FeministWiki:Technical documentation: Difference between revisions

This page documents the FeministWiki's technical infrastructure, the target audience being technicians.

The following table documents the basic DNS configuration, and can be used as part of the <code>/etc/hosts</code> file on each server to obviate the need for DNS lookups when connecting to one another.

|85.214.101.34 ||            feministwiki.org ||              || Wiki                    || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||        www.feministwiki.org || www          || Wiki                    || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      ldap.feministwiki.org || ldap          || LDAP                    || -

|85.214.101.34 ||      blogs.feministwiki.org || blogs        || Blogging                || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      chat.feministwiki.org || chat          || Web-client for XMPP    || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      forum.feministwiki.org || forum        || BBS Forum              || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      mail.feministwiki.org || mail          || Web-client for Mail    || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      files.feministwiki.org || files        || File storage            || 80, 443

|85.214.101.34 ||      imap.feministwiki.org || imap          || IMAP                    || 993

|85.214.101.34 ||      pop3.feministwiki.org || pop3          || POP3                    || 995

|85.214.101.34 ||      smtp.feministwiki.org || smtp          || SMTP                    || 25, 465, 587

|85.214.101.34 ||      xmpp.feministwiki.org || xmpp          || XMPP                    || 5222, 5223, 5269, 5270, 5443, 7777

|85.214.101.34 ||        irc.feministwiki.org || irc          || IRC                    || 6697

|85.214.101.34 ||    account.feministwiki.org || account      || Account operations      || 80, 443

As you can see, all services are on the same server for now.  However, it should be kept as an open possibility that the hosts are split across different IPs.  When done so, the <code>ldap</code> host should listen on 636 for LDAPS connections.

The simple <code>ufw</code> firewall-frontend is used to trivially limit all network I/O to the ports you can see in the host table above, plus port 22 for ssh and scp.

We use <code>fail2ban</code> to detect brute force attempts on some services.  The git repository for scripts and config contains the relevant Fail2ban configuration under <code>etc/fail2ban</code>.

FeministWiki hosts have ssh enabled for <code>root</code> access, but password login is disabled.  You must own a valid private key to log in.

To ease use of the letsencrypt command, the file <code>/root/etc/domains</code> contains all the FQDNs used by the FeministWiki, one per line. Given that, the preferred way to populate the <code>/etc/letsencrypt/live/feministwiki.org</code> directory with fresh certs is to run the following commands while TCP port 80 is free (e.g. stop Apache first):

  domains=$(cat /root/etc/domains)

  domains=$(printf '%s' "$domains" | tr '\n' ',')

Additionally, for programs that require a cert file and its private key in a single combined <code>.pem</code> file, run the following commands to generate such a file:

 

The script <code>/root/bin/letsencrypt-refresh</code> '''does all of the above''' automatically.  It stops Apache, runs the commands described above, and starts Apache again.  This can be used not only to refresh a cert that's running out, but also to add a new domain to the cert.  Just add the domain to <code>/root/etc/domains</code> and run the commands.  Note that the letsencrypt command may not work well on a "dumb" terminal such as an Emacs shell buffer.  If in doubt, run it from within a proper terminal emulator.

 

=== Readability of the key files ===

 

To ensure that processes running under unprivileged users can read key files, ensure that the users they run under are members of the <code>ssl-cert</code> group, which should have read access to the files in <code>/etc/letsencrypt/live/feministwiki.org</code>.

Currently, FeministWiki runs on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial), which has rather old Apache and PHP packages.  We use the Ubuntu PPAs <code>ondrej/apache2</code> and <code>ondrej/php</code> to get newer versions.

For F-Droid packages, we use the <code>fdroid/fdroidserver</code> Ubuntu PPA.

The wiki uses a [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] installation located at <code>/var/www/wiki/w</code>.  It uses the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/LDAP_Stack LDAP Stack] extension for login management, and the "Short URL" feature is enabled.  The wiki uses the SQL database called "feministwiki" and the SQL user of the same name.

