HOWTO : Secure your Ubuntu Server in a passive way

*** The original post is written on June 13, 2009 by me. I repost here for reference. The original post is at here. ***

Root account access warning

Add the following to the top of the file /root/.bashrc and you will be informed by email when the root account is being accessed.

echo -e "Root Shell Access on `tty` \n `w`" | mail -s "Alert: Root Access" samiux@gmail.com

You are also required to add the captioned line at the sudoers' .bashrc file.

echo -e "Sudoer Shell Access on `tty` \n `w`" | mail -s "Alert: Sudoer Access" samiux@gmail.com

Hardening SSH

The official port of SSH is 22. You can change it to any port that between 1024 and 65535. You can do it at the router or firewall and you can do it at the configure file of SSH at /etc/ssh/sshd_config. You are recommended to disable the root account login via SSH even you are using Ubuntu.

Port 65535
PermitRootLogin no


sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart

Block all failed attempts

You are also required to install Fail2Ban in order to block all several time failed attempts.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install fail2ban


Change the setting at /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf when necessary.

Restart the fail2ban after the changes.

sudo /etc/init.d/fail2ban restart

Finally, enable firewall and only allow necessary ports to be access.

That's all! See you.

HOWTO : Highest secured Hiawatha Web Server 7.4 on Ubuntu 10.10 Server

Hiawatha is a very secure and fast web server in the market. It supports PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby. It is also very lightweight, easy to configure and setup too. For the performance, please refer to the study of SaltwaterC at here.

This tutorial is writing for setting up the highest secured web server. Please also to apply the "Optional" steps mentioned below for making the highest secured web server.

Prerequisite

Select OpenSSH and Mail Server when installing Ubuntu Server 10.10.

Update the fresh install system to the latest status.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


If the kernel or kernel modules have been updated, you are required to reboot your system before going further.

Step 1 - Installation of PHP5 and MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-xcache php5-suhosin php5-ffmpeg apache2-utils mini-httpd

Step 1a - Installation of PHP5 and MariaDB (Alternative)

Since MySQL is now owned by Oracle, the developers of previous MySQL reformed and developed MariaDB under GPL v2. It is compatible to MySQL and running much faster than MySQL too. You can use MariaDB as alternative. The commands and API are the same, such as "mysql -u root -p".

Prepare for installation of MariaDB
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 1BB943DB

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.list

Append the following lines.

deb http://mirrors.xmission.com/mariadb/repo/5.2/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://mirrors.xmission.com/mariadb/repo/5.2/ubuntu maverick main


Save the change and install the following.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-xcache php5-suhosin php5-ffmpeg apache2-utils mini-httpd

** You can also replace your MySQL to MariaDB in this way. The MySQL will be uninstall automatically. You can also use the my.cnf of MySQL without any problem or replace by the new one.

Step 2 - Installation of Hiawatha

Install required dependenices for Hiawatha.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libssl-dev dpkg-dev debhelper fakeroot libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev

Download the latest version of Hiawatha (the current version at this writing is 7.4).

wget http://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/files/hiawatha-7.4.tar.gz
tar -xzvf hiawatha-7.4.tar.gz
cd hiawatha-7.4


./configure
make deb


cd ..

sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_7.4_amd64.deb

or

sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_7.4_i386.deb

Step 3 - Configure PHP5 (Optional for security only)

The following settings are for making PHP5 more secure.

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Make changes as is.

cgi.rfc2616_headers = 1

zlib.output_compression = On
zlib.output_compression_level = 6

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
allow_url_fopen = Off
safe_mode = On
expose_php = Off
enable_dl = Off
disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd


*some PHP applications may require safe_mode = off

Step 4 - Configure php-fcgi (PHP's FastCGI)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

Uncomment the following line and change it as is.

Server = /usr/bin/php5-cgi ; 127.0.0.1:2005 ; www-data ; /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

If you make any change on php-fcgi.conf, make sure to restart it by the following commands.

sudo php-fcgi -k -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf
sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf


Step 5 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 1)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/hiawatha.conf

Uncomment ServerId at GENERAL SETTINGS.

ServerId = www-data

Uncomment the following entries at BINDING SETTINGS.

Binding {
   Port = 80
#   Interface = 127.0.0.1
   MaxKeepAlive = 30
   TimeForRequest = 3,20
}


Step 5a (Optional for security purpose) :

Add the following line at the GENERAL SETTINGS.

ConnectionsTotal = 1000
ConnectionsPerIP = 30
SystemLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/system.log
GarbageLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/garbage.log
ExploitLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/exploit.log


LogFormat = extended
ServerString = Apache
CGIwrapper = /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


Make changes for the following entries at BANNING SETTINGS.

BanOnGarbage = 300
BanOnMaxPerIP = 300
BanOnMaxReqSize = 300
BanOnTimeout = 300
KickOnBan = yes
RebanDuringBan = yes


BanOnDeniedBody = 300
BanOnSQLi = 300
BanOnFlooding = 30/1:300
BanlistMask = deny 192.168.0.0/24, deny 127.0.0.1


KickOnBan = yes
ReconnectDelay = 3


Step 5b :

The entries at COMMON GATEWAY INTERFACE (CGI) SETTINGS should be looking like this.

CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby:rb
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi:shtml
CGIextension = cgi


FastCGIserver {
   FastCGIid = PHP5
   ConnectTo = 127.0.0.1:2005
   Extension = php, php5
   SessionTimeout = 30
}


Step 5c :

Add the following line at VIRTUAL HOSTS.

Include /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites/

*Make sure the make a directory enable-sites under /etc/hiawatha.

sudo mkdir /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites

Step 6 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 2)

If your domain is mysite.com, you are required to create a file namely mysite.com and place it under /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites/mysite.com.

