4get/docs/apache2.md

Install guide for Apache2 webserver

Welcome to the new and revamped 4get install manual for apache2. Even if you already have services running on an existing installation of apache2, you should still be able to adapt this guide to your needs.

For starters, login as root.

Then, install the following dependencies:

apt update
apt upgrade
apt install php-mbstring apache2 certbot php-imagick imagemagick php-curl curl php-apcu git libapache2-mod-php

Enable the required modules:

a2enmod ssl
a2enmod rewrite

And enable these optional ones, which might be useful to you later on. The proxy module is useful for setting up reverse proxies to services like gitea, and headers is useful to tweak global header values:

a2enmod proxy
a2enmod headers

Now, restart apache2:

service apache2 restart

Just for good measure, please check if your webserver is running. Access it through HTTP, not HTTPS. You should see the apache2 default landing page.

000-default.conf

Now, edit the following file: /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf, remove everything and carefully add each rule specified here, while making sure to replace my domains with your own:

1. The VirtualHost here instructs apache2 to redirect all HTTP traffic that specify an unknown Host header be redirected to a specific domain of your choice. Configuring this is not required but highly recommended.

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   	# no domain = go to 4get.ca
   	RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ https://4get.ca$1
   </VirtualHost>
   

2. This instruction tells apache2 to redirect all HTTP traffic on Host lolcat.ca to the HTTPS version of the site. You should add a rule like this for all of your services explicitly.

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   	ServerName lolcat.ca
   	RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ https://lolcat.ca$1
   </VirtualHost>
   

3. Subdomains won't be matched by the above rule, so I recommend you also add them to be more explicit:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   	ServerName www.lolcat.ca
   	RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ https://lolcat.ca$1
   </VirtualHost>
   

... Etc, for every service you own.

1. And finally, append this configuration if you wish to host a tor or i2p access point. This configuration should not be binded to SSL(443) as Let's Encrypt does not let you create certificates for onion sites:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   	# tor site
   	ServerName 4getwebfrq5zr4sxugk6htxvawqehxtdgjrbcn2oslllcol2vepa23yd.onion
   
   	# compress
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/json
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
   	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
   
   	DocumentRoot /var/www/4get
   
   	Options -MultiViews
   	RewriteEngine On
   	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   	RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]
   
   	# deny access to private resources
   	<Directory /var/www/4get/data/>
   		Order Deny,allow
   		Deny from all
   	</Directory>
   </VirtualHost>
   

To make the above snippet work, please refer to our tor site guide.

default-ssl.conf

Now, edit the file /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf, remove everything and, again, add each rule while modifying the relevant fields:

First, append the following redirect rule to point traffic from www.4get.ca to 4get.ca:

<VirtualHost *:443>
	ServerName www.4get.ca
	
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/fullchain.pem
	SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/privkey.pem
	SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/chain.pem
	
	RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ https://4get.ca$1
</VirtualHost>

This ruleset tells apache2 where 4get is located (/var/www/4get), ensures that 4get.ca/settings resolves to 4get.ca/settings.php internally and that we deny access to /data/*, which may contain files you might want to keep private. StdEnvVArs+ will make it so that PHP can view if the connection uses HTTPS, and which cipher was used. Useful for basic bot protection.

Make sure to replace 4get.ca with your own domain under the SSLCertificate* directives!

<VirtualHost *:443>
	ServerName 4get.ca

	ServerAdmin will@lolcat.ca
	DocumentRoot /var/www/4get
	
	SSLEngine On
	SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
	
	#ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/json
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
	AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
	
	SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/fullchain.pem
	SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/privkey.pem
	SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/4get.ca/chain.pem
	
	<Directory /var/www/4get>
		Options -MultiViews
		AllowOverride All
		Require all granted
		
		RewriteEngine On
		RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
		RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
		RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]
	</Directory>

	# deny access to private resources
	<Directory /var/www/4get/data/>
		Order Deny,allow
		Deny from all
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

By default, the first rule dictates where traffic should be redirected to in case the client specifies an unknown domain name. Don't forget your webserver's other rules! For a complete real-world example, please check out my real-world config file I use on 4get.ca.

security.conf

If you enabled the headers module, you can head over to /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/security.conf and edit:

ServerTokens Prod # instead off Full

and

ServerSignature Off #instead of On

This will ensure that the Server header apache2 returns is minimal and doesn't leak information like your host system's OS or apache2 version.

You can also uncomment Header set X-Content-Type-Options: "nosniff" and Header set Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors 'self';" respectively.

charset.conf

Head over to /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/charset.conf and uncomment AddDefaultCharset UTF-8.

other-vhost-access-log.conf

Since none of our configuration files contains any CustomLog directives, all we need to do to disable logging entirely is comment out the CustomLog directive located in /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/other-vhost-access-log.conf. Only error logs will remain if you configured them.

Symlink everything

Now comes the most important part of the setup. Run

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default-ssl.conf

Otherwise apache2 will ignore our SSL configuration. Handy, huh?

Setup SSL

Great, now we've configured the webserver, but we still don't have our security certificate. Let's generate one!

First, stop apache2.

service apache2 stop

Now, run certbot, and specify all of your domains by prepending -d every time. Make sure the first domain you specify is your main domain, and the same domain you specified in the configuration above! We use ECDSA encryption here as it's better than RSA.

certbot certonly --standalone --key-type ecdsa -d 4get.ca -d www.4get.ca -d lolcat.ca -d www.lolcat.ca

Certbot should ask you a few questions, just play along. At the end of the setup, certbot should tell you about the location of the certificates. Double check to make sure they correspond to the paths we specified in default-ssl.conf. Your certificates should now update every 2-3 months automatically.

After this is complete, create a directory in /var/www/4get.

Now, start apache2.

service apache2 start

Congratulations! You now have a... 404 error on your webserver, if everything went well. Now's the time to make sure all of our redirect rules work!

Import the fun junk

Run these commands:

cd /var/www/4get
git clone https://git.lolcat.ca/lolcat/4get
chmod 777 -R icons/

... And try accessing your webserver. You should now have a working 4get instance!

Please make sure to check out how to further configure 4get to your liking!