PERL CGI Beginners - DirectoryIndex

Author

DirectoryIndex

Octavian Rasnita

2004-09-12, 8:55 pm

Hello all,

I have named index.html a file that in fact is a perl cgi program and I have
put it in the directory /cgi-bin/

It works fine if I access it using an URL like:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/index.html

The problem is that I want to access that program using:

http://localhost/cgi-bin/

But it gives me the 403 Access denied error.

I have put Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews Includes ExecCGI indexes for
that directory but it still doesn't choose automaticly the file index.html
from that directory.

I have tested but it doesn't choose even if I use another extension (like
..cgi) and if I set it to be a DirectoryIndex in httpd.conf.
Do you know if a certain file (like index.html) can be automaticly chosen by
the web server if rezides in a ScriptAlias directory (like /cgi-bin/)?

Or, are there any other secure solutions for what I want to do?

Thank you.

Teddy

Hcohen2

2004-09-12, 8:55 pm

Octavian Rasnita wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I have named index.html a file that in fact is a perl cgi program and I have
>put it in the directory /cgi-bin/
>
>It works fine if I access it using an URL like:
>
>http://localhost/cgi-bin/index.html
>
>The problem is that I want to access that program using:
>
>http://localhost/cgi-bin/
>
>But it gives me the 403 Access denied error.
>
>I have put Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews Includes ExecCGI indexes for
>that directory but it still doesn't choose automaticly the file index.html
>from that directory.
>
>I have tested but it doesn't choose even if I use another extension (like
>.cgi) and if I set it to be a DirectoryIndex in httpd.conf.
>Do you know if a certain file (like index.html) can be automaticly chosen by
>the web server if rezides in a ScriptAlias directory (like /cgi-bin/)?
>
>Or, are there any other secure solutions for what I want to do?
>
>Thank you.
>
>Teddy
>
>
>
>
Ted,

Find your httpd.conf file, mine was located in /usr/local/apache/conf -
on a Linux build.

Then search on ScriptAlias - the first hit on my file was line number
566 that begins the comments on this 'feature'. In the default file my
scripts were placed in the directory:

/usr/local/apache/cgi-bin

I left the code unaltered and just placed my scripts in that directory.
I made the files executable for all classes of users, which I am not
certain is necessary. By default all files in this directory are
executed when requested rather than sent upon receiving a request (see
comments in this file).

HTH

If this does NOT work, then I have another suggestion, but I tend to
doubt that you are as inventive as I in finding ways to screwup a system
as I am. I did it by mistakenly altering this same file and a mismatch
on the profile running my browser! Now that takes <i><b>talent</i>!</b>

Chris Devers

2004-09-14, 3:55 am

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004, Octavian Rasnita wrote:

> I have named index.html a file that in fact is a perl cgi program and I have
> put it in the directory /cgi-bin/
>
> It works fine if I access it using an URL like:
>
> http://localhost/cgi-bin/index.html
>
> The problem is that I want to access that program using:
>
> http://localhost/cgi-bin/
>
> But it gives me the 403 Access denied error.

Right -- I don't know that that's possible.

If you're okay with having scripts execute from any directory based on
file extension, then you can do something like this:

* for the directory you want scripts to execute in, find the right
"<Directory ...>" section, and in that the "Options ..." line. Add
ExecCGI to this line. (In a typical httpd.conf, the first Directory
line is for the base of your filesystem, and has very restrictive
access; the second Directory directive is the base of your web
document tree -- adding ExecCGI here is probably what you want.)

* Find the DirectoryIndex line(s), and add a new extension for your CGI
scripts: "DirectoryIndex index.html index.pl index.cgi" etc

Make these changes, then test & re-start Apache:

$ sudo apachectl configtest && sudo apachectl restart

Then try putting a CGI script in your regular document tree -- not the
one that is used for cgi-bin, the one with all your html, images, etc --
and see if it executes the same way it did in the cgi-bin directory. if
so, then try setting the name to index.pl, and see if you urls such as

http;//yoursite/project/index.pl

and

http;//yoursite/project/

end up being the same thing. They should be, but test it.

--
Chris Devers

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