ContentedLife

Re Bugtraq post PHP import_request_variables() arbitrary variable overwrite.

This sort of thing really brings it home how the PHP core team still
don’t seem to really understand security… or would rather sacrifice it
in the name of backwards, very backwards, compatibility.

If you’re going to provide a function like import_request_variables()
to replace the blatantly-unsafe register_globals, how on earth can you
get it so badly wrong that it’s even more unsafe?? I mean, security 101
for a function like this would be:

1. Don’t overwrite any existing global variables (come on!)
2. Failing to specify a prefix should be at least an E_WARNING.
3. Stop pandering to people who wrote or still use bad code originating back in PHP3 days, and aim towards getting rid of the whole concept of registering global variable symbols from user-supplied data. It was always a bad idea, it’s never going to stop being a bad idea, just drop it.

I also get terribly bored of seeing bugtraq reports of a “full path disclosure” bug in some app (like it’s a big deal too), only to find that it is, once again, PHP itself that’s at fault. Sure, the sysadmin on a production machine should set display_errors = Off, but if it’s left on why does PHP show the full path? If the purpose is to help the programmer developing code (who somehow doesn’t have access to the server errorlog), then the programmer doesn’t need the full path, they already know where the docroot is — so when showing errors from scripts in the docroot, why not only show the path relative to the docroot? And if from an included or required file outside the docroot, just the last directory component ought to suffice. The full path can still go in the error log, and then maybe developers would learn to use it instead of relying on errors going to screen…

PHP can be secure, but it really needs to stop offering features that are insecure by definition.

I’ve tentatively placed a toe aboard the AJAX bandwagon, thanks largely to Rails which makes it possible, even painless, to achieve AJAX functionality without having to learn Javascript.¹

While AJAX, done properly, can be a big win for Usability for those whose browsers support it, I am also concerned with issues of Accessibility, and indeed keeping things usable for those with non-AJAX browsers.

Standards-Schmandards have come up with some useful hints about how to make AJAX pages more accessible to screenreaders, such as providing an option to pop up an alert box instead of, or as well as, simply updating the page. This is good advice, but it’s only half the story. These methods don’t help those without Javascript at all, or with non-AJAX-aware browsers.

In this article I will detail one method to help ensure accessibility for such people, without compromising on AJAX spiffiness, and most importantly without causing much extra work for us poor developers. The example is in Rails, but may be of interest to those using other frameworks. (more…)

Need to parse CSV (comma-separated values) files which contain embedded newlines in the fields, as produced by many applications including MS Excel? The usual Perl modules Text::CSV, Text::CSV_XS and CSV.pm can’t do it. Fortunately there is one that can, called Text::xSV. Find it on CPAN. I’m posting about it here to raise awareness because Google searches threw up lots of people asking about this but the answer was not obvious.