How to run <?php echo exec('whoami'); ?>

Question

After copying and pasting

<?php echo exec('whoami'); ?>

Into a file named index.php and navigating to my ip the only output is www-data .

Is this the Apache process owner?

Is there a way to run this from the terminal for a more finite output?

Answer 1

As the manual said, whoami Print the user name associated with the current effective user ID . In other words, it displays the name of the currently logged-in user. So your server Apache is run under www-data username.