VirtualHost {
   Hostname = www.mysite.com, mysite.com
   WebsiteRoot = /var/www/mysite
   StartFile = index.php
   AccessLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/access.log
   ErrorLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/error.log
   TimeForCGI = 15
#   UseFastCGI = PHP5
#   UseToolkit = banshee
   DenyBody = ^.*%3Cscript.*%3C%2Fscript%3E.*$
   ExecuteCGI = yes
   PreventCSRF = yes
   PreventSQLi = yes
   PreventXSS = yes
   DenyBot = Googlebot:/
   DenyBot = twiceler:/
   DenyBot = MSNBot:/
   DenyBot = yahoo:/
   DenyBot = BaiDuSpider:/
   DenyBot = Ask:/
   DenyBot = Yahoo! Slurp:/
   DenyBot = Sogou web spider:/
   DenyBot = Sogou-Test-Spider:/
   DenyBot = Baiduspider+:/
   DenyBot = Yandex:/
   DenyBot = UniversalFeedParser:/
   DenyBot = Mediapartners-Google:/
   DenyBot = Sosospider+:/
   DenyBot = YoudaoBot:/
   DenyBot = ParchBot:/
   DenyBot = Curl:/
   DenyBot = msnbot:/
   DenyBot = NaverBot:/
   DenyBot = taptubot:/
   WrapCGI = jail_mysite
}


Step 7 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 3) (Optional for security purpose)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/cgi-wrapper.conf

CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi


Wrap = jail_mysite ; /var/www/mysite ; www-data:www-data

Step 8 - Configure Apparmor (Optional for security purpose)

Execute the following command and then let the web site running for a while, maybe a week or so.

sudo aa-genprof hiawatha

About one week later or the web page/site is misbehaving, issue the following command to update the profile. Remember to reload the profile after the command has been issued.

sudo aa-logprof

Or, if you are impatient, you can edit the following file instead.

sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

The content of usr.sbin.hiawatha should look like this or make it look like this.

# Last Modified: Thu Jun 3 01:52:13 2010
#include


/usr/sbin/hiawatha {
   #include
   #include
   #include
   #include


   capability chown,
   capability dac_override,
   capability fowner,
   capability fsetid,
   capability setgid,
   capability setuid,


   /bin/dash rix,
   owner /etc/hiawatha/ r,
   /etc/hiawatha/** r,
   /etc/host.conf r,
   /etc/hosts r,
   /etc/mailname r,
   /etc/nsswitch.conf r,
   owner /etc/passwd r,
   /etc/php5/ r,
   /etc/php5/** r,
   /etc/postfix/** r,
   /etc/protocols r,
   /etc/resolv.conf r,
   /etc/services r,
   /etc/snmp/snmp.conf r,
   /sys/devices/system/cpu/ r,
   /tmp/** rwk,
   /usr/bin/php5-cgi rix,
   /usr/lib/postfix/cleanup rix,
   /usr/lib{,32,64}/** mr,
   /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper rix,
   /usr/sbin/postdrop rix,
   /usr/sbin/sendmail rix,
   /usr/share/ r,
   /usr/share/** r,
   /var/www/ r,
   /var/www/** rwk,
   /var/lib/ r,
   /var/lib/** rw,
   /var/lib/hiawatha/** rw,
   owner /var/log/hiawatha/** w,
   /var/log/hiawatha/** r,
   owner /var/run/ r,
   owner /var/run/** w,
   /var/run/** r,
   /var/spool/postfix/** rw,
   /var/spool/postfix/pid/** wk,
}


Make the profile in enforce mode (activate the above settings).

sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

If you have change some settings, you should reload the profile.

sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

If you want to disable this profile.

sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


If you want to re-enable this profile after it has been disabled.

sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/usr.sbin.hiawatha
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


Step 9 - Enhance the security of cgi-wrapper (Optional for security purpose)

Now, your hiawatha is very secure but I would like to make it more secure.

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin

Apply Capabilities on cgi-wrapper.

sudo chmod u-s /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper
sudo setcap cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


The result of getcap :

sudo getcap /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper

It will display :
/usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper = cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep

Step 10 - Configure logwatch (Optional)

HOWTO : Logwatch for Hiawatha on Ubuntu

Step 11 - Change the ownership of the log files

cd /var/log/hiawatha
sudo chown www-data:www-data access.log
sudo chown www-data:www-data error.log
sudo chown www-data:www-data exploit.log


* "php-fcgi.log" and "system.log" leave them untouched (root:root).

Step 11a - Change ownership of all directories and files at the /var/www/mysite

Put the web application files to /var/www/mysite and then change the ownership of all directories and files under /var/www/mysite to root:root.

cd /var/www/mysite
sudo chown -R root:root *


Step 12 - Start, Stop and Restart Hiawatha

sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha start
sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha stop
suod /etc/init.d/hiawatha restart


Step 13 - Performance tuning for MySQL or MariaDB (Optional)

You can fine tune the MySQL or MariaDB as per this link.

Step 14 - Performance tuning for Ubuntu (Optional)

You can fine tune the Ubuntu Server as per this link.

Remarks :

If you encounter "500 Internal Server Error", you may consider to make the Apparmor to "Complain mode".

sudo aa-complain hiawatha

After several days browsing the website, you may consider to turn the Apparmor to "Enforce mode".

sudo aa-logprof

sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

It is because the captioned usr.sbin.hiawatha may not 100% work for you.

That's all! See you.

HOWTO : Highest secured Hiawatha Web Server 7.3 on Ubuntu 10.04 Server

Hiawatha is a very secure and fast web server in the market. It supports PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby. It is also very lightweight, easy to configure and setup too. For the performance, please refer to the study of SaltwaterC at here.

This tutorial is writing for setting up the highest secured web server. Please also to apply the "Optional" steps mentioned below for making the highest secured web server.

Prerequisite

Select OpenSSH and Mail Server when installing Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS.

