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[nycphp-talk] Htaccess and php user account

Justin Dearing zippy1981 at gmail.com
Mon Dec 1 22:07:54 EST 2008


Michele,
I think your ISP lied to you. Assuming its apache and mod_php I'm pretty
sure that the only explanation was they reconfigured apache wrong, restarted
apache, you saw the issue, reported it, and they fixed it.

If your server is a windows server (unlikely in a shared hosting senario) or
this is something like lighthttpd or php running on apache through some
configuration I'm not totatly familiar with like CGI, then maybe this can
happen.

If what you experienced is a common occurrence with mod_php, I hope others
on this list will chime in. If it is I'm going to cease using apache and
mod_php in production environments.



On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Michele Waldman <mmwaldman at nyc.rr.com>wrote:

>  I'm not sure which process died, but I was programming one night and all
> of the sudden all of my php code was being dumped to my browser.
>
>
>
> I called my hosting provider and they said the underlying process had died
> for some reason.
>
>
>
> I can't remember if we did a reboot or if the process was started back up
> independently.
>
>
>
> Ever since then, I've taking into consideration that php is not necessarily
> that secure.  One hiccup from the server and security could be compromised.
> I keep sensitive data out of those files.
>
>
>
> I was more curious about how it might be implemented in case my client
> didn't upgrade the server, but my client will upgrade for more than just
> this reason.
>
>
>
> I know Zencart and other apps doesn't rely on htaccess, but rather php,
> but, if I'm going to develop an app for which I am liable, I really think
> server level is the only way to go.
>
>
>
> Michele
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org]
> *On Behalf Of *Justin Dearing
> *Sent:* Monday, December 01, 2008 9:40 PM
> *To:* NYPHP Talk
> *Subject:* Re: [nycphp-talk] Htaccess and php user account
>
>
>
> Can you describe a senario where php stops working and as a result php
> would stop?
>
> Yes, theoretically apache could be reconfigured so its thinks that .php
> files are just a text files, but if mod_php were to "crash", which generally
> brings down the worker thread and fixes itself.
>
>
>
> Session variables and a name and crypted password string in the database
> are the way to go generally. I could reccomend more sofisticated approaches,
> such as having php authenticate against LDAP, or the mysql database users
> (assuming you restrict database access on a per user level), but if your
> doing shared hosting (no root access), this is probably the best way.
>
>
>
> Most php web apps work this way.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 8:14 PM, Michele Waldman <mmwaldman at nyc.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
> I'm trying to set up a user account with htaccess and mysql.
>
>
>
> But the shared hosting account doesn't have mod_auth_mysql htaccess module
> installed on the machines and I can't get root access.
>
>
>
> How else are folks implementing accounts?
>
>
>
> In php?
>
>
>
> If so, what's the best general way to implement that.  Do you use session
> variables for that?
>
>
>
> My primary concern about implementing accounts in php is that php can stop
> running on the server.  If that happens, the security becomes non-existent.
> Plus, the php code can be dumped right to the browser.
>
>
>
> I'd much rather server level security than in processes that can stop.
>
>
>
> Thoughts on account security approaches, please.
>
>
>
> Michele
>
>
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