Restricting Scripting Access Under Apache and Windows OS's

How to stop Perl, PHP, and other languages from root access?

[rethaew]

Good Day. I have recently been put in charge of managing a web server and I am not very familiar with Apache, or web servers in general, so please forgive my ignorance.

The server has Windows2k, Apache 2.2 and Activeperl 5.8. The problem is that there does not seem to be any security with the perl. Any web site that has CGI enabled can run a perl script that will execute system commands, modify files, etc. ANYWHERE on the server, not just in the home directory for that site. This is a gaping security hole that needs to be fixed. So if a user wanted to do some damage, he could in theory delete all other web site folders, destroy some system files, etc. Very bad.

I have searched the web and forums for a solution but this major issues doesn't seem to be addressed much. Can anyone advise on how to limit CGI activity to a web site's home directy with this setup.

Thanks.

Tim

[Brett_Tabke]

First, welcome to the system.

You know - this is a very good question.

I am not familar with multiuser access under windows, or running a multiuser server environ under windows. However, can't you set up user groups and then restrict access within those groups?

How do microsoft servers (iis) address the problem?