Update the fresh install system to the latest status.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


If the kernel or kernel modules have been updated, you are required to reboot your system before going further.

Step 1 - Installation of PHP5 and MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-xcache php5-suhosin php5-ffmpeg

Step 2 - Installation of Hiawatha

Install required dependenices for Hiawatha.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libssl-dev dpkg-dev debhelper fakeroot libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev

Download the latest version of Hiawatha (the current version at this writing is 7.3).

sudo wget http://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/files/hiawatha-7.3.tar.gz
tar -xzvf hiawatha-7.3.tar.gz
cd hiawatha-7.3


./configure
make deb


cd ..

sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_7.3_amd64.deb

or

sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_7.3_i386.deb

Step 3 - Configure PHP5 (Optional for security only)

The following settings are for making PHP5 more secure.

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Make changes as is.

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
allow_url_fopen = Off
safe_mode = On
expose_php = Off
enable_dl = Off
disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd


*some PHP applications may require safe_mode = off

Step 4 - Configure php-fcgi (PHP's FastCGI)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

Uncomment the following line and change it as is.

Server = /usr/bin/php5-cgi ; 127.0.0.1:2005 ; www-data ; /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

If you make any change on php-fcgi.conf, make sure to restart it by the following commands.

sudo php-fcgi -k -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf
sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf


Step 5 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 1)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/hiawatha.conf

Uncomment ServerId at GENERAL SETTINGS.

ServerId = www-data

Uncomment the following entries at BINDING SETTINGS.

Binding {
   Port = 80
#   Interface = 127.0.0.1
   MaxKeepAlive = 30
   TimeForRequest = 3,20
}


Step 5a (Optional for security purpose) :

Add the following line at the GENERAL SETTINGS.

ConnectionsTotal = 1000
ConnectionsPerIP = 10
SystemLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/system.log
GarbageLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/garbage.log
ExploitLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/exploit.log


LogFormat = extended
ExploitLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/exploit.log
ServerString = Apache
CGIwrapper = /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


Make changes for the following entries at BANNING SETTINGS.

BanOnGarbage = 300
BanOnMaxPerIP = 300
BanOnMaxReqSize = 300
BanOnTimeout = 300
KickOnBan = yes
RebanDuringBan = yes


BanOnDeniedBody = 300
BanOnSQLi = 300
BanOnFlooding = 10/1:15
BanlistMask = deny 192.168.0.0/24, deny 127.0.0.1


KickOnBan = yes
ReconnectDelay = 3


Step 5b :

The entries at COMMON GATEWAY INTERFACE (CGI) SETTINGS should be looking like this.

CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby:rb
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi:shtml
CGIextension = cgi


FastCGIserver {
   FastCGIid = PHP5
   ConnectTo = 127.0.0.1:2005
   Extension = php, php5
   SessionTimeout = 30
}


Step 5c :

Add the following line at VIRTUAL HOSTS.

Include /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites/

*Make sure the make a directory enable-sites under /etc/hiawatha.

sudo mkdir /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites

Step 6 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 2)

If your domain is mysite.com, you are required to create a file namely mysite.com and place it under /etc/hiawatha/enable-sites/mysite.com.

VirtualHost {
   Hostname = www.mysite.com, mysite.com
   WebsiteRoot = /var/www/mysite
   StartFile = index.php
   AccessLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/access.log
   ErrorLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/error.log
   TimeForCGI = 15
#   UseFastCGI = PHP5
#   UseToolkit = banshee
   DenyBody = ^.*%3Cscript.*%3C%2Fscript%3E.*$
   ExecuteCGI = yes
   PreventCSRF = yes
   PreventSQLi = yes
   PreventXSS = yes
   DenyBot = Googlebot:/
   DenyBot = twiceler:/
   DenyBot = MSNBot:/
   DenyBot = yahoo:/
   DenyBot = BaiDuSpider:/
   DenyBot = Ask:/
   DenyBot = Yahoo! Slurp:/
   DenyBot = Sogou web spider:/
   DenyBot = Sogou-Test-Spider:/
   DenyBot = Baiduspider+:/
   DenyBot = Yandex:/
   DenyBot = UniversalFeedParser:/
   DenyBot = Mediapartners-Google:/
   DenyBot = Sosospider+:/
   DenyBot = YoudaoBot:/
   DenyBot = ParchBot:/
   DenyBot = Curl:/
   DenyBot = msnbot:/
   DenyBot = NaverBot:/
   DenyBot = taptubot:/
   WrapCGI = jail_mysite
}


Step 7 - Configure Hiawatha (Part 3) (Optional for security purpose)

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/cgi-wrapper.conf

CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi


Wrap = jail_mysite ; /var/www/mysite ; www-data:www-data

Step 8 - Configure Apparmor (Optional for security purpose)

Execute the following command and then let the web site running for a while, maybe a week or so.

sudo aa-genprof hiawatha

About one week later or the web page/site is misbehaving, issue the following command to update the profile. Remember to reload the profile after the command has been issued.

sudo aa-logprof

Or, if you are impatient, you can edit the following file instead.

sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

The content of usr.sbin.hiawatha should look like this or make it look like this.

