Question

This might be a noob question, but can’t find an answer anywhere.

I have a problem, which Another file permissions problem have helped me to ALMOST solve.

I have created a user in linux (danny) which has sudo access.
I have also created a new group which name ALSO is danny, and added the user danny to that group. This group has sudo (root) access.

I have all files and folders in my www folder owned by danny/danny group.

I have an image-upload code which is php. This code cannot upload images to a folder called “images” folder which is under the www folder, UNLESS I give the images folder 777 permissions.

So, I have followed the answer on the linked question, and have figured out that the user which the upload-script is run as is “www-data“.

According to the answer on the link to the other question I posted, I need to add www-data to a group… But I am stuck here…

Which group should I add to? What should I do from here?

Any tips are appreciated.

Btw, here is some info about www-data and danny

  id www-data:
  uid=33(www-data) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data)
  id danny
  uid=1000(danny) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data)

Thanks and if you need more input, just let me know…

Answer 1

Actually, your problem is that you need the user www-data to have write-access to the images folder.

And you probably want user danny to have full access to the folder as well.

EDIT: Additional word of warning:
having files writeable by your webserver is always a security risk. Be sure to check the files that are written, and make sure people can’t upload or change code.
Summary:
* Don’t let your webserver run scripts that are writeable, or in a writeable folder.
So make sure only the images/ folder is writeable, and doublecheck that everything that is written, is actually an image!

Either:

1. Set www-data as owner of the folder,
   and chmod u+rwx www.
2. Set www-data
   as part of a group X, and change the
   owner of the folder to X, and chmod
   g+rwx www.
3. Set the folder
   world-writeable on your server (in
   some cases, an acceptable solution
   too, but less secure).