Date: Thu, 18 May 95 08:13:17 -0700 From: Sean McGee <smmcgee@ncbc.edu> To: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: WWW without httpd Message-ID: <199505180814.IAA23219@localhost>
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To avoid having to buy, install, and maintain a http server, yet have the ability to respond to http request, I did the following. Please tell me if there are any potential security risks. (I run FreeBSD 2.0R (4.2BSD)) My /etc/services listens to port 80(default) for http requests. So in my inetd.conf I simply add a line: www stream tcp nowait root /bin/cat cat /filename.html Now, when an http client contacts that port, the file 'filename.html' is catted back to them and is performing the function of a 'poor man's http server' I have now assigned several ports to do the same thing in order to layer pages. I have even assigned a .gif file to a port and as long as the http client is told that it is a gif, then it has no problems displaying it as a gif. example: http://some.place.com:80 and http://some.place.com:80/bogusfile.gif do the exact same thing, but the client sees the 'bogusfile.gif' and displays the file as a gif. My questions are: What is the catch? Have I missed something? Yes, I know. This is very CHEAP. But it costs nothing. TIA, -sean smmcgee@ncbc.edu sysadmin@ncbc.edu
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