The default wiki is in English.  Parallel wiki installations for different languages are supported via a combination of Apache's URL rewriting, and conditional branches in the <code>LocalSettings.php</code> file of the MediaWiki installation:

* The rewrite rules ensure that, for any supported language <code>xy</code>, URLs beginning with <code>/xy/wiki/...</code> internally resolve to <code>/w/index.php</code> and URLs beginning with <code>/xy/w/...</code> resolve to <code>/w/...</code>.

* The LocalSettings file checks <code>$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']</code> to determine the language code prefix in the requested URL, and configures things accordingly:

** It sets <code>$wgArticlePath</code> to <code>/xy/wiki/$1</code> so that <code>/w/index.php</code> knows that when it's invoked via such a URL, it should serve an article.

** It sets <code>$wgScriptPath</code> to <code>/xy/w</code> so that links to scripts served by MediaWiki are correct for the language.

** It sets the SQL database name to <code>feministwiki_xy</code>.

The domain names feministwiki.de and www.feministwiki.de redirect to <code>https://feministwiki.org/de</code>.  For instance, requesting <code>https://feministwiki.de/wiki/Hauptseite</code> will result in an HTTP redirect to <code>https://feministwiki.org/de/wiki/Hauptseite</code>.

This is an installation of WordPress in <code>/var/www/blogs</code>, with the "multisite network" feature enabled on a path-basis, so users can have their own blogs on URLs like <code>blogs.feministwiki.org/janedoe</code>.  LDAP authentication is enabled via the AD/LDAP plugin from miniOrange.

The web-interface for the FeministChat uses the full-screen "Impress" variant of the [https://conversejs.org/ Converse.js] XMPP client.  The hosted HTML and JS files are located at <code>/var/www/chat</code>, although they load Converse.js as an external script from upstream, which is why the self-hosted HTML and JS are very minimal.

The forum uses a [https://www.phpbb.com/ phpBB] installation located at <code>/var/www/forum</code>.  Most configuration of phpBB, including LDAP authentication, is done through its administration panel.  The style used by the forum is a minimally changed "ProSilver Dark".  The forum uses the SQL database called "feministforum" and the SQL user of the same name.

The web-interface for the FeministMail uses the [https://roundcube.net/ Roundcube] mail client, installed at <code>/var/www/mail</code>.  It uses a FeministWiki-branded modification of the new "elastic" style.

FeministFiles is a [https://nextcloud.com/ Nextcloud] installation with some branding, and LDAP authentication, installed at <code>/var/www/files</code>.

FeministMail uses the [https://www.dovecot.org/ Dovecot] IMAP server, configured for LDAP authentication and using virtual mail boxes under <code>/home/vmail</code>.

FeministMail uses the [http://www.postfix.org/ Postfix] SMTP server, using SASL authentication through Dovecot, LDAP-based virtual mail boxes under <code>/home/vmail</code>, and DKIM signing via OpenDKIM.  Send a mail to a Gmail account and use the "Show original" feature of Gmail to see if the mail passes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC tests.

Postfix is configured to recognize <code>lists.feministwiki.org</code> as a "local" domain.  This means it uses the file specified in the <code>alias_maps</code> configuration directive (typically <code>/etc/aliases</code>) to decide the final recipient of an e-mail sent to this domain.  Correspondingly, we populate <code>/etc/aliases</code> with the aliases needed by Mailman to operate each mailing list it controls.

Note that there is no DNS entry for <code>lists.feministwiki.org</code> because e-mail software just checks the MX record for <code>feministwiki.org</code> when the recipient is from the domain <code><em>anything</em>.feministwiki.org</code>.

FeministIRC uses the [http://www.inspircd.org/ InspIRCd] IRC server with the <code>ldapauth</code> module for LDAP authentication.  The client is authenticated via the combination of the NICK and PASS provided upon connection, which must correspond to the FeministWiki credentials.

This custom web interface hosted at <code>/var/www/account</code> lets you complete several tasks related to FeministWiki membership, such as changing your account settings, resetting your password, or adding a new member.  It also contains a form to request membership.  The interface is written in HTML, CSS, PHP, and C.