LAMP-Based Bulletin Board System & Infrastructure

📌 Project Overview

This project involves building a full LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) web server environment from scratch on AWS Lightsail. The primary goal was to understand the fundamental architecture of web servers and create a custom testing environment for future web security and hacking simulations.

🚀 Infrastructure Setup (AWS Lightsail)

1. Instance Creation

Platform: Linux/Unix (Ubuntu)
Blueprint: LAMP (PHP 8)
Instance Name: LAMP_KnockOn

2. Networking & Security

To separate the bulletin board traffic from standard web traffic, the firewall rules were configured to allow a custom port.

SSH: Enabled for remote management.
Firewall: Added rule to allow TCP Port 8081.

🛠️ Server Configuration

1. Apache Web Server Setup

Installed and configured Apache2 to serve the application on a custom port.

Installation

sudo apt install apache2 -y
sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2

Check Status

sudo systemctl status apache2

Configuration Changes

Modified /etc/apache2/ports.conf: Added Listen 8081

Modified VirtualHost configuration: <VirtualHost *:8081>

Updated DocumentRoot permissions in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:

<Directory /opt/bitnami/apache/htdocs>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

2. MySQL Database Setup

Secured the database installation and set up the schema for the bulletin board.

Security Hardening: Run mysql_secure_installation to enforce security policies:

[x] Validate Password Component

[x] Disallow root login remotely

[x] Remove anonymous users

[x] Remove test database

User & Database Creation:

CREATE DATABASE knockon_db;
CREATE USER 'knockon_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON knockon_db.* TO 'knockon_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Database Schema Design

Designed a relational database schema to support users, posts, and file uploads.

USE knockon_db;

/* User Table */
CREATE TABLE users (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    username VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

/* Posts Table */
CREATE TABLE posts (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    content TEXT NOT NULL,
    user_id INT NOT NULL,
    file_path VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id)
);

/* Files Table */
CREATE TABLE files (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    post_id INT NOT NULL,
    file_path VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    uploaded_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    FOREIGN KEY (post_id) REFERENCES posts(id)
);

Application Development (PHP)

Developed the core backend logic for the bulletin board system using PHP.

Key Files & Features

Authentication: login.php, register.php, logout.php (Session management)
Board Functions:

create_posts.php: Write new posts with file attachments.

list_posts.php: Display list of posts from MySQL.

edit_post.php / delete_post.php: Modify or remove content.

Infrastructure as Code:

Dockerfile.php & Dockerfile.db: Containerization setup for future migration.

docker-compose.yml: Orchestration configuration.

Conclusion

This project successfully established a secure and functional LAMP environment. By manually configuring Apache ports and MySQL permissions, I gained a deep understanding of server administration, which serves as a strong foundation for my cybersecurity studies.

Tech Stack

Source Code