From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Jan 29 08:17:08 1998
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From: Adam Turoff <AdamT@smginc.com>
To: hackers <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: WebAdmin (was: RE: /usr/src/release/sysinstall needs YOU. :-))
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 98 11:16:00 PST
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>> What are peoples' thoughts on a Java administration tool for FreeBSD?   
One
>
> I feel the same way about this as I do about all the proposals I've
> seen for web-based administration and installation tools in general:
> Doing this is not an easy nut to crack, and security concerns are not
> entirely trivial, but if you think you can do it then by all means GO
> FOR IT!
>
> Unfortunately, it would also seem that most people are only good for
> suggesting that a Java or plain-HTML based admin tool would be a good
> thing and not so much good for actually coding up the proof-of-concept
> that'd be required to make it anything more than a simple and
> often-made suggestion. ;-)
>
>                                         Jordan

OK.  Enough goading.  :-)

I'm doing perl based CGI to pay the bills and gradually getting up to
speed on being a reasonable FreeBSD admin for a small workgroup.

I don't feel qualified enough to start down this path alone.  There
are a lot of nontrivial security issues to deal with, and a lot of
nontrivial configuration issues to deal with, too.

I'm in a situation where Netware Admins are rushing to get
up to speed with NT, and I'm throwing FreeBSD in their faces
at the same time.  I'll spare the anti-NT discussion here; no
need preaching to the choir.

Here are a few things I'd like to see in a web-based admin tool:
 - DNS administration
 - user config
 - ports management
 - samba config (admin-loadable module?  :-) )
 - NFS config
 - mounting
 - apache config (?)
 - mirroring
 - config replication (act like that machine there)
 - lynx friendly

Of course, some of these issues are rife with security holes.
Hopefully, used judiciously, it'll be a value add that will make
FreeBSD more approachable to newbies.

My guess is that limiting access to clients coming from
localhost would help, allowing access from a list of trusted
clients as well.  The admin server could come up and down
as needed rather than sitting there waiting to be abused.

My questions to -hackers at large would be:
 - any other admin type things that should be included?
 - any other security issues that should be considered?
 - ideas for extensibility?

Hopefully I should have something started in a few weeks.

 -- Adam
Rhythm deficient bassist for Necessity & the Mothers of Invention