Are root privileges needed for running processes like ntp openvpn lighttpd

[cobradevil]

Hello all,

I have a question why there are multiple service running as root suchs as:
ntp openvpn lighttpd

my background is more in the linux corner which runs most processes as a non privileged user but maybe there is a good reason I do not know about.

[fabian]

all of them need to be started as root as they need to bind a well known port (< 1024).

after that, they may be able to drop privileges. OpenVPN still need to be able to change the network configuration and ntp setting the time.
Linux has capabilities, which I am not aware that it would exist on FreeBSD as well. I cannot answer why lighttpd is running as root, because the changes are done by PHP.

[bartjsmit]

Privilege separation is on the OPNsense roadmap: https://opnsense.org/about/road-map/

Bart...

[cobradevil]

OK, thanks for clarifying.
I will monitor the roadmap more closely.

Best regards,
William