# Last Modified: Thu Jun 3 01:52:13 2010
#include


/usr/sbin/hiawatha {
   #include
   #include
   #include
   #include


   capability chown,
   capability dac_override,
   capability fowner,
   capability fsetid,
   capability setgid,
   capability setuid,


   /bin/dash rix,
   owner /etc/hiawatha/ r,
   owner /etc/hiawatha/** r,
   /etc/host.conf r,
   /etc/hosts r,
   /etc/mailname r,
   /etc/nsswitch.conf r,
   owner /etc/passwd r,
   /etc/php5/ r,
   /etc/php5/** r,
   /etc/postfix/** r,
   /etc/protocols r,
   /etc/resolv.conf r,
   /etc/services r,
   /sys/devices/system/cpu/ r,
   /usr/bin/php5-cgi rix,
   /usr/lib/postfix/cleanup rix,
   /usr/lib{,32,64}/** mr,
   /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper rix,
   /usr/sbin/postdrop rix,
   /usr/sbin/sendmail rix,
   /usr/share/ r,
   /usr/share/** r,
   /var/www/ r,
   /var/www/** r,
   /var/www/logfiles/ r,
   /var/www/logfiles/** rw,
   /var/lib/ r,
   /var/lib/** rw,
   /var/lib/hiawatha/** rw,
   owner /var/log/hiawatha/** w,
   /var/log/hiawatha/** r,
   owner /var/run/ r,
   owner /var/run/** rw,
   /var/spool/postfix/** rw,
   /var/spool/postfix/pid/** wk,
   /var/www/hiawatha/ r,
}


Make the profile in enforce mode (activate the above settings).

sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

If you have change some settings, you should reload the profile.

sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

If you want to disable this profile.

sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


If you want to re-enable this profile after it has been disabled.

sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/usr.sbin.hiawatha
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


Step 9 - Enhance the security of cgi-wrapper (Optional for security purpose)

Now, your hiawatha is very secure but I would like to make it more secure.

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin

Apply Capabilities on cgi-wrapper.

sudo chmod u-s /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper
sudo setcap cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


The result of getcap :

sudo getcap /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper

It will display :
/usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper = cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep

Step 10 - Configure logwatch (Optional)

HOWTO : Logwatch for Hiawatha on Ubuntu

Step 11 - Start, Stop and Restart Hiawatha

sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha start
sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha stop
suod /etc/init.d/hiawatha restart


That's all! See you.

HOWTO : Highest secured Hiawatha Web Server 6.19 on Ubuntu 9.10 Server

Hiawatha is a web server that equipped with a lot of security features. It is developed by Hugo Leisink since 2002. 

Hiawatha supports PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby. It is a lightweight and fast as well as secured web server.

Installation of Linux, Hiawatha, MySQL and PHP - LHMP

Step 0 - Install Ubuntu 9.10

Install Ubuntu 9.10 Server and OpenSSH.  If your web application requires email function, you should also install Mail Server also.

Make sure you have perform the following commands at the terminal (or console).

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


If the kernel or kernel modules have been updated, you should reboot your computer/server.

Step 1 - Install PHP5 and MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl

*Note : some modules will not be required, such as php5-sqlite and php5-snmp.  If your web application requires them, make sure to install them.

Step 2 - Install Hiawatha

Download the current Hiawatha, 6.19 at this time of writing.

sudo wget http://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/files/hiawatha-6.19.tar.gz
tar -xzvf hiawatha-6.19.tar.gz
cd hiawatha-6.19


Install requires dependenices.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libssl-dev dpkg-dev debhelper fakeroot libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev

At the hiawatha-6.19 directory, build the Hiawatha deb package.

./configure
make deb


The deb package will be created at your home directory, such as /home/samiux.  You can install it now.

cd ..

For 64-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.19_amd64.deb

For 32-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.19_i386.deb

Step 3 - Configure PHP5

Edit the php.ini.

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Make change as is.

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
allow_url_fopen = Off
safe_mode = On
expose_php = Off
enable_dl = Off
disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd


*Note : some PHP application may requires safe_mode = Off.

Edit Hiawatha's php-fcgi.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

Uncomment the following line.
Server = /usr/bin/php5-cgi ; 127.0.0.1:2005 ; www-data

Activate php-fcgi.

sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

If you make any change on php-fcgi.conf, make sure to restart it by following commands.

sudo php-fcgi -k -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf
sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf


Step 4 - Configure Hiawatha

Edit the file hiawatha.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/hiawatha.conf

Uncomment ServerId at GENERAL SETTINGS.
ServerId = www-data

Add the following line at the GENERAL SETTINGS. Apache compatible log file format.
LogFormat = extended
ExploitLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/exploit.log
ServerString = Apache
CGIwrapper = /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


Uncomment the following entries at BINDING SETTINGS.
Binding {
   Port = 80
   MaxKeepAlive = 30
   TimeForRequest = 3,20
}


Uncomment all the entries at BANNING SETTINGS.
BanOnGarbage = 300
BanOnMaxPerIP = 60
BanOnMaxReqSize = 300
KickOnBan = yes
RebanDuringBan = yes
BanOnSQLi = 60
BanOnFlooding = 10/1:15
BanlistMask = allow 192.168.0.0/24


*Note : Make change to the Banlistmask in order to meet your network requirement.

Uncomment php5-cgi and CGIextension lines.
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby:rb
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi:shtml
CGIextension = cgi


Uncomment all the entries of FastCGIserver and rename ConnectTo to 127.0.0.1:2005.

FastCGIserver {
   FastCGIid = PHP5
   ConnectTo = 127.0.0.1:2005
   Extension = php, php5
   SessionTimeout = 30
}


Optional - Create the following lines under URL TOOLKIT.

UrlToolkit {
   ToolkitID = CMS_common
   RequestURI isfile Return
   RequestURI exists Return
   Match ^/(favicon.ico|robots.txt|sitemap.xml)$ Return
   Match .*\?(.*) Rewrite /index.php?$1
   Match .* Rewrite /index.php
}


*Note : UrlToolkit is similar to Apache's mod_rewrite.

Create a VirtualHost for your site.

