Hi, I think this is a separate bug from 345554 and should be opened as a new bug.
As mentioned by Vedran Furač (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=345554#53), the superfluous alias directive within the 10-cgi.conf file, results in '404' errors, when trying to execute a CGI file. Commenting it out, solves the problem. Without commenting the line, running /usr/sbin/lighttpd -tp -f lighttpd.conf results in this relevant snippet: $HTTP["remoteip"] == "127.0.0.1" { # block 1 alias.url = ( "/cgi-bin/" => "/usr/lib/cgi-bin/, /usr/lib/cgi-bin/", "/doc/" => "/usr/share/doc/", "/images/" => "/usr/share/images/", # 3 ) One can notice the superfluous paths. The relevant error message from the error log is: 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.212) -- splitting Request-URI 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.213) Request-URI : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.214) URI-scheme : http 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.215) URI-authority: 127.0.0.1:8888 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.216) URI-path : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.217) URI-query : 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.267) -- sanatising URI 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.268) URI-path : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (mod_access.c.135) -- mod_access_uri_handler called 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.382) -- before doc_root 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.383) Doc-Root : /var/www/ 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.384) Rel-Path : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.385) Path : 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.433) -- after doc_root 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.434) Doc-Root : /var/www/ 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.435) Rel-Path : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.436) Path : /var/www/cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.453) -- logical -> physical 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.454) Doc-Root : /var/www/ 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.455) Rel-Path : /cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.456) Path : /usr/lib/cgi-bin/, /usr/lib/cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.473) -- handling physical path 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.474) Path : /usr/lib/cgi-bin/, /usr/lib/cgi-bin/cgi.pl 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.530) -- file not found 2008-11-01 15:26:40: (response.c.531) Path : /usr/lib/cgi-bin/, /usr/lib/cgi-bin/cgi.pl I found this error on Ubuntu and reported it to Ubuntu as Bug 292347. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lighttpd/+bug/292347 thanks, Deapesh Misra. PS: Is there a way to ensure that email addresses are not displayed properly? I guess email harvesters have a field day harvesting email ids here.