[CentOS] Tiny webserver to run as root

[Bill Campbell]

On Sun, Jan 03, 2010, RedShift wrote:
>Hi all

>Does anyone have a suggestion for some software, a tiny webserver that is
>able to run as root and execute CGI scripts? It should be smaller than
>apache and preferably even smaller than lighttpd. It doesn't need a whole
>lot of features, it only needs to be able to execute CGI scripts.

We use xml-rpc to handle administrative tasks that require root
access, listening on 127.0.0.1 with authorization specific to
particular tasks.  This server is accessible in a very limited
fashion from another xml-rpc server accessible through the normal
apache server allowing restricted access to functions on the
internal server.

Setting up an xml-rpc server in python is very easy, and python
xml-rpc clients are almost as easy to use as standard function
calls.

This allows us to handle specific administrative tasks from web
pages while minimizing the security aspects of doing them through
apache, php, and friends.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
Voice:          (206) 236-1676  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820
Fax:            (206) 232-9186  Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792

The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form.  The
individual has a soul, bat as the state is a soulless machine, it can never
be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.
  -- Mahatma Gandhi