Oracle Linux/Apache httpd

Installing Apache HTTPD from source

More recently CVEs have been discovered in the latest versions of httpd available from the repos, which presents a problem for administrators since they cannot easily upgrade to a patched version. For such cases, sometimes manually compiling httpd from source is the only temporary solution until the repositories are updated or backported.

Remove if already installed

If you already have httpd installed, remove it.

~$ sudo yum remove httpd -y

Install dependencies, download and unpack source

Install the epel repo, then grab some needed packages.

~$ sudo yum install epel-release -y
~$ sudo yum install autoconf expat-devel libtool libnghttp2-devel pcre-devel -y

Next we need to download apache httpd and (2) of apache's runtime libraries.

~$ curl -L https://github.com/apache/httpd/archive/2.4.35.tar.gz -o /tmp/apache/2.4.35.tar.gz --create-dirs
~$ curl -L https://github.com/apache/apr/archive/1.6.5.tar.gz -o /tmp/apache/1.6.5.tar.gz --create-dirs
~$ curl -L https://github.com/apache/apr-util/archive/1.6.1.tar.gz -o /tmp/apache/1.6.1.tar.gz --create-dirs

untar them

~$ tar -zxvf 2.4.35.tar.gz -C /tmp/apache/
~$ tar -zxvf 1.6.5.tar.gz -C /tmp/apache/
~$ tar -zxvf 1.6.1.tar.gz -C /tmp/apache/

Move APR libraries into place. Make sure the new directory names do not have a version number.

~$ cp -r /tmp/apache/apr-1.6.5 /tmp/apache/httpd-2.4.35/srclib/apr
~$ cp -r /tmp/apache/apr-util-1.6.1 /tmp/apache/httpd-2.4.35/srclib/apr-util

Compile time

It's easiest just to be within the directory.

~$ cd /tmp/apache/httpd-2.4.35

Now lets build the conf and then compile including SSL support (mod-ssl)

~$ ./buildconf
~$ ./configure --enable-ssl --enable-so --enable-http2 --with-mpm=event --with-included-apr --with-ssl=/usr/local/openssl --prefix=/usr/local/apache2
~$ make
~$ sudo make install

Add to /usr/bin

So that we can execute httpd, we need to add a symlink to /usr/bin:

~$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd /usr/bin/httpd

Verify version

~$ httpd -v
Server version: Apache/2.4.35 (Unix)
Server built:   Oct  8 2018 15:11:53

Add init.d script

Pulled from this github source.

~$ sudo vim /etc/init.d/httpd
#!/bin/bash
#
# Startup script for the Apache Web Server
#
# chkconfig: - 85 15
# description: Apache is a World Wide Web server.  It is used to serve \
#              HTML files and CGI.
# processname: httpd
# pidfile: /usr/local/apache2/logs/httpd.pid
# config: /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/httpd ]; then
        . /etc/sysconfig/httpd
fi

# This will prevent initlog from swallowing up a pass-phrase prompt if
# mod_ssl needs a pass-phrase from the user.
INITLOG_ARGS=""

# Path to the apachectl script, server binary, and short-form for messages.
apachectl=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl
httpd=/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd
pid=$httpd/logs/httpd.pid
prog=httpd
RETVAL=0


# The semantics of these two functions differ from the way apachectl does
# things -- attempting to start while running is a failure, and shutdown
# when not running is also a failure.  So we just do it the way init scripts
# are expected to behave here.
start() {
        echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
        daemon $httpd $OPTIONS
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/httpd
        return $RETVAL
}
stop() {
        echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
        killproc $httpd
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/httpd $pid
}
reload() {
        echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
        killproc $httpd -HUP
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
  start)
        start
        ;;
  stop)
        stop
        ;;
  status)
        status $httpd
        RETVAL=$?
        ;;
  restart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
  condrestart)
        if [ -f $pid ] ; then
                stop
                start
        fi
        ;;
  reload)
        reload
        ;;
  graceful|help|configtest|fullstatus)
        $apachectl $@
        RETVAL=$?
        ;;
  *)
        echo $"Usage: $prog {start|stop|restart|condrestart|reload|status"
    echo $"|fullstatus|graceful|help|configtest}"
        exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL

Add to startup and check iptables

~$ sudo chkconfig --level 345 httpd on

So in my case, the default state for the INPUT chain was ACCEPT, but because a REJECT existed at the end of the chain, iptables blocked port 80 access. I opted to remove it since I was running httpd from a local vm on virtual box, but you'll have to figure out what works best for you and your environment.

~$ sudo iptables -D INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
~$ sudo iptables -L -n -v

Add groups and users

apache needs certain groups and users to operate correctly. You can opt to rename these, but you'll need to keep this in mind when working with your apache config.

~$ sudo groupadd www
~$ sudo useradd httpd -g www --no-create-home --shell /sbin/nologin

Basic httpd.conf configuration

Your needs will dictate how you configure your httpd.conf file, however, below is a good starting point.

~$ sudo vim /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf
...
# Make sure that ServerRoot is set to the same value as --prefix during ./configure
ServerRoot /usr/local/apache2

# Set ServerName to prevent warning on Apache start
ServerName localhost

# Default port set to 80 - HTTP protocol
Listen 80

# Set user and group
User httpd
Group www

# Configure entry file for your application. If you plan to use PHP make sure that it's as first possible file
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

# Hide Apache version from header and from error files
ServerTokens prod
ServerSignature off

# Disable ETag to prevent disposing sensitive values like iNode
FileETag none

Load Modules

There are a lot of modules that come with Apache httpd, too many to list here or explain their individual purposes. However, below is where to to enable/disable them and a quick description of the most common.

~$ sudo vim /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

To enable/disable it is as easy as commenting or uncommenting the appropriate line.

Modules

# These modules must be enabled if you want Apache to start
LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule unixd_module modules/mod_unixd.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so

# If you are using PHP with PHP-FPM which I highly suggest enable proxy modules 
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so 
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so 

# Enable pretty links and mod_rewrite that is highly used in all frameworks and CMSes 
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so 

# Useful for WordPress sites - enables Require for setting up access to given resources. 
LoadModule access_compat_module modules/mod_access_compat.so 

# One more useful thing for WordPress and Let's Encrypt - enables Alias. If you are using composer and wpackagist it's a must, otherwise if you don't plan to use aliases, leave that disabled 
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so 

# Enable gzip extension for compressing static files 
LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so 
LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so 

# Enable expires header for caching assets on browser side 
LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so 

# Enable SSL 
LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so 
LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so 
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so 

# Enable status module for monitoring Apache. If you don't plan to use that, leave that commented out 
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so 
LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so