the padded cell

How to: Setting up a Wikileaks mirror

Posted by björn on Updated

Yesterday I wrote a quick step-by-step guide for installing apache and setting your system up for Wikileaks mass-mirror project in Swedish and I’ve had requests for it to be translated into English.

This guide assumes you’re running Ubuntu or a Debian based system.

I’ve made a script that does all the steps below, feel free to use it!
The script: http://sanitarium.se/files/wikileaks-mirror.sh
Usage: wget http://sanitarium.se/files/wikileaks-mirror.sh && chmod +x wikileaks-mirror.sh && ./wikileaks-mirror.sh

Installing Apache and adding the wikileaks user

# is the prompt as root:

youruser$ sudo -s  

Install apache if it’s not installed

# apt-get install apache2  

Add a wikileaks user, write down where the home folder is created.

# adduser --disabled-password wikileaks  
# su wikileaks  
wikileaks$ mkdir ~/.ssh ~/www  
wikileaks$ chmod 0700 ~/.ssh  
wikileaks$ wget http://213.251.145.96/IMG/id_rsa.pub -O ~/.ssh/authorized_keys  
wikileaks$ exit  

Time to add the apache site for wikileaks

# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/   
# wget http://sanitarium.se/files/wikileaks   

Open the file wikileaks with an editor and change the path to the wikileaks users home folder if it’s not /home/wikileaks.
This file assumes you want to host wikileaks.org, if you want to host wikileaks.yourdomain.com you’ll need to set ServerName accordingly and if necessary ServerAlias, ServerAlias is optional and you can remove that row if you don’t use it.
When that is done you just need to activate the site in apache:

# a2ensite wikileaks  

And reload apache so it knows that the new site has been added:

# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload  

The wikileaks file downloaded from this server looks like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /home/wikileaks/www
    ServerName wikileaks.org
    ServerAlias www.wikileaks.org
    ErrorLog /dev/null
    CustomLog /dev/null common

    <Directory /home/wikileaks/www>
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Now tell Wikileaks about your mirror

Go to the form and fill it as the picture, set the IP-address of your server in the IP-field:
Wikileaks mirror settings

If you’re having any troubles don’t hesitate to ask in the comments!