[thelist] Safe mode and escapeshellcmd

Santilal Parbhu santilal at scorpioneng.co.nz
Tue Apr 18 14:14:42 CDT 2006


Hi John,

The data is the user name and password.  I am collecting the password and
username in a form, passing it through the clean function and then comparing
the two to values used in a mysql database.  Hence, I think the idea of
excapeshellcmd is that it will strip off any extraneous characters.

So is there a work around.  I will contact my ISP again, especially in the
light of your comment below.  If escapeshellcmd is run for exec(), system(),
passthru(), and popen(), why would you disable it for anything else.  Even
if it did run twice, wouldn't it just have no effect the second time?

Thanks for your help.

Santilal

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of John Hicks
Sent: Wednesday, 19 April 2006 5:58 a.m.
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Safe mode and escapeshellcmd


Santilal Parbhu wrote:
> Hi Guys
>
> I read in a book somewhere that it is a good idea to use the
> escapeshellcmd() to clean user entered data.  This is supposed to reduce
the
> chances of a hacker entering control characters along with user data.
This
> sounds like a good idea.

There are several php functions for escaping data. Your choice depends
on what you want to do with that data. escapeshellcmd() is specifically
for user-entered data that is going to be executed at the command level
using exec() system() etc.

You didn't specifically say what you are doing with the data after
escaping it. Are you then executing it? With which function?

 > I have used the following code fragment to clean
> data.
>
> <?php
> function clean($input, $maxlength)
> {
> 	$input = substr($input, 0, $maxlength);
> 	$input = EscapeShellCmd($input);
> 	return ($input);
> 	}
> ?>
>
> This worked fine when I was testing my scripts with Apache running on my
> laptop.  However, once I uploaded to an ISP hosted server, I ran into
> problems.  They operate in safe mode, which also sounds sensible.

 > But
> escapeshellcmd is disabled in  safe mode, or at least my ISP has disabled
> it.

Note that,  when safe mode is enabled, escapeshellcmd() is run
automatically for exec(), system(), passthru(), and popen().

See:
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/features.safe-mode.functions.php

So perhaps your ISP has disabled escapeshellcmd() to prevent it from
being run twice on the same data.


 > It seems strange to me that both of these mechanisms (ie. operating in
> safe mode and escapeshellcmd) are aimed at reducing the risk of attack,
but
> they don't appear to be compatible with each other.  Any comments?  Should
I
> just forget about using the clean function?

You should always clean user-entered data. And it's best to do it
immediately when it is entered as part of a validation process. You can
be stricter at that point since you know what you are expecting.

A blanket clean() function is a little dangerous because it tempts you
to generalize about your data requirements.

Many user-entered fields, for example, can be restricted to
alphanumerics. Most can be restricted to alphanumerics, apostrophe
(single quote), space, and perhaps parentheses. It gets hairier when
html code is being accepted, hairier and riskier still with php code,
and hairiest with system commands (although there is little difference
between allowing the user to enter php and system commands.)

Hope that helps.

--John

> Thanks.
>
> Santilal
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