How To Set Up suPHP On A Debian Etch Based ISPConfig Server
Version 1.1
Author: <hans> [at] bb-hosting [dot] org>
In general, this howto is the same as my howto "How To Set Up suPHP On A Debian Sarge Based ISPConfig Server" at https://www.howtoforge.com/suphp_debian_ispconfig but it contains some small but important modifications for Debian Etch.
When you've set up suPHP on your ISPConfig server, you are able to run the PHP scripts under the admin user of the website instead of www-data.
Important: I have tested this howto on a Debian Etch server with ISPConfig 2.2.11 and PHP Version 5.2.0-8 for Apache 2.2.3, but I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
First make a copy of your /etc/apache2/vhosts/Vhosts_ispconfig.conf. For example copy it to /etc/apache2/vhosts/Vhosts_ispconfig-backup.conf.
On a default ISPConfig server php5 is running as a module. Disable it with the command:
a2dismod php5
Now remove all the phpadmin entries within the original Vhosts_ispconfig.conf file. Restart Apache:
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
As we removed all the phpadmin entries, you should not have any errors, when Apache2 restarts.
Install suPHP as a DSO, therefore we must install apxs (on Debian Etch it's apxs2):
apt-get install apache2-prefork-dev
Install PHP5-CGI:
apt-get install php5-cgi
cd /tmp
Install suPHP, version 0.6.2 is the latest stable version at this time:
wget http://www.suphp.org/download/suphp-0.6.2.tar.gz
tar xvfz suphp-0.6.2.tar.gz
cd suphp-0.6.2
vi src/apache2/mod_suphp.c
Replace the lines 324/325 with these two lines below (if you use a different version of suPHP, the line numbers can be different):
AP_INIT_ITERATE("suPHP_AddHandler", suphp_handle_cmd_add_handler, NULL, RSRC_CONF | ACCESS_CONF, "Tells mod_suphp to handle these MIME-types"),
AP_INIT_ITERATE("suPHP_RemoveHandler", suphp_handle_cmd_remove_handler, NULL, RSRC_CONF | ACCESS_CONF, "Tells mod_suphp not to handle these MIME-types"),
Then we compile and install suPHP:
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --with-apache-user=www-data --with-setid-mode=paranoid --with-apxs=/usr/bin/apxs2
make
make install
Copy the suphp.conf file:
cp /tmp/suphp-0.6.2/doc/suphp.conf-example /etc/suphp.conf
Change the content of /etc/suphp.conf, by using the command:
vi /etc/suphp.conf
It should look like this:
[global] ;Path to logfile logfile=/var/log/suphp.log ;Loglevel loglevel=info ;User Apache is running as webserver_user=www-data ;Path all scripts have to be in docroot=/ ;Path to chroot() to before executing script ;chroot=/mychroot ; Security options allow_file_group_writeable=true allow_file_others_writeable=false allow_directory_group_writeable=true allow_directory_others_writeable=false ;Check wheter script is within DOCUMENT_ROOT check_vhost_docroot=true ;Send minor error messages to browser errors_to_browser=false ;PATH environment variable env_path=/bin:/usr/bin ;Umask to set, specify in octal notation umask=0077 ; Minimum UID min_uid=100 ; Minimum GID min_gid=100 [handlers] ;Handler for php-scripts x-httpd-php=php:/usr/bin/php5-cgi ;Handler for CGI-scripts x-suphp-cgi=execute:!self
Add the following line to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, using the command:
vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
LoadModule suphp_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_suphp.so
Restart Apache, using the command:
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Edit /home/admispconfig/ispconfig/lib/config.inc.php find the line:
$go_info["server"]["apache2_php"] = 'both';
and change to:
$go_info["server"]["apache2_php"] = 'suphp';
Now, within ISPConfig make a small modification to one of your webs, so that ISPConfig writes a new vhost file. For example enable cgi-scrips for one of your websites or so.
Within your /etc/apache2/vhosts/Vhosts_ispconfig.conf, you will see that ISPConfig has re-written the file, because the lines below are added for every single web:
suPHP_Engine on
suPHP_UserGroup username groupname
AddHandler x-httpd-php .php .php3 .php4 .php5
suPHP_AddHandler x-httpd-php
</VirtualHost>
Important: do not make any manual changes within your /etc/apache2/vhosts/Vhosts_ispconfig.conf file!
When you establish a connection via FTP, you'll see that you can set any permission within your web:
You're also able to run the php scripts under the admin user of the website instead of the system user www-data. This gives the admin user of the website more comfort. suPHP is also very useful when you run a CMS within your web like Joomla. With suPHP enabled Joomla will have enough permissions to function properly, while the admin user of the website has full control! Last but not least, using suPHP is more safe and a more professional solution than using chmod 777 for your website!
If you don't want to use php5-cgi+suPHP for a particular website on your ISPConfig server, there is a solution. Login to your server as root and enable the php5 module for Apache2:
a2enmod php5
Restart Apache2 with:
/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload
Within ISPConfig, disable the php and add the following within the Apache directives field for your site:
<Directory /var/www/webX/web>
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php3 .php4 .php5
php_admin_flag safe_mode Off
</Directory>
Now your ISPConfig with Debian Etch, uses PHP5-mod and PHP5-CGI+suPHP. In the most situations you'll only need PHP5-CGI+suPHP. However, if you can not use the suphp mechanism for some reasons, you can still use php5 as a module for that particular website.
