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Apache

File Locations

Fedora/CentOS

  • HTML Document Root : /var/www/html
  • Main httpd config file: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
  • Apache Daemon Directory: /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd

Ubuntu

  • HTML Document Root : /var/www/html
  • Main httpd config file: /etc/apache2/apache.conf
  • Virtual Host Configuration file: /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Basic Install Apache

Fedora/CentOS

sudo dnf install httpd OR sudo yum install httpd depending on Fedora version

Apache Status

sudo systemctl httpd status

sudo apachectl status

Start Apache

sudo systemctl start httpd.service

sudo apachectl start

Stop Apache

sudo systemctl httpd stop

sudo apachectl stop

Set Apache To Start At Boot

sudo systemctl enable httpd.service

sudo apachectl enable

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install apache2

Apache Status

Start Apache

sudo service apache2 start

Stop Apache

sudo service apache2 stop

Restart Apache

sudo service apache2 restart

Create User Account Site

Fedora/CentOS

  1. Edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/userdir.conf.
  2. Comment out the UserDir disable macro and uncomment the UserDir public_html macro in userdir.conf.
  3. Create the user account with adduser and passwd.
  4. Log in to the account to avoid some known errors.
  5. Log out and back in as root.
  6. Create the public_html folder inside the user's home directory.

Add Password Access To Site

This is configuration guide in the appropriate conf file to cause a Basic Auth prompt to appear in the user's browser when viewing a page. Typically you will also want to generate a password file which will store the username and password to log into this area of your website. See the Create Password File section for steps on how to do that

Fedora/CentOS

Add this to /etc/httpd/conf.d/userdir.conf 

<Directory /home/<username>
   AllowOverride None
   AuthUserFile <dirtopasswordfile>
   # Group authentication is disabled
   AuthGroupFile /dev/null
   AuthName test
   AuthType Basic
   <Limit GET>
       require valid-user
       order deny,allow
       deny from all
       allow from all
   </Limit>
</Directory>

If the basic auth does not appear, check in the userdir.conf the stanza at the bottom the page blocking access to userdir is commented out

Create A Password File

htpasswrd [-c]

Eg:

htpasswd [-c ] passwordfile username

-c to create a new password file

do not include '-c' to update a password file

Note when generating this file, if using it for the above user profile site and with basic auth security, you may need to place this created file in the public_html folder of the user's profile site you are trying to access. This doesn't seem safe, but it works. The internet gives notions that the file should be named with a '.' so that it is hidden from the file system

Create A Self-Signed Certificate For Apache

Ubuntu

  1. Create a folder create all of your self-signed certs in. cd into it

  2. Execute: 

    sudo openssl req -new > new.ssl.csr

First your going to be prompted to create a password. Remember this password, you will need it in a later command

At this point you will be prompted to enter some information looking something like this: 

Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
................++++++
........................++++++
writing new private key to 'privkey.pem'
Enter PEM pass phrase:
Verifying - Enter PEM pass phrase:
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <countrycode (optional)>
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <state/province (optional)>
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <city (optional)>
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <companyname (optional)>
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <orgunit (optional)>
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: <fullyqualifieddomainname (mandatory with virtual hosting)>
Email Address []: <email (optional)

Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []: <leave blank>
An optional company name []: <companyname (optional)>

Basicaly for any setup most of the fields are optional except the Common Name field. If you are setting up apache with VirtualHost then you will need to make sure this is the fully qualified domain name (eg. wiki.bensoer.com) OR whatever value you are placing in the ServerAlias field of your VirtualHost entry for apache. This is important as apache will deny access if the value in the ServerAlias and the Common Name in the Self-Signed Certificate don't match

Additionaly you should leave the challenge password blank, otherwise you will need to enter the password you put there everytime you reboot apache

  1. Execute the Following commands: 
    sudo openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out new.cert.key
sudo openssl x509 -in new.ssl.csr -out new.cert.cert -req -signkey new.cert.key -days 3600

sudo mkdir /etc/ssl/self-signed
sudo mkdir /etc/ssl/self-signed/certs
sudo mkdir /etc/ssl/self-signed/private

sudo cp new.cert.cert /etc/ssl/self-signed/certs/server.crt
sudo cp new.cert.key /etc/ssl/self-signed/private/server.key

After entering the first command in step 3 you will be prompted for a password. This is the password you created earlier in step 1

Note the -days command used in the second command of step 3 is setting the number of days the self-signed certificate is valid. If you would like to renew your self-sgined certificate more often then change this number to something smaller

After completing all commands in step 3 your self-signed certificates will be available in the /etc/ssl/self-signed folder. You can reference these directories in your VirtualHost configurations when setting up SSL for a VirtualHost

Notes

  • Check folder and file permissions (sudo chmod 777 with caution).
  • Check index.html.
  • Check that the account was created correctly by logging in and out.

Sources

Create Self-Signed Certificates https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/392099-creating-self-signed-ssl-certificates-for-apache-on-linux