:</th><td>$egrepCmd</td></tr>\n";

print "Search program <tt>$val</tt> not found. Check the path."; print "</td></tr>\n";
}

# Check 'fgrep'

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$fgrepCmd:</th><td>$fgrepCmd</td></tr>\n";

print "Search program <tt>$val</tt> not found. Check the path."; print "</td></tr>\n";
}

print "<tr><th
align=\"right\">\$safeEnvPath:</th><td>$safeEnvPath</td></tr>\n"; print "<tr><th></th><td>Note: "; print "This is used to initialise the PATH variable, and is used to run the\n";
print "'diff' program used by RCS, as well as to run shell programs such as\n";
if( $OS eq 'WINDOWS' ) {

print "Security issue: \$safeEnvPath set to empty string. Check TWiki.cfg.\n";

CGI Scripts running as user that started apache

Perl Module(s) missing

Test the environment for TWiki

CGI Setup:

Path and Shell Environment

Internationalisation and Locale Setup