Apache HTTP Server is an open-source web server platform. This article will outline the steps to install, configure, harden a zero-footprint instance of Apache 2.2 & 2.4, with particular focus on the nuances between each.
Prerequisites
If you are building you zero-footprint for the first time you will need a C/C++ compiler available on the initial system. Once compiled, the resulting package is portable to other like-O/S servers. For the most part, most Unix/Linux distributions will come packaged with the gcc compiler.
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| Unix/Solaris Check if gcc compiler is installed: | Code Block |
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| $ which gcc
# which is dependent on environment variables being set correctly.
# Alternatively check the /usr/bin and /usr/sfw/bin paths. |
If no compiler found, install it: | Code Block |
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| $ pkg install gcc-3 # or whatever version you need |
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| Linux Chech if gcc compilete is installed: If no compiler found, install it: | Code Block |
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| # Debian/Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
$ sudo yum group install "Development Tools" |
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Initial Installation
1) Get Source Files
The first step is to retrieve the source files from Apache. Grab the compressed files pertinent to the O/S you are using, typically bzip2 for Unix and gunzip for Linux:
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# Change dir to whichever working directory you want to use
$ cd /opt
# Change version number/archive type as required
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd/httpd-2.2.23.tar.bz2 [ -e use-proxy=yes -e https_proxy=xxxxx ]
# Apache also provides MD5 hashes to verify your downloads, so you could do the following to generate a local MD5 hash to compare
wget -O - https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd-2.4.29.tar.bz2 | tee httpd-2.2.23.tar.bz2 | md5sum > md5sum.local
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Unpack the archive:
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| Unix/Solaris | Code Block |
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| # Use -k switch to preserve the original archive
$ bzip2 -d[k] httpd-2.2.32.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvf httpd-2.2.32.tar |
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| Linux | Code Block |
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| $ tar -xzvf httpd-2.2.32.tar.gz |
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2) Compile Apache
Next, we will compile apache.
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Since Apache 2.4, the Apache Portable Runtime and the Perl Compatible Regex modules are no longer packaged with the original source. However, these modules are mandatory for Apache to compile and run. | Expand |
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| title | Click here to see the additonal steps for 2.4 |
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| title | Click here to find out why you need these libraries ... |
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| APR The APR library provides a set of APIs that map to the underlying O/S and emulate functions if they are not available, making Apache platform-agnostic. PCRE The PCRE library provides more powerful and flexible regex expression functionality than other flavours and is used by mod_rewrite, etc.
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Apache provides the flexibility to point to existing instances of these when compiling. If you do not have these modules you can add them as follows: First, download the module source files: | Code Block |
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| $ wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-1.6.3.tar.bz2
$ wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-util-1.6.1.tar.bz2
# Apache 2 requires pcre, not pcre2
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://ftp.pcre.org/pub/pcre/pcre-8.41.tar.bz2 |
Extract the source files: | Code Block |
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| # APR and APR utils can be compiled with Apache out of the box provided they are in the srclib directory
$ tar -x[z]vf apr-1.6.3.tar[.gz] --directory /opt/httpd-2.4.x/srclib/apr
$ tar -x[z]vf apr-util-1.6.1.tar[.gz] -- directory /opt/httpd-2.4.x/srclib/apr-util
# PCRE will not be automatically compiled in the srclib directory, so either manipulate the build script or simply keep it separate.
$ tar -x[z]vf pcre-8.41.tar[.gz] |
If you've placed PCRE in its own folder, you will have to build it first: | Code Block |
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| $ ./configure --prefix=/opt/pcre --enable-pcre16 --enable-pcre32
$ make
$ make install |
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