[edlug] Custom Firewall Systems

[Craig Perry <edlug@xxx.xxx.xxx>]

Hey All :)

The smoothwall/IPcop threads have stirred an interest of mine here. Last 
year i built a machine for my old man to put up his loft and act as a 
file server and router/firewall to share a dialup connection over WiFi 
between my laptop, his laptop and my sister's machine. I needed a system 
that would allow all this and have an easy to use front end that allowed 
authentication, establishing the dialup connection and disconnecting 
when finished and also wee extras like downloading mail and scheduling 
of downloads during the night. I couldn't find anything at the time so i 
built my own. Just basic slackware install / custom php front end.

My question is this: is there a right (i.e. safe) way to call 
scripts/programs/read files etc. scattered around the system (some 
programs would need to be run as root) from php when running as user 
apache? I know smoothwall etc. must do it somehow to be able to 
function, just not had time to dissect a smoothwall system yet.

I'm going to upgrade the system this week because he's just got 
broadband so the dialup controls are no longer needed and i need to 
refine the whole thing and just make it nice like smoothwall/ipcop is.

Cheers!
Craig


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