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www user

 
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SYS ADM_1
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www user

What is the user of system "www" ?

www:*:30:1::/home/www:/sbin/sh

Thanks in advance
6 REPLIES 6
Alan Casey
Trusted Contributor
Solution

Re: www user

This is of course a user for an internet host.
The www user is created as default on a new install, however it's default passwd entry is:
www:*:30:1::/:

You'r is configured, so at some stage you may have had an internet service installed on the host.
Craig Rants
Honored Contributor

Re: www user

I don't know what you mean by "What is the user of system "www" ", but I assume you are wondering what uses this account. I am guessing that you have apache or another web server app on your system. That generally is what the www user is for.

Good Luck,
C
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. " Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut
Etienne Holm
Frequent Advisor

Re: www user

Do you have a web server nstalled eg Apache
Most web administrators would create a user calle www this is where they will create the web root.

In Apache this will be in the httpd.conf file
varuable is DocumentRoot and you will find it will point to this www directory
Roger Baptiste
Honored Contributor

Re: www user

hi,

www is a userid which comes as default with the O/S install. With web becoming a standard, this id was added in the default userlist of the O/S.

The userid''s which are installed as a part of O/S install are:
#/usr/newconfig/etc>more passwd
root::0:3::/:/sbin/sh
daemon:*:1:5::/:/sbin/sh
bin:*:2:2::/usr/bin:/sbin/sh
sys:*:3:3::/:
adm:*:4:4::/var/adm:/sbin/sh
uucp:*:5:3::/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lbin/uucp/uucico
lp:*:9:7::/var/spool/lp:/sbin/sh
nuucp:*:11:11::/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lbin/uucp/uucico
hpdb:*:27:1:ALLBASE:/:/sbin/sh
nobody:*:-2:-2::/:
www:*:30:1::/:

And as you see with this find command output below, there are no files owned by www.
It's just the userid which can be used after a http server installation.
#:/usr/newconfig/etc>find / -user www
#:/usr/newconfig/etc>

HTH
raj
Take it easy.
John Bolene
Honored Contributor

Re: www user

www is setup as a normal user so that the Apache web server processes cannot run as root.
It is always a good day when you are launching rockets! http://tripolioklahoma.org, Mostly Missiles http://mostlymissiles.com
Christopher Caldwell
Honored Contributor

Re: www user

For security, the idea is that the www user should own no files on the host. Thus if httpd starts as root and setuids to www, a compromise of the server would give the web server user www the privs to
1) execute any program with the world x bit set
2) modify any file with the world w bit set
3) add/delete files in any directory with the world w bit set

(2 and 3 shouldn't happen on a well configured host).

My .02, I'd replace that 30 with something higher, so you can make rules based on uid and gid:

e.g.
anything < 100 is priv'd.
anything over 59000 is unpriv'd

Thus a find stuff with uid > 59000 tells you everywhere a unpriv'd user owns files (shouldn't be anywhere).

Or, some of our setuid programs check uid - anything less than 100 isn't allowed to setuid.