Some hints and tips on security issues in setting up a web server. ... In typical operation, Apache is started by the root user, and it switches to the user defined by the User directive to serve hits. ... For example, if you choose to place ServerRoot in /usr/local/apache then it is suggested that you create that directory as root, with commands like these: mkdir /usr/local/apache cd /usr/local/apache mkdir bin conf logs chown 0 . ... Allow from all . ... Accessing http://localhost/~root/ . ...