VirtualHost {
   Hostname = samiux.blogspot.com
   #Alias = /php_my_admin:/usr/share/phpmyadmin
   WebsiteRoot = /var/www/blog
   StartFile = index.php
   AccessLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog_access.log
   ErrorLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog_error.log
   TimeForCGI = 5
   #UseFastCGI = PHP5
   UseToolkit = CMS_common
   ExecuteCGI = yes
   PreventCSRF = yes
   PreventSQLi = yes
   PreventXSS = yes
   DenyBot = Googlebot:/
   DenyBot = twiceler:/
   DenyBot = MSNBot:/
   DenyBot = yahoo:/
   DenyBot = BaiDuSpider:/
   DenyBot = Ask:/
   DenyBot = Yahoo! Slurp:/
   DenyBot = Sogou web spider:/
   DenyBot = Sogou-Test-Spider:/
   DenyBot = Baiduspider+:/
   DenyBot = Yandex:/
   DenyBot = UniversalFeedParser:/
   DenyBot = Mediapartners-Google:/
   DenyBot = Sosospider+:/
   DenyBot = YoudaoBot:/
   DenyBot = ParchBot:/
   DenyBot = Curl:/
   DenyBot = msnbot:/
   DenyBot = NaverBot:/
   DenyBot = taptubot:/
   WrapCGI = jail
}


Configure cgi-wrapper.conf.
sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/cgi-wrapper.conf

Make changes to the file.
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi


Wrap = jail ; /var/www ; www-data:www-data

*Note : DenyBot entries are optional.  If you do not want spiders and bots to crawl your site, you should enable it.  Those entries are examples only.  UseToolKit is also optional.

Make sure /var/log/hiawatha/blog exists (example) and its ownership is www-data.

If not, make it as is.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog

Restart Hiawatha.
sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha restart

Now, make sure the ownership of access.log and error.log are www-data.  If not, make them as is.

sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog/*

Step 5 - Configure Apparmor (to make Hiawatha more safety)

Create Apparmor profile for Hiawatha.
sudo aa-genprof hiawatha

Edit the profile usr.sbin.hiawatha.
sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

Make the entries look like this.
# Last Modified: Thu Oct 1 10:00:57 2009
#include


/usr/sbin/hiawatha {
#include


   capability chown,
   capability dac_override,
   capability net_bind_service,
   capability setgid,
   capability setuid,
   capability sys_chroot,


   network inet tcp,


   /bin/dash rix,
   /etc/group r,
   /etc/hiawatha/** r,
   /etc/host.conf r,
   /etc/hosts r,
   /etc/mailname r,
   /etc/nsswitch.conf r,
   /etc/passwd r,
   /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini r,
   /etc/php5/conf.d/ r,
   /etc/php5/conf.d/**.ini r,
   /etc/phpmyadmin/** r,
   /etc/postfix/**.cf r,
   /etc/protocols r,
   /etc/resolv.conf r,
   /etc/services r,
   /usr/bin/php5-cgi rix,
   /usr/lib{,32,64}/** mr,
   /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper rix,
   /usr/sbin/hiawatha mr,
   /usr/sbin/postdrop rix,
   /usr/sbin/sendmail rix,
   /usr/share/dbconfig-common/** r,
   /usr/share/file/magic.mime r,
   /usr/share/mysql/charsets/Index.xml r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/** r,
   /usr/share/zoneinfo/ r,
   owner /var/lib/** rwk,
   /var/lib/hiawatha/* rw,
   /var/log/hiawatha/* r,
   /var/log/hiawatha/** rw,
   /var/run/hiawatha.pid rw,
   owner /var/spool/postfix/maildrop/** rw,
   /var/spool/postfix/public/pickup w,
   /var/www/ r,
   /var/www/** rw,
}


* suppose you are using postfix.

Make the profile in enforce mode (active).
sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

If you have change some settings, you should reload the profile.
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

If you want to disable this profile.
sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


If you want to re-enable this profile after it has been disabled.
sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/usr.sbin.hiawatha
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


Step 6 - Improve the security of CGI-Wrapper

Now, your hiawatha is very secure but I would like to make it more secure.

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin

Apply Capabilities on cgi-wrapper.
sudo chmod u-s /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper
sudo setcap cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


The result of getcap :

sudo getcap /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper

It will display :
/usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper = cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep

Step 7 - logwatch configuration

LogWatch configuration as per Ubuntu 9.04

Reference :
Hiawatha Manual
Hiawatha Features
AppArmor

Known Issue
Alias cannot be functioned with this configuration so far.

That's all.  See you!

HOWTO : Highest secured Hiawatha Web Server (6.17.1) on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

What is Hiawatha?

Hiawatha is a web server that developed by Hugo Leisink since 2002.  Hiawatha is not as well known as Apache; however, it has some unique features that Apache lacks of.  Apache requires some modules to do the security purpose, such as modsecurity and mod_rewrite.  Hiawatha is already built-in.  She can ban some bad traffic and bad activities on your web server.  Her footprint is also small, that is 130kb, surprise?!  She is the default web server for Austrumi and Puppy Linux. 

Although the user manual at her official site is not detail enough (at the time of this writing), it is quite easy to configure and runs on a production server.  There may be a bug at cgi-wrapper in Hiawatha 6.17.1 and it requires to modify the source code to solve the problem.

Hiawatha runs MySQL and PHP great in cgi mode.  It can run in Windows environment too (but not yet tried).  This tutorial is going to show you how to configure Hiawatha to work with MySQL and PHP.

Installation of Linux, Hiawatha, MySQL and PHP - LHMP

Step 0 - Install Ubuntu 9.04

Install Ubuntu 9.04 Server and OpenSSH.  If your web application requires email function, you should also install Mail Server also.

Make sure you have perform the following commands at the terminal (or console).

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


If the kernel or kernel modules have been updated, you should reboot your computer/server.

Step 1 - Install PHP5 and MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl

*Note : some modules will not be required, such as php5-sqlite and php5-snmp.  If your web application requires them, make sure to install them.

