I have another question about this.
"Joseph J. King, Ph.D." wrote on Fri, 10 Jul 1998:
> Researchers save
> their results to the location of their choosing using the SeqWeb
> client.
Is there a default location? This will make it difficult for users
who use both the command line and seqweb or SeqLab and seqweb to
manage their files. I would assume on most systems "nobody" does
not have write privs to the user's home directories. So, a seqweb
user would not be able to save GCG output files or files retrieved
from a database to thier home directories. The user needs to manage
2 sets of files if they have GCG files in their home directory.
Also, what about accounting for disk space usage?
> 2) What permissions/access privledges are needed by the web
> server for users to see their data?
>> No special privileges are required. In fact, SeqWeb is designed
> so that it can run as "nobody." This is a more secure
> arrangement then having the server run as root so that it can
> change users at login or gain access to all users' files on your
> system.
When we received the first beta version of seqweb, it came with a
web server. Has this changed? We have our own web server and a
couple of different document trees for secure pages public pages and
development. I am not anxious to try to change this and add a new
server. The GCG web interfaces we've developed in house run a set
uid program so the web server runs as the user. I think this is
similar to W2H. Is this possible to do with seqweb?
If seqweb is running as "nobody", and a user chooses to keep files
in their home directories read/write only by owner, they will not
have access to them from seqweb.
> > 3) What impact on system security might the web interface pose?
>> Since the SeqWeb server runs as a non-privileged user and never
> has to access files outside of the Wisconsin Package and SeqWeb,
> it is no less secure than your average web server and CGI.
Yes, but how do I account CPU usage? GCG even comes with some
logging. Running seqweb this way leaves a logfile file filled with
user "nobody" running GCG programs. This can't be a good solution.
______
Christopher W Botka Phone: (415)476-5379
Sequence Analysis Consulting Service Fax: (415)502-1755
UCSF Computer Graphics Lab Office: Lib-111
Internet: botka at cgl.ucsf.edu Mail Drop: Box 0446
http://www.sacs.ucsf.edu/ NeXT/MIME mail OK
