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Special Edition - Using CGI:
Publisher:
Excerpt (750-751):
A better solution to the problem of deciding which user a script runs as
when multiple people have CGI access is the CGIWrap
program. CGIWrap, which is included on the CD that accompanies this book,
is a simple wrapper that executes a CGI script as the user that owns the
file instead of the user that the server specifies. This simple precaution
leaves the script owner responsible for the damage it can do.
For instance, if the user "joanne" owns a CGI script that's
wrapped in CGIWrap, the server will execute the script as user "joanne."
In this way, CGIWrap acts like a setuid bit but has the added advantage of
being controlled by the Web server rather than the operating system. That
means that anybody who sneaks through any security holes in the script
will be limited to whatever "joanne" herself can do-the files she can read
and delete, the directories she can view, and so on.
Because CGIWrap puts CGI script authors in charge of the
permissions for their own scripts, it can be a powerful tool not only to
protect important files owned by others, but to motivate people to write
secure scripts. The realization that only their files would be in danger
can be a powerful persuader to script authors.
Excerpted with permission from Special Edition Using CGI
Copyright © 1996, Que Corporation
Comments:
The book is pretty good, at least in the copy I got, they say
that CGIwrap is included on the CD, but I can't find it anywhere.
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