OpenBSD as an E-Commerce Solution With PrestaShop and Apache

Introduction

This tutorial demonstrates OpenBSD as an e-commerce solution using PrestaShop and Apache.

Apache is required because PrestaShop has complex URL rewriting requirements that are not supported by OpenBSD's built-in web server, httpd. This tutorial uses self-signed certificates. Please use a verified certificate for production.

Preparation Tasks

Temporarily create a regular user allowed to use doas without a password. This access will be removed after setup.

user add -c "Example User" -m -G wheel -L staff auser
passwd auser
echo 'permit nopass keepenv :wheel' > /etc/doas.conf

Add the OpenBSD package repository.

echo 'https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD' > /etc/installurl

Forward daily status and security emails to your address.

echo '[email protected]' > /root/.forward

Set the hostname of the server.

echo 'www.example.com' > /etc/myname
hostname www.example.com

Add your server's FQDN and IP address to /etc/hosts.
Replace 192.0.2.1 with your Vultr IP address.

127.0.0.1    localhost
::1          localhost
192.0.2.1    www.example.com

Add the required packages for PrestaShop and Apache. Choose the latest versions when prompted.

doas su
pkg_add apache-httpd php php-curl php-gd php-intl php-pdo_mysql php-zip mariadb-client mariadb-server wget unzip

Created a self-signed SSL certificate for testing. Set Common Name to the FQDN of your server, e.g. www.example.com.

openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/example.com.key -out /etc/ssl/example.com.crt -days 3650 -sha256
chmod 0600 /etc/ssl/private/example.com.key

Download and Extract PrestaShop

Locate the URL for the latest version of PrestaShop, download to /tmp and extract to /var/www/htdocs/prestashop.

cd /tmp
wget <https://download.prestashop.com/download/releases/prestashop_1.7.6.4.zip>
unzip prestashop_1.7.6.4.zip -d /var/www/htdocs/prestashop
chown -R www:www /var/www/htdocs/prestashop

Configure OpenBSD's (pf) Firewall

Configure the firewall to block all inbound traffic except for ssh, www and https.

Make a backup copy of /etc/pf.conf.

cp /etc/pf.conf /etc/pf.conf.bak

Edit /etc/pf.conf as shown.

set skip on lo

block in
pass out  

pass in on egress inet proto tcp to port {ssh, www, https} \
    flags S/SA keep state

Test and activate the firewall rules.

doas pfctl -nf /etc/pf.conf
doas pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

Configure OpenSMTPD as an Email Relay

Backup your /etc/mail/smtpd.conf file.

cp /etc/mail/smtpd.conf /etc/mail/smtpd.conf.bak

Edit /etc/mail/smtpd.conf as shown below.

Notes: * The table definition for secrets holds the username and password for the mail relay. * The outbound action looks up the username and password under the label prestashop in /etc/mail/secrets and relays the email through your email server.

    table aliases file:/etc/mail/aliases
    table secrets file:/etc/mail/secrets

    listen on lo0

    action "local_mail" mbox alias <aliases>
    action "outbound" relay host smtp+tls://[email protected]:587 \
        tls no-verify auth <secrets>

    match from local for local action "local_mail"
    match from local for any action "outbound"

Create /etc/mail/secrets

Replace the email address and password with the credentials that you use for your email server.

echo "prestashop [email protected]:password" > /etc/mail/secrets

Set permissions to secure /etc/mail/secrets

chmod 0600 /etc/secrets

Thest the configuration file for errors and restart the smtpd daemon.

smtpd -n
rcctl restart smtpd

Configure the PHP and PHP-FPM Environment

Configure the PHP-FPM process to listen on a TCP socket instead of a UNIX domain socket.

Make the following change below for the /etc/php-fpm.conf file.

...
; If using a TCP port, never expose this to a public network.
;listen = /var/www/run/php-fpm.sock
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

Make some additional changes to the PHP environment in /etc/php-7.3.ini. This file name may change slightly if the version is newer than 7.3. These changes:

• Allow for larger files to be uploaded.
• Disable the chrooted environment.

• Configure PHP to send email via sendmail.

  ; Default Value: not set
  ;chroot = /var/www
  ...
  ; Maximum allowed size for uploaded files.
  ; <http://php.net/upload-max-filesize>
  upload_max_filesize = 6M
  ...
  ; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
  ; <http://php.net/sendmail-path>
  ;sendmail_path =
  sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
  ...
  ; Whether to allow the treatment of URLs (like <http://> or <ftp://)> as files.
  ; <http://php.net/allow-url-fopen>
  allow_url_fopen = On
  ...
  ; Maximum size of POST data that PHP will accept.
  ; Its value may be 0 to disable the limit. It is ignored if POST data reading
  ; is disabled through enable_post_data_reading.
  ; <http://php.net/post-max-size>
  post_max_size = 12M
  

  Enable the PHP plugins.

  cp /etc/php-7.3.sample/* /etc/php-7.3/.

