WebApp Sec mailing list archives

Re: Tomcat on port 80 or Java as root


From: Daniel <daniel () dev ugc-labs co uk>
Date: 12 Mar 2004 14:48:39 -0000

In-Reply-To: <4051C7A0.5080505 () nomensa com>

If we look at how Apache does it, as soon as it receives a request it drops the uid from root to nobody (or whoever 
your least privelaged user is) before serving that page.

Tomcat on the other hand would serve the files under the root owner (correct me if im wrong here) and the Java VM 
cannot support setuid() calls. Also you need to look at the whole threading option as well.

What about port forwarding?



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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 14:22:24 +0000
From: Marc Deglos <md () nomensa com>
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To: webappsec () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Tomcat on port 80 or Java as root
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What are the implications of running tomcat as root(ie to run tomcat 
on port 80)

The use of the word 'root' is misleading - IMO, this reference to 'root' 
does not correlate to the root user.

The question seems to be:
"What are the implications of allowing web traffic to connect directly 
to Tomcat, instead of through apache?"

//Marc.



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