User-Developed CGI Scripts

It is possible for users to develop their own scripts and play with downloaded scripts without risking the security of the entire system. One of the ways to achieve user scripting is by making use of the web server that runs under a different user name with lesser privileges and allow users to upload CGIs into a different CGI-BIN directory. This works reasonably well but multiple users could interfere with each other. UNIX/LINUX-based apache can be configured with suEXEC support which allows user scripts. User scripting is an optional feature in Ohio State University DECthreads HTTP Server (OSU). The SYSTEM account creates a detached process that acts as a gateway between the server and the user script execution processes. When the server recognizes that a user script needs to be run, it contacts the gateway and passes the script and user name it needs to run under. The gateway program then uses persona services to assume the needed user name and then through a proxy from that user name to itself, creates another process with which it communicates using DECnet task-to-task.