Apache running as root instead of user specified in httpd.conf
Solution 1:
Apache always needs to start as root, then it uses setuid to switch to user context of specified user in httpd.conf.
Without root (uid = 0) you can not create listening socket on privileged ports (below 1024)
For details read this documents:
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/03/apache-hardening/
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/misc/security_tips.html
From first link:
# ps -ef | grep -i http | awk '{print $1}'
root
apache
apache
apache
apache
apache