Step 2 - Install Hiawatha

Download the current Hiawatha, 6.17.1 at this time of writing.

sudo wget http://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/files/hiawatha-6.17.1.tar.gz
tar -xzvf hiawatha-6.17.1.tar.gz
cd hiawatha-6.17.1


Install requires dependenices.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libssl-dev dpkg-dev debhelper fakeroot libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev

Fix bug on Hiawatha.
sudo nano cgi-wrapper.c

At line 103, just below rest = uncomment(line); add the following lines :

if (*rest == '\0') {
   continue;
}


At the hiawatha-6.17.1 directory, build the Hiawatha deb package.

./configure
make deb


The deb package will be created at your home directory, such as /home/samiux.  You can install it now.

cd ..

For 64-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.17.1_amd64.deb

For 32-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.17.1_i386.deb

Step 3 - Configure PHP5

Edit the php.ini.

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Make change as is.

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
allow_url_fopen = Off
safe_mode = On
expose_php = Off
enable_dl = Off
disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd


*Note : some PHP application may requires safe_mode = Off.

Edit Hiawatha's php-fcgi.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

Uncomment the following line.
Server = /usr/bin/php5-cgi ; 127.0.0.1:2005 ; www-data

Activate php-fcgi.

sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

If you make any change on php-fcgi.conf, make sure to restart it by following commands.

sudo php-fcgi -k -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf
sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf


Step 4 - Configure Hiawatha

Edit the file hiawatha.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/hiawatha.conf

Uncomment ServerId at GENERAL SETTINGS.
ServerId = www-data

Add the following line at the GENERAL SETTINGS. Apache compatible log file format.
LogFormat = extended
CGIwrapper = /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


Uncomment the following entries at BINDING SETTINGS.
Binding {
   Port = 80
   MaxKeepAlive = 30
   TimeForRequest = 3,20
}


Uncomment all the entries at BANNING SETTINGS.
BanOnGarbage = 300
BanOnMaxPerIP = 60
BanOnMaxReqSize = 300
KickOnBan = yes
RebanDuringBan = yes
BanOnSQLi = 60
BanOnFlooding = 10/1:15
BanlistMask = allow 192.168.0.0/24


*Note : Make change to the Banlistmask in order to meet your network requirement.

Uncomment php5-cgi and CGIextension lines.
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby:rb
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi:shtml
CGIextension = cgi


Uncomment all the entries of FastCGIserver and rename ConnectTo to 127.0.0.1:2005.

FastCGIserver {
   FastCGIid = PHP5
   ConnectTo = 127.0.0.1:2005
   Extension = php, php5
   SessionTimeout = 30
}


Optional - Create the following lines under URL TOOLKIT.

UrlToolkit {
   ToolkitID = CMS_common
   RequestURI isfile Return
   RequestURI exists Return
   Match ^/(favicon.ico|robots.txt|sitemap.xml)$ Return
   Match .*\?(.*) Rewrite /index.php?$1
   Match .* Rewrite /index.php
}


*Note : UrlToolkit is similar to Apache's mod_rewrite.

Create a VirtualHost for your site.

VirtualHost {
   Hostname = samiux.blogspot.com
   #Alias = /php_my_admin:/usr/share/phpmyadmin
   WebsiteRoot = /var/www/blog
   StartFile = index.php
   AccessLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog/access.log
   ErrorLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog/error.log
   TimeForCGI = 5
   #UseFastCGI = PHP5
   UseToolkit = CMS_common
   ExecuteCGI = yes
   PreventCMDi = yes
   PreventCSRF = yes
   PreventSQLi = yes
   PreventXSS = yes
   DenyBot = Googlebot:/
   DenyBot = twiceler:/
   DenyBot = MSNBot:/
   DenyBot = yahoo:/
   DenyBot = BaiDuSpider:/
   DenyBot = Ask:/
   DenyBot = Yahoo! Slurp:/
   DenyBot = Sogou web spider:/
   DenyBot = Sogou-Test-Spider:/
   DenyBot = Baiduspider+:/
   DenyBot = Yandex:/
   DenyBot = UniversalFeedParser:/
   DenyBot = Mediapartners-Google:/
   DenyBot = Sosospider+:/
   DenyBot = YoudaoBot:/
   DenyBot = ParchBot:/
   DenyBot = Curl:/
   DenyBot = msnbot:/
   DenyBot = NaverBot:/
   WrapCGI = jail
}


Configure cgi-wrapper.conf.
sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/cgi-wrapper.conf

Make changes to the file.
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi


Wrap = jail ; /var/www ; www-data:www-data

*Note : Some CMS will not well when PreventCMDi = yes.  DenyBot entries are optional.  If you do not want spiders and bots to crawl your site, you should enable it.  Those entries are examples only.  UseToolKit is also optional.

Make sure /var/log/hiawatha/blog exists (example) and its ownership is www-data.

If not, make it as is.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog

Restart Hiawatha.
sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha restart

Now, make sure the ownership of access.log and error.log are www-data.  If not, make them as is.

sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog/*

Step 5 - Configure Apparmor (to make Hiawatha more safety)

Create Apparmor profile for Hiawatha.
sudo aa-genprof hiawatha

Edit the profile usr.sbin.hiawatha.
sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

Make the entries look like this.
# Last Modified: Thu Oct 1 10:00:57 2009
#include


/usr/sbin/hiawatha {
#include


   capability chown,
   capability dac_override,
   capability net_bind_service,
   capability setgid,
   capability setuid,
   capability sys_chroot,


   network inet tcp,


   /bin/dash rix,
   /etc/group r,
   /etc/hiawatha/** r,
   /etc/host.conf r,
   /etc/hosts r,
   /etc/mailname r,
   /etc/nsswitch.conf r,
   /etc/passwd r,
   /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini r,
   /etc/php5/conf.d/ r,
   /etc/php5/conf.d/**.ini r,
   /etc/phpmyadmin/** r,
   /etc/postfix/**.cf r,
   /etc/protocols r,
   /etc/resolv.conf r,
   /etc/services r,
   /usr/bin/php5-cgi rix,
   /usr/lib{,32,64}/** mr,
   /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper rix,
   /usr/sbin/hiawatha mr,
   /usr/sbin/postdrop rix,
   /usr/sbin/sendmail rix,
   /usr/share/dbconfig-common/** r,
   /usr/share/file/magic.mime r,
   /usr/share/mysql/charsets/Index.xml r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/** r,
   /usr/share/zoneinfo/ r,
   owner /var/lib/** rwk,
   /var/lib/hiawatha/* rw,
   /var/log/hiawatha/* r,
   /var/log/hiawatha/** rw,
   /var/run/hiawatha.pid rw,
   owner /var/spool/postfix/maildrop/** rw,
   /var/spool/postfix/public/pickup w,
   /var/www/ r,
   /var/www/** rw,
}


* suppose you are using postfix.

