running fastcgi server via lighttpd

Question

I'm trying to set permissions to my fastcgi binary which is started using the lighttpd web-server. When lighttpd starts my binary, the lighttpd access permissions are transferred to my binary. I need my binary to be run with root permissions so it can access certain files. I've read that it is undesirable to run lighttpd as root for security reasons, so I am relucant to do this. If run with the same permissions as lighttpd, my fastcgi binary cannot read/write to files on my arm file system.

Below is some of the configuration in my lighttpd.conf file

server.modules           = ( "mod_rewrite", "mod_redirect", "mod_access", "mod_fastcgi", "mod_proxy", "mod_accesslog" )
server.username          = "www"                                
server.groupname         = "www"                                
server.document-root     = "/srv/www/htdocs/"                    
server.errorlog          = "/var/log/lighttpd/error.log"        
server.upload-dirs       = ("/tmp")                             
server.max-request-size  = 40960                                  
server.network-backend   = "write"

fastcgi.server             = (                                            
                             ".php" =>                     
                             ("localhost" =>                       
                               (                           
                                 "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket",
                                 "max-procs" => 2,
                                 "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi -c /etc"
                                )
                              ),   
                             ".cgi" =>                                                                                
                            ("localhost" =>                                
                              (                                  
                                "host" => "<hostAddress>",
                                "port" => 8088,                                                   
                                "min-procs" => 1,    
                                "max-procs" => 1,
                                "check-local" => "disable",
                                 "bin-path" => "/<pathToMyFastCGI_Binary>/"
                               ) )                        
                           )

Paul Paul · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-11T13:10:20

Thanks for viewing this question. I have now solved my problem by running my FCGI binary with user/group permissions set to "s" so lighttpd will start my FCGI binary with its own permissions and not with lighttpd's.

Thanks.

running fastcgi server via lighttpd

1 Answers