Enable and start the PHP-FPM daemon. The daemon name might be slightly different if the version is newer.

rcctl enable php73_fpm
rcctl start php73_fpm

Configuring MariaDB

MariaDB provides the database backend for PrestaShop. Because MariaDB needs more open files than the default class allows, create a special class in /etc/login.conf.

At the bottom of the file, add the following lines:

mysqld:\
      :openfiles-cur=1024:\
      :openfiles-max=2048:\
      :tc=daemon:

Install MariaDB.

 doas su
 mysql_install_db
 rcctl enable mysqld
 rcctl start mysqld

Configure MariaDB security.

 mysql_secure_installation

Create the PrestaShop database. Use a strong password.

mysql -u root
CREATE DATABASE prestashop;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON prestashop.* TO 'prestashop'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password123';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT

Configuring Apache

Back up /etc/apache2/httpd2.conf

cp /etc/apache2/httpd2.conf /etc/apache2/httpd2.conf.bak

Make the following changes to /etc/apache2/httpd2.conf, using # to enable and disable modules.

Listen 443
...
LoadModule mpm_event_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_mpm_event.so
#LoadModule mpm_prefork_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_mpm_prefork.so
LoadModule proxy_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
LoadModule ssl_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_ssl.so
LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/local/lib/apache2/mod_rewrite.so
...
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ServerName 192.0.2.1:80

• Several more changes in /etc/apache2/httpd2.conf occur towards the bottom of the file. Remove # from the include statements indicated.

• Add the Virtual Hosting lines last.

  # Server-pool management (MPM specific)
  Include /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-mpm.conf
  ...
  # Virtual Hosts
  IncludeOptional /etc/apache2/sites/*.conf
  

Create the /etc/apache2/sites directory.

mkdir /etc/apache2/sites

Create /etc/apache2/sites/example.conf with the following information:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot "/var/www/htdocs/prestashop"

  <Directory "/var/www/htdocs/prestashop">
    Options -Indexes +Multiviews +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
    </Limit>
    Require all granted
  </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
  ServerName example.com
  ServerAlias www.example.com
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot "/var/www/htdocs/prestashop"

  <Directory "/var/www/htdocs/prestashop">
    Options -Indexes +Multiviews +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
    </Limit>
    Require all granted
  </Directory>

  SSLEngine On
  SSLCertificateFile "/etc/ssl/example.com.crt"
  SSLCertificateKeyFile "/etc/ssl/private/example.com.key"
  SSLCipherSuite HIGH:!aNULL

</VirtualHost>

Configure Apache's proxy module by adding the following to /etc/apache2/sites/example.conf

<IfModule proxy_module>
  <IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
  </IfModule>
  <FilesMatch "\.php$">
    SetHandler "proxy:fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000"
  </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

Test the configuration, then enable and start Apache.

apachectl configtest
rcctl enable apache2
rcctl start apache2

Ensure that Apache is listening on ports 80 and 443.

netstat -ln -finet

Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto   Recv-Q Send-Q  Local Address          Foreign Address        (state)
tcp          0      0  *.443                  *.*                    LISTEN
tcp          0      0  127.0.0.1.25           *.*                    LISTEN
tcp          0      0  *.22                   *.*                    LISTEN
tcp          0      0  *.80                   *.*                    LISTEN
tcp          0      0  127.0.0.1.3306         *.*                    LISTEN
tcp          0      0  127.0.0.1.9000         *.*                    LISTEN

Install PrestaShop

Browse to your website at http://www.example.com. The PrestaShop install wizard will launch.

Once you complete the install, take note of the store front and administrative links and delete the directory /var/www/htdocs/prestashop/install.

Enable SSL.

• Click Shop Parameters
• Click General
• Enable SSL for all parts of your store

Change your administrative password.

• Click Advanced Parameters
• Click Team
• Change your password.

Some Final Tasks

Backup your store and its database:

cd /var/www/htdocs
doas tar cvfz /home/auser/prestashop.tar.gz prestashop/
doas mysqldump -u prestashop -p prestashop | gzip -4 > /home/auser/prestashop.sql.tar.gz
doas chown auser:auser /home/auser/prestashop*

Remove doas access for your user account by recreating the doas.conf file.

echo 'permit keepenv :wheel' > /etc/doas.conf