Make the profile in enforce mode (active).
sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

If you have change some settings, you should reload the profile.
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

If you want to disable this profile.
sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


If you want to re-enable this profile after it has been disabled.
sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/usr.sbin.hiawatha
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


Step 6 - Improve the security of CGI-Wrapper

Now, your hiawatha is very secure but I would like to make it more secure.

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin

Apply Capabilities on cgi-wrapper.
sudo chmod u-s /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper
sudo setcap cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper


The result of getcap :

sudo getcap /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper

It will display :
/usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper = cap_setgid,cap_setuid+ep

Reference :
Hiawatha Manual
Hiawatha Features
AppArmor

Known Issue
Alias cannot be functioned with this configuration so far.

That's all.  See you!

HOWTO : Logwatch for Hiawatha on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

Logwatch reads your log files and alert you about the unusual log entries. It is working perfect for Apache. However, the log directory of Hiawatha is different from Apache. You should do something else on logwatch in order to make it to read Hiawatha log files.

Step 0 :

Install logwatch.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install logwatch


Step 1 :

Make changes to the logwatch configure file in order to tell her to send you a email report.

sudo nano /usr/share/logwatch/default.conf/logwatch.conf

Change the settings of the following lines.

Output = mail
Format = html
MailTo = samiux@gmail.com


Step 2 :

You should also change the setting at the daily cron job.

sudo nano /etc/cron.daily/00logwatch

Make the entry like this.

/usr/sbin/logwatch --mailto samiux@gmail.com

Step 3 :

Make logwatch to read Hiawatha log files.

sudo nano /usr/share/logwatch/default.conf/logfiles/http.conf

Add the following lines on the appropriate sections.

LogFile = hiawatha/*access.log
LogFile = hiawatha/*access.log.1
LogFile = hiawatha/*error.log
LogFile = hiawatha/*error.log.1
LogFile = hiawatha/*system.log
LogFile = hiawatha/*system.log.1
LogFile = hiawatha/*garbage.log
LogFile = hiawatha/*garbage.log.1
LogFile = hiawatha/*php-fcgi.log
LogFile = hiawatha/*php-fcgi.log.1

Archive = hiawatha/*access.log.*.gz
Archive = hiawatha/*error.log.*.gz
Archive = hiawatha/*system.log.*.gz
Archive = hiawatha/*garbage.log.*.gz
Archive = hiawatha/*php-fcgi.log.*.gz


See also (Hiawatha 6.17.1 installation) :
Samiux's Blog
or
Almost Secure and Perfect Ubuntu Server

That's all. See you!

HOWTO : Most secure web server (Hiawatha 6.17.1) on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

What is Hiawatha?

Hiawatha is a web server that developed by Hugo Leisink since 2002. Hiawatha is not as well known as Apache; however, it has some unique features that Apache lacks of. Apache requires some modules to do the security purpose, such as modsecurity and mod_rewrite. Hiawatha is already built-in. She can ban some bad traffic and bad activities on your web server. Her footprint is also small, that is 130kb, surprise?! She is the default web server for Austrumi and Puppy Linux.

Although the user manual at her official site is not detail enough (at the time of this writing), it is quite easy to configure and runs on a production server. There may be a bug at cgi-wrapper in Hiawatha 6.17.1 and it cannot be configured to run PHP5 in cgi-wrapper mode at the moment. However, perl is no problem.

Hiawatha runs MySQL and PHP great in cgi mode. It can run in Windows environment too (but not yet tried). This tutorial is going to show you how to configure Hiawatha to work with MySQL and PHP.

Installation of Linux, Hiawatha, MySQL and PHP - LHMP

Step 0 - Install Ubuntu 9.04

Install Ubuntu 9.04 Server and OpenSSH. If your web application requires email function, you should also install Mail Server also.

Make sure you have perform the following commands at the terminal (or console).

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


If the kernel or kernel modules have been updated, you should reboot your computer/server.

Step 1 - Install PHP5 and MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client php5-cgi php5 php5-cli php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl

*Note : some modules will not be required, such as php5-sqlite and php5-snmp. If your web application requires them, make sure to install them.

Step 2 - Install Hiawatha

Download the current Hiawatha, 6.17.1 at this time of writing.

sudo wget http://www.hiawatha-webserver.org/files/hiawatha-6.17.1.tar.gz
tar -xzvf hiawatha-6.17.1.tar.gz
cd hiawatha-6.17.1


Install requires dependenices.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libssl-dev dpkg-dev debhelper fakeroot libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev

At the hiawatha-6.17.1 directory, build the Hiawatha deb package.

./configure
make deb


The deb package will be created at your home directory, such as /home/samiux. You can install it now.

cd ..

For 64-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.17.1_amd64.deb

For 32-bit system :
sudo dpkg -i hiawatha_6.17.1_i386.deb

Step 3 - Configure PHP5

Edit the php.ini.

