can we access port 443 without root permission

prasad_koukuntla · 07-26-2005, 04:52 AM

I have my application running on port 2xxx,but people behind the firewall are uable to access that application.Now i want my application running on Port 443(this is fixed),such that people behind firewall can access it.
as far as i know ports with range 1-1024 are reserved.

1)is port 443 can be opened with user permissions?

2a)if no,How should I promote a user to root and demote the user (who has been promoted as root) to user.
2b) and is it possible to create socket on port 443 with root permissions and read and write to the socket as user.

Iam using jdk1.5 and native (c) methods and linux server in my application.

Any help regarding this is welcomed.

aqoliveira · 07-31-2005, 03:03 PM

Howzit

I need some more info before giving u a solution.

Is that machine facing the internet directly or is it behind a FW?

Is this application a self developed app or a common open source application?

cheers

tkedwards · 07-31-2005, 05:52 PM

Quote:

is port 443 can be opened with user permissions?

No

Quote:

if no,How should I promote a user to root and demote the user (who has been promoted as root) to user.

Most system services (apache being a good example) start as root, bind to the port and then fork off one or more processes running under an unpriveleged account to handle requests.

Quote:

and is it possible to create socket on port 443 with root permissions and read and write to the socket as user.

I think so, see above.

I'm a sysadmin not a programmer so I don't know the exact way you'd go about programming this - its something you should've asked in the programming forum.

Another solution would be to simply use iptables to redirect port 2xxx to port 443.