"apache" user in cgi-bin scripts
 

hi,

In my rhel5 machine, when i execute just command "whoami" as a root in web server it showing that output is "apache". why?
eg:
#lynx www.example.com/cgi-bin/test.sh
vi test.sh
#! /bin/bash
whoami
set
env
(everything of apache)
but the user and group of test.sh is root.

so when i use the find command

#find / -type f -group apache
only file in /usr/sbin/suexec

why like this?. Actually i want the o/p as root .

thanks in advance.

Apache runs as a non-privileged user/group; the user/group is configurable, but should not be root for security reasons.

What reason makes you believe you need apache to run as root?

thanks for your comments. No reason for that. Just for curiosity how do i run as a root ?

In httpd.conf:

# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
User www
Group www