Special Edition - Using CGI:

Publisher:

Que Corporation

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.

Other References

• Special Edition, Using Perl for Web Programming, Ch. 9
• Perl 5 By Example, Ch 9.
• SD Magazine Feature - Safe CGI Scripting
• WWW Security FAQ - CGI Scripts
• CGI Developers Guide - Ch. 9
• Notes on the Security of a UNIX Web Server
• Boxed and Wrapped - Lincoln D. Stein
• CGI FAQ
• Maximum Security - Hackers Guide to Protecting...