Red Hat Knowledgebase

Release Found: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

Symptom:
When Apache is configured for SSL encryption, the service fails to start instead of asking for a passphrase required for the encrypted key.

Solution:

By default, SELinux does not allow Apache to communicate with any tty devices. Thus, when starting the service, it fails because it cannot accept input from the tty device corresponding to the console. To remedy this, you must allow Apache (httpd) to access a tty device. This can be done through the Security Level Configuration tool or through the command line.

To start the Security Level Configuration tool, select the Main Menu button (on the Panel) => System Settings => Security Level or type the command system-config-securitylevel at a command prompt. If the X Window System is not running, a small version of X is started to run the program. You should see the following window:

Select the SELinux tab and under Modify SELinux Policy, expand the Other section and select httpd_tty_comm.

If the graphical tool is unavailable, this option can be set through the command line. The following command enables the same httpd_tty_comm option:

# setsebool -P httpd_tty_comm 1

To disable it, run the command:

# setsebool -P httpd_tty_comm 0