chown -- useage

[ameliabob]

I have downloaded a file from a service and saved it. I want to use it and then delete it. I have found that the download is done through the adminstrator privilege and I am using at as a normal person who has all priveleges. unlink won't let me delete (and I guess correctly as I didn't create it)chown won't let me change ownership to me. I guess there is something in the C/C++ language that I am missing. Where do I look from here?

[boen_robot]

AFAIK, the ability to take ownership is a separate privilege that may be disabled.You need to make PHP run as the user that has enough permissions. This is a server setting, so there's nothing you can do from PHP to circumvent it - if you find a way with just PHP code tweaks, you've found an OS vulnerability.

[ameliabob]

Ok, as someone said, one question leads to another. I am using the wamp server and Apache, so what is the setting called? So I can go and look for it. And/or how do I know what setting it is being run at. Am I allowed to see that?

[boen_robot]

You can find out the username PHP runs as using get_current_user().If PHP runs as an Apache module, it will run with the same privileges Apache has. You can adjust that username by going to "Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services", double click the Apache service, and then in the "Log on" tab, type the username and password for the account you wish Apache (=> PHP) to run as - one that you know has enough permissions (e.g. Administrator). Restart the Apache service for these settings to take effect, and the script should now have enough permissions.