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Hello!<br />
<br />
I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 and I've got LAMP installed on it. I'm aware that web server Apache runs under www-data user. Thus all my files and directories have www-data user permissions. Why can't Apache run under regular user or under root? Why bother with an extra one?
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Hello!

I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 and I've got LAMP installed on it. I'm aware that web server Apache runs under www-data user. Thus all my files and directories have www-data user permissions. Why can't Apache run under regular user or under root? Why bother with an extra one?

Why Apache runs under www-data user?

The Apache HTTP Server is a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards. Typically Apache is run on a Unix-like operating system, but it is available for a wide variety of operating systems, including Linux, Novell NetWare, Mac OS-X and Windows. Released under the Apache License, Apache is open-source software.