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Make change as is.

display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
allow_url_fopen = Off
safe_mode = On
expose_php = Off
enable_dl = Off
disable_functions = system, show_source, symlink, exec, dl, shell_exec, passthru, phpinfo, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd


*Note : some PHP application may requires safe_mode = Off.

Edit Hiawatha's php-fcgi.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

Uncomment the following line.
Server = /usr/bin/php5-cgi ; 127.0.0.1:2005 ; www-data

Activate php-fcgi.

sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf

If you make any change on php-fcgi.conf, make sure to restart it by following commands.

sudo php-fcgi -k -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf
sudo php-fcgi -c /etc/hiawatha/php-fcgi.conf


Step 4 - Configure Hiawatha

Edit the file hiawatha.conf.

sudo nano /etc/hiawatha/hiawatha.conf

Uncomment ServerId at GENERAL SETTINGS.
ServerId = www-data

Add the following line at the GENERAL SETTINGS. Apache compatible log file format.
LogFormat = extended

Uncomment the following entries at BINDING SETTINGS.
Binding {
   Port = 80
   MaxKeepAlive = 30
   TimeForRequest = 3,20
}


Uncomment all the entries at BANNING SETTINGS.
BanOnGarbage = 300
BanOnMaxPerIP = 60
BanOnMaxReqSize = 300
KickOnBan = yes
RebanDuringBan = yes
BanOnSQLi = 0
BanOnFlooding = 10/1:15
BanlistMask = allow 192.168.0.0/24


*Note : Make change to the Banlistmask in order to meet your network requirement.

Uncomment php5-cgi and CGIextension lines.
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/perl:pl
CGIhandler = /usr/bin/php5-cgi:php
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/python:py
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ruby:rb
#CGIhandler = /usr/bin/ssi-cgi:shtml
CGIextension = cgi


Uncomment all the entries of FastCGIserver and rename ConnectTo to 127.0.0.1:2005.

FastCGIserver {
   FastCGIid = PHP5
   ConnectTo = 127.0.0.1:2005
   Extension = php, php5
   SessionTimeout = 30
}


Optional - Create the following lines under URL TOOLKIT.

UrlToolkit {
   ToolkitID = CMS_common
   RequestURI isfile Return
   RequestURI exists Return
   Match ^/(favicon.ico|robots.txt|sitemap.xml)$ Return
   Match .*\?(.*) Rewrite /index.php?$1
   Match .* Rewrite /index.php
}


*Note : UrlToolkit is similar to Apache's mod_rewrite.

Create a VirtualHost for your site.

VirtualHost {
   Hostname = samiux.blogspot.com
   Alias = /php_my_admin:/usr/share/phpmyadmin
   WebsiteRoot = /var/www/blog
   StartFile = index.php
   AccessLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog/access.log
   ErrorLogfile = /var/log/hiawatha/blog/error.log
   TimeForCGI = 5
   UseFastCGI = PHP5
   UseToolkit = CMS_common
   ExecuteCGI = yes
   PreventCMDi = yes
   PreventCSRF = yes
   PreventSQLi = yes
   PreventXSS = yes
   DenyBot = Googlebot:/
   DenyBot = twiceler:/
   DenyBot = MSNBot:/
   DenyBot = yahoo:/
   DenyBot = BaiDuSpider:/
   DenyBot = Ask:/
   DenyBot = Yahoo! Slurp:/
   DenyBot = Sogou web spider:/
   DenyBot = Sogou-Test-Spider:/
   DenyBot = Baiduspider+:/
   DenyBot = Yandex:/
   DenyBot = UniversalFeedParser:/
   DenyBot = Mediapartners-Google:/
   DenyBot = Sosospider+:/
}


*Note : Some CMS will not well when PreventCMDi = yes. DenyBot entries are optional. If you do not want spiders and bots to crawl your site, you should enable it. Those entries are examples only. UseToolKit is also optional.

Make sure /var/log/hiawatha/blog exists (example) and its ownership is www-data.

If not, make it as is.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog

Restart Hiawatha.
sudo /etc/init.d/hiawatha restart

Now, make sure the ownership of access.log and error.log are www-data. If not, make them as is.

sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/hiawatha/blog/*

Step 5 - Configure Apparmor (to make Hiawatha more safety)

Create Apparmor profile for Hiawatha.
sudo aa-genprof hiawatha

Edit the profile usr.sbin.hiawatha.
sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

Make the entries look like this.

# Last Modified: Tue Sep 1 10:28:15 2009
#include


/usr/sbin/hiawatha {
   #include


   capability chown,
   capability dac_override,
   capability net_bind_service,
   capability setgid,
   capability setuid,
   capability sys_chroot,


   network inet tcp,

   /etc/group r,
   /etc/hiawatha/** r,
   /etc/nsswitch.conf r,
   /etc/passwd r,
   /usr/bin/php5-cgi rix,
   /usr/sbin/cgi-wrapper mr,
   /usr/sbin/hiawatha mr,
   /usr/share/dbconfig-common/** r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ r,
   /usr/share/phpmyadmin/** r,
   /var/lib/** r,
   /var/lib/hiawatha/* rw,
   /var/log/hiawatha/* r,
   /var/log/hiawatha/** rw,
   /var/log/hiawatha/blog/* r,
   /var/log/hiawatha/blog/** a,
   /var/run/hiawatha.pid w,
   /var/www/ r,
   /var/www/** rw,
}


Make the profile in enforce mode (active).
sudo aa-enforce hiawatha

If you have change some settings, you should reload the profile.
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha

If you want to disable this profile.
sudo ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo apparmor_parser -R < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


If you want to re-enable this profile after it has been disabled.
sudo rm /etc/apparmor.d/disable/usr.sbin.hiawatha
sudo apparmor_parser -r < /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.hiawatha


Step 6 - Configure CGI-Wrapper

To be continue ....

Reference :
Hiawatha Manual
Hiawatha Features
AppArmor

That's all. See you!