Although static content is extremely common and important, it's not the only type of file that a Web server may be called on to handle. Some Web sites are much more dynamic in nature. For instance, Web search sites like Google allow you to enter information in a form, click a button, and receive back a customized Web page that the Web server built just for you. If you need to create such sites, it's vital that you understand how to configure your Web server to handle them appropriately. This topic is complex enough that this section can only provide a basic overview and a few pointers to the Apache options used in configuring such a site. For more information, you'll need to consult more specialized documentation. Understanding Static Content, Forms, and CGI ScriptsThe preceding sections have focused on static content. This term refers to files that aren't unique to particular users and that don't interact with the user in any sophisticated way. Examples of static content include:
These are all examples of static content, and can be served from your DocumentRoot directory, your UserRoot directories, or subdirectories of these. When a user requests one of these files, the data flow is largely one way: The client requests a file, and the server delivers that file. To be sure, the request for a file itself contains data, but beyond the data in that request, the data flows in one direction. Dynamic content, by contrast, is customized for individual users or allows a two-way exchange of data. You've probably encountered dynamic content on the Web before. Examples include:
These are only a few examples of dynamic Web sites. The possibilities are limited mainly by the Web site designer's imagination . The key difference between dynamic and static sites from a Web server's point of view is that the dynamic sites require creating HTML (or other document formats) on the fly, based on input sent by the user in a previous interaction or in the URL. To do this, several mechanisms may be used:
There are other forms of dynamic content available. In particular, an assortment of alternatives to CGI scripts exist, but CGI scripts remain an extremely popular way to generate dynamic content. Note that CGI scripts may create pages that contain Web forms; the two aren't so much competing forms of dynamic content as they are two aspects to one system for data exchange between client and server. Setting Script and Form OptionsIn order to use CGI scripts, you must tell Apache that you want to use them. Apache must be configured to run the CGI script when its filename is provided in a URL, to process the script's output to be sent back to the Web browser, and possibly to receive return data from the Web browser for return to the CGI script for another round. Apache's role is that of a middle man, and fortunately, its configuration is not too difficult. There are two things you must do. First, you must enable CGI features. Second, you must tell Apache which types of incoming requests may be treated as CGI requests. Adding CGI support involves loading the CGI module, thus: LoadModule cgi_module lib/apache/mod_cgi.so If your CGI support is compiled into the main Apache binary (and sometimes if you load it as a module), you may need to use AddModule to activate it, thus: AddModule mod_cgi.c Once this is done, Apache has the basic tools it needs to handle CGI scripts. This leaves enabling CGI support for particular files or directories. There are several ways you can accomplish this task:
WARNING
Many distributions' default Apache configurations permit CGI scripts via the ScriptAlias option, often from a directory called /home/httpd/cgi-bin , using the /cgi-bin URL component. This configuration is convenient , because you can drop files in the CGI directory and have them be treated as CGI scripts with little additional fuss. One detail to which you must attend is permissions. In particular, the CGI scripts are scripts. Like other Linux scripts and programs, they must have appropriate permissions to be run. Particularly if you've written a script yourself or downloaded one from a Web or FTP site, you may need to type chmod a+x script- name , where script-name is the script's name, to set its permissions appropriately. Writing CGI ScriptsCGI scripts, like other scripts, are computer programs. A complete guide to writing them is well beyond the scope of this chapter. This section therefore provides just a few pointers to help get you started if you already know something about scripting. If you need more information, consult the "Dynamic Content with CGI" Web page (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/cgi.html) for a basic introduction, or a book on CGI scripting for more detail. CGI scripts accept standard input and generate standard output. Therefore, any text that you want your user to see can be output as if to the console, using standard output commands. The trick to creating output is to remember that the user is reading the output on a Web browser. Thus, your CGI script should generate HTML, or occasionally some other format that's friendly to Web browsers. (For instance, you might dynamically create a graphics file.) Preceding the bulk of the HTML output, your CGI script should generate a content type header that lists the document's MIME type. This should normally resemble the following: Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n This example specifies a text/html MIME type, which is usually what you want to create. (The \r\n\r\n portion of the line creates two new-lines, which is a necessary part of the specification.) Precisely how you create this output depends upon your scripting language, of course. Bringing this together with a normal script header line and a simple program might produce something like Listing 20.1, which shows a Perl script to display a line of text. If you type this program into a file in a CGI scripting directory, give it execute permissions, and specify its URL in a Web browser, you should see the text Hello, Web appear in the Web browser's window. Listing 20.1 A simple Perl CGI script#!/usr/bin/perl print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n"; print "Hello, Web"; CGI script input is a bit trickier. Your script may receive input if it has generated output that displays a form on the Web browser. The input to the CGI script from the user's entering data in the form appears as field/value pairs. Each of these pairs uses an equals sign ( = ) to separate the field name from its returned value, and ampersands ( & ) separate different field/value pairs. For instance, your CGI script might see input like this: city=Oberlin&state=OH&zip=44074 Parsing and using such input is one of the strengths of certain scripting languages, including Perl, hence the popularity of Perl as a CGI scripting language. Scripting Security MeasuresOne of the dangers of using CGI scripts is that you are giving anybody who can reach your Web server with a Web browser the right to run programs on your computer. Of course, this is true of any server, in the sense that outsiders can use the server itself. A CGI-enabled Web server, though, opens the door substantially wider, because every CGI script is a potential security threat. The programmers who write servers usually take great care to ensure that the server doesn't suffer from any security flaws. Even with careful attention to this detail, security problems occasionally do crop up. A Web server's CGI scripting tools are often used by administrators who are not as skilled at programming as are those who write servers, and the results can be disastrous. Fortunately, there are certain measures you can take to help minimize the risk. Most importantly, you should double-check your User and Group settings in httpd.conf . Apache runs CGI scripts with the permissions specified by these options, so if you use an account with few privileges for this purpose, you minimize the damage that can be done if your script contains a flaw. Ideally, you should create a user and group only for Apache, and configure the account to not accept remote logins by any other means. This isn't a panacea, though; even with limited access, a buggy script could give a miscreant a foothold that could be used to create greater access to the server, when combined with other security problems. You can also use existing scripting libraries. This will both ease the development task and reduce the risk that your code contains fundamental security flaws. You can find scripting libraries, such as CGI.pm and CGI::Lite, on scripting Web sites like http://www.cpan.org. In the event that your Web server is compromised, you should take steps to ensure that it can do minimal damage. For instance, you should disable unnecessary servers, and restrict access from the Web server computer to other computers on your network. Part IV, Network Security and Router Functions, provides information on many general-purpose security measures you can take. |