Information Security

Disable PHP allow_url_fopen For Security Reasons

SecurityLeave a comment

Recently I was doing a security audit on a Linux server and noticed some Apache and PHP items that needed to be modified to make the server more secure. One of the items that should be disabled is allow_url_fopen because the risk that it can be abused. The issue is that allow_url_fopen is on by default even though many times it is never used on a server. Modify the below line in the Linux servers php.ini file which typically located in the /etc directory.

Technology Errors

git: Error: Some Local Refs Could Not Be Updated; Try Running ‘git remote prune origin’ To Remove Any Old, Conflicting Branches

ErrorsLeave a comment

Lately I have been working on a Ruby project that has a bunch of different branches that various developers are working on. One of the development servers has multiple virtual hosts and at certain points in the code release cycle the various virtual hosts could be completely split from the main branch of Ruby code either because of a bug fix, a specific feature, or any number of other reasons. The other night I needed to bring one of the virtual hosts to a near production release to test some features of a product that uses the web application to record data and when I attempted to “git pull” I received an error which is described in detail below along with what I ended up doing to resolve the problem.

Technology Errors

Litespeed: Input Error Detected. Please Resolve The Error(s). Path Does Not Exist.

Errors2 Comments

Today I was configuring a server running Postgres, Ruby, & Litespeed. It is a fairly easy setup that I run on numerous servers and it simply takes time to go through the motions to get everything up and running. There are a ton of steps so its highly likely that I miss one along the way. Today everything went smooth except for in one of the last steps where I start configuring virtual hosts in Litespeed I received an error. The error was stating that the path I was entering into the virtual host configuration did not exist. The error and the resolution are explained in detail below.

Technology Insights

LiteSpeed Web Server Virtual Host Showing Restart Required in Web Admin Console

InsightsLeave a comment

Recently I configured a virtual host in Litespeed outside of the normal Virtual Host Template I use. Typically I use the EasyRailsWithSuEXEC but this time I needed to use the PHP_SuEXEC template. It was easy as most configurations are with the LiteSpeed however when I performed a graceful restart I noticed that the virtual host I had just configured was showing “Restart Required” instead of “Running” as shown in the image below.

Litespeed Virtual Host Restart Required