Oracle Linux: How To Allow Non-Root Users To Bind To Port 80

Applies to: 

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Version N/A to N/A [Release 1.0]

Linux OS - Version Oracle Linux 7.0 and later

Linux x86-64

Goal

To allow unprivileged users to bind to ports less than 1024

Solution

Port numbers below 1024 are reserved for superuser (root) so a normal OS users cannot bind to ports in this range.

In Linux, there are no user privileges available to grant non-root users to bind ports lower than 1024.

The feasible option would be to use Linux capabilities.

Program capabilities - CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE can be set to a program to allow binding ports lower than 1024 by non-root user process.