Hello. That would probably a lamer question, but we all learn... I have Apache 2.2 in mpm-worker and PHP 5.2.6 installed as Apache module. Is there a way to restrict users access from PHP scripts to their folders on such configuration? Currently I know two ways of solving this problem: Apache mod_suexec and PHP suphp. But it seems, that they both require CGI. Is there a way to solve my problem on my specific Apache configuration? If no, which are the choices I have?
- The most comon choice is suphp, but it is slower as it uses php as cgi. - Another possibility is to enable php safemode in your current setup for the sites, but there are still php based cms systems out there that are not compatible with the safe mode. - A third possibility might be to use suphp + php as fcgi, but I did not test such a combination yet and it requires modifications in the ispconfig sources.
So, do I understand correctly, that there is actually no way of keeping PHP running as Apache module and at the same time keeping it secure? fcgi seem to be cgi and I will not be able to run APC on server, right? safe_mode of PHP is not a good idea. It is already removed from PHP6 and should be considered deprecated I think.
Yes and no. If you can live with the restrictions of safemode, it is fairly secure. fcgi is not the same as cgi, as fcgi uses a constantly running instance of PHP. I'am not sure if APC is working with this setup. Falko did many tests with php caches in the last time, maybe he can give an answer to this question. I know. Safemode is a kind of bundle of security mechanisms. From php6 on you can not set them with a single safemode switch, they have to be activated one by one. If php6 is out as final, we will add some code that enables these different functions instead of the sfaemode switch which gives basically the same result. The problem is that the php developers have not come with a real solution to run mod_php in a really secure way e.g.with different user permissions. The beast and fastest way at the moment might be to use fcgi. fcgi is in benchmarks nearly as fast as mod_php.
Thank you for comments. I will think it over. In case of mod_fcgi APC is not as effective because opcode cache and user cache are created per each fcgi process. Probably, it is better to wait until PHP6, which will have APC built-in One more question, if you don't mind. In apache docs is written, that enabling mod_suexec can lead to security wholes if done by non-experienced user. What are the dangers of enabling mod_suexec?
As a comment from me: SafeMode does not restrict a PHP user to his directory. Open_Basedir does that IMHO. Safe mode just restricts use of some security relevant functions in PHP. Running SuPHP with PHP as CGI might be a bit slower, but as SuPHP uses the PHP CGI effectively (e.g. not opening a PHP instance for every access but re-using one) it is faster than using PHP as CGI in raw form. I'm pretty happy at the moment with the performance of PHP with SuPHP besides having one or two strange side effects. Greets Grey
Could you please be more concrete, that is interesting? Which side-effects? And how do you know, that suPHP doesn't open new PHP instance every time? Did you do some testing? I don't see any information about that in suPHP docs.
