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The Doctor's to-do list

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Revision as of 19:25, 28 September 2011 by Drwho (talk | contribs)

Stuff will be stricken out as I finish it. If anyone wants to jump in and help me with this, by all means do so, just put your initials at the end so I know who did what.

In no particular order, this is the stuff I want to accomplish:

  • Official Slackware g package
    • Default webroot is /srv/httpd/htdocs.
    • Will need to rework module to clear out /var/www. We won't need that stuff.
    • Custom config files are a given. I guess this pushes us back to using separate config files for each app.
    • Comment out authn*, authz*, dumpio_module, ldap_module, usertrack_module, proxy*, dav_module, status_module, cgi_module, status_module, cgi_module, dav_fs_module, vhost_alias_module, imagemap_module, userdir_module in /etc/httpd/httpd.conf.
    • Uncomment ssl_module.
    • Disable logging when everything is working.
    • /srv/httpd and /srv/www are symlinks to /var/www. Oh, well.
    • Look into setting up mod_chroot. There is an package on slackbuilds.org that could be built and converted.
    • Look into setting up mod_evasive. It's an anti-DoS, anti-bruteforce module.
  • Official Slackware PHP package.
    • php.ini - need to turn log_errors, ignore_repeated_errors off.
    • Look through the list of extensions in php.ini and turn all of the unnecessary ones off.
      • calendar, ldap.
        • Is SQLite enabled? Check on this. Yes!
  • Write a web app for the control panel that
    • store its configuration in a database
    • move sub-config files for Apache that represent PHP apps into and out of the /etc/httpd/enabled_apps directory
    • force Apache to reload its config files every time an app is (de-)configured
  • Write an initscript that
    • checks for the presence of a node's SSL cert in /etc/httpd
    • terminates if one is found
  • Set Porteus up to set its hostname to the IPv6 address of the primary wireless interface of the node.
  • Write a PHP app that
    • displays a "Hello, User!" message
    • displays links to apps hosted on the node which happen to be active
    • removes links to apps hosted on the node that are deactivated
      • I don't know PHP... can we find someone who does? Brad?
      • Would have to reference the SQLite database which keeps track of the active and inactive web apps and modifies the output accordingly
    • has to be mobile-friendly
  • Install crypto.cat on my development instance
    • requires PHP
    • will need its UI tweaked to be more mobile-friendly
    • Create a crypto.cat Porteus package and check it into SVN
    • index.php needs to be edited to remove the 'donate' DIV. Nothing personal, Kaepora, but we need to keep external links to a minimum because Byzantium meshes will probably be isolated from the global Net most of the time. You'll still get credit.
    • Change the default names in index.php into something more generic.
    • Figure out where chats (value of $data, defaulting to /srv/data) are when that directory doesn't exist (it doesn't in my development VM) and either make it impossible for chat data to be cached to disk or write a daemon that shreds files older than 10 minutes or so for security.
  • Install etherpad-lite on my development instance
    • requires node.js, for which there exists a Slackpack
      • build a Slackpack of node.js, convert into Porteus package, check everything into SVN
    • write an initscript that can start up Etherpad-lite when called by the control panel
    • will have to be controlled by the control panel, store its configuration in a database
    • write a sub-config file for Apache that passes through the /pad URL to localhost:9001
    • requires NPM
      • that will need to be packaged and checked in separately, I think.
      • run it in verbose mode to keep an eye on it
      • if it installs more stuff, we should bundle the whole mess into the NPM Porteus package
    • really should run as an unprivileged user
    • really should listen on the loopback interface only
    • pay attention to the reverse-proxy howto
    • have to start it by hand a few times to figure out how to automate and package it
  • install status.net on my development instance
    • requires PHP, MySQL
    • PHP must have support for Curl, XMLwriter, MySQL, GD, mbstring, gettext (all required for status.net), SQLite (to read configuration databases)
    • will need to pre-configure it for security and usability
    • Need to hack the mnml theme to be more mobile friendly.
    • Delete the unneeded themes and add-ons to save space, reduce potential attack surface.
    • Add-ons are not enabled by default. To turn one on you have to manually edit config.php and add lines for each one. This is moderately safe. Consider making config.php read-only with instructions for editing it later?
    • will need to write a sub-config file for Apache
    • configure for longer messages - 560 characters?
    • configure to make it easy to set up accounts on a node - no e-mail verification
    • enable image upload and display
    • There is a subtle problem: the hostname of the node ($config['site']['server'] = 'name of node here';) must be set correctly in config.php for themes to display properly. However, this requires that the clients have working DNS, which means three things:
      • DNS (dnsmasq) must be functional on the node.
      • Clients must have hostnames configured by the node.
      • Clients must have DNS configured as the node it got its information from so that hostnames can be resolved properly.
  • Write a web app that (de-)configures gateway mode for babeld. I think it's a matter of pushing a route to 0.0.0.0 or not, have to read up on it.
  • Installed the pre-converted MySQL Porteus package from the distro-download archive.
    • Need to pre-configure MySQL for small-ish systems
    • Need to pre-harden MySQL
    • Change the default password to something else.
    • Need to pre-create accounts, databases for all web apps and give them strong passwords. They need to be ready to go when they're started up.
  • Harden /etc/sysctl.conf!