How to Install PrivateBin on Ubuntu 24.04

PrivateBin is a minimalist, open-source, self-hosted pastebin platform that encrypts data in the browser before sending it to the server. This ensures that the server never sees the content in plaintext, making it ideal for secure note sharing and temporary text storage.

This guide walks through installing and configuring PrivateBin on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS using Apache and PHP.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

Install Apache, PHP, and other dependencies required for PrivateBin:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apache2 php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-mbstring \
php-gd php-xml php-json php-zip wget curl unzip

Step 2: Configure Apache

Enable and start Apache:

sudo systemctl unmask apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2

Step 3: Create Web Root Directory

Create the directory where PrivateBin will reside:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/privatebin
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/privatebin
sudo chmod 755 /var/www/privatebin

Step 4: Download and Extract PrivateBin

Download the specified version of PrivateBin from GitHub and extract it:

wget https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/archive/1.7.3.tar.gz -O /tmp/privatebin-1.7.3.tar.gz
sudo tar -xzf /tmp/privatebin-1.7.3.tar.gz -C /tmp
sudo cp -r /tmp/PrivateBin-1.7.3/* /var/www/privatebin
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/privatebin

Step 5: Create Data Directory

Create a directory for storing PrivateBin data:

sudo mkdir /var/www/privatebin/data
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/privatebin/data
sudo chmod 750 /var/www/privatebin/data

Step 6: Configure PrivateBin

Create the PrivateBin configuration file:

sudo tee /var/www/privatebin/cfg/conf.php > /dev/null <<EOF
;<?php http_response_code(403); /*
[main]
name = "PrivateBin"
discussion = true
opendiscussion = false
password = true
fileupload = false
burnafterreadingselected = false
defaultformatter = "plaintext"
sizelimit = 10485760
template = "bootstrap5"
languageselection = false
qrcode = true
icon = "jdenticon"
compression = "zlib"

[expire]
default = "1week"

[expire_options]
5min = 300
10min = 600
1hour = 3600
1day = 86400
1week = 604800
1month = 2592000
1year = 31536000
never = 0

[formatter_options]
plaintext = "Plain Text"
syntaxhighlighting = "Source Code"
markdown = "Markdown"

[traffic]
limit = 10

[purge]
limit = 300
batchsize = 10

[model]
class = Filesystem

[model_options]
dir = "data"
/*
EOF

Step 7: Create Apache Virtual Host

Create a dedicated virtual host for PrivateBin:

sudo tee /etc/apache2/sites-available/privatebin.conf > /dev/null <<EOF
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName 102.211.186.22
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/privatebin

    <Directory /var/www/privatebin>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>

    ErrorLog \${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/privatebin-error.log
    CustomLog \${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/privatebin-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
EOF

Enable required modules and the site:

sudo a2enmod rewrite headers
sudo a2ensite privatebin.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 8: Test PrivateBin

Open a browser and visit:

http://<your-server-ip> 

You’ll be greeted with the SnapDrop interface, ready for instant peer-to-peer file transfers.

Conclusion

SnapDrop offers an elegant way to share files instantly over your local network using only a browser.
With Node.js, Nginx, and systemd, this setup ensures your instance is fast, secure, and always running.

You now have a fully functional SnapDrop instance hosted on Ubuntu 24.04 — perfect for private, seamless file sharing within your network.