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In the future, if Register_Globals = off


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Euan

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Registered: 04/22/02
Posts: 292
Suppose that (at some point in the future) the 1.3 branch were to go globals=off, just suppose... what would a developer working on a plugin need to do now so that his/her plugins were still compatible with register_globals = off ?

The reason is I was reading this:
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/squirrelmail/squirrelmail/doc/plugin.txt?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup



Compatibility with register_globals=Off
---------------------------------------

Most sensible systems administrators now run their PHP systems with the setting "register_globals" as OFF. This is a prudent security setting, and as the SquirrelMail core code has long since been upgraded to work in such an environment, we are now requiring that all plugins do the same. Compatibility with this setting amounts to little more than explicitly gathering any and all variables you sent from a tag as GET or POST values instead of just assuming that they will be placed in the global scope automatically. There is nothing more to do than this:

global $favorite_color;
sqgetGlobalVar('favorite_color', $favorite_color, SQ_FORM);



Is it that easy? Just make a function to get/parse variables, and stick it in say functions.php? If that were the case, perhaps we could have something like the SqurrelMail function below in the standard Geeklog installation for plugins to use. That might make any future transtition a little easier on everybody concerned.

Just an idea.

Cheers,

Euan.


The SquirrelMail function:

Text Formatted Code


/**
 * Search for the var $name in $_SESSION, $_POST, $_GET,
 * $_COOKIE, or $_SERVER and set it in provided var.
 *
 * If $search is not provided,  or == SQ_INORDER, it will search
 * $_SESSION, then $_POST, then $_GET. Otherwise,
 * use one of the defined constants to look for
 * a var in one place specifically.
 *
 * Note: $search is an int value equal to one of the
 * constants defined above.
 *
 * example:
 *    sqgetGlobalVar('username',$username,SQ_SESSION);
 *  -- no quotes around last param!
 *
 * Returns FALSE if variable is not found.
 * Returns TRUE if it is.
 */
function sqgetGlobalVar($name, &$value, $search = SQ_INORDER) {

    if ( !check_php_version(4,1) ) {
        global $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS, $HTTP_GET_VARS, $HTTP_POST_VARS,
               $HTTP_SERVER_VARS, $HTTP_SESSION_VARS;

        $_COOKIE  =& $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS;
        $_GET     =& $HTTP_GET_VARS;
        $_POST    =& $HTTP_POST_VARS;
        $_SERVER  =& $HTTP_SERVER_VARS;
        $_SESSION =& $HTTP_SESSION_VARS;
    }

    /* NOTE: DO NOT enclose the constants in the switch
       statement with quotes. They are constant values,
       enclosing them in quotes will cause them to evaluate
       as strings. */
    switch ($search) {
        /* we want the default case to be first here,  
           so that if a valid value isn't specified,
           all three arrays will be searched. */
      default:
      case SQ_INORDER:   // check session, post, get
      case SQ_SESSION:
        if( isset($_SESSION[$name]) ) {
            $value = $_SESSION[$name];
            return TRUE;
        } elseif ( $search == SQ_SESSION ) {
            break;
        }
      case SQ_FORM:      //  check post, get
      case SQ_POST:
        if( isset($_POST[$name]) ) {
            $value = $_POST[$name];
            return TRUE;
        } elseif ( $search == SQ_POST ) {
          break;
        }
      case SQ_GET:
        if ( isset($_GET[$name]) ) {
            $value = $_GET[$name];
            return TRUE;
        }
        /* NO IF HERE. FOR SQ_INORDER CASE, EXIT after GET */
        break;
      case SQ_COOKIE:
        if ( isset($_COOKIE[$name]) ) {
            $value = $_COOKIE[$name];
            return TRUE;
        }
        break;
      case SQ_SERVER:
        if ( isset($_SERVER[$name]) ) {
            $value = $_SERVER[$name];
            return TRUE;
        }
        break;
    }
    return FALSE;
}

 

-- Heather Engineering
-- No job too small
 Quote

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Blaine

Forum User
Moderator
Registered: 07/16/02
Posts: 1232
Location:Canada
I agree euan and I've been using a function in my plugins to filter all incoming and expected variables (Looks for POST and then GET VARS) and optionally makes them Global for use inside my script. It's important that we filter all expected variables to prevent someone from adding Javascript or trying a SQL injection attack.

I have a library of functions that I now use for my portalparts plugins so that I'm not copying all the same functions for each plugin project - thats been the biggest deliema.

Anyway, it's called like this (very similar) in my apps.
Text Formatted Code
/* Filter incoming variables and set them as globals */
$myvars = array('op','chklist','username','email');
ppGetData($myvars,true);

 

Geeklog components by PortalParts -- www.portalparts.com
 Quote

Status: offline

Euan

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Full Member
Registered: 04/22/02
Posts: 292
Hi Blaine,

SquirrelMail do $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS, $HTTP_GET_VARS, $HTTP_POST_VARS, $HTTP_SERVER_VARS, $HTTP_SESSION_VARS and offer the option of setting search order. Would you be interested in posting your function here and agreeing on a standard that we could use? Any people want to comment on what might be a suitable standard to pass to the function? It might also make plugin developing both easier and safer.

eg: getGlobals( array(get these), array(HTTP_to_check), etc... )

Cheers,

Euan.
-- Heather Engineering
-- No job too small
 Quote

Status: offline

Blaine

Forum User
Moderator
Registered: 07/16/02
Posts: 1232
Location:Canada
I actually posted this code a few weeks ago to the Geeklog Developers list. This is now part of my lib-portalparts library that is used in several of my up-coming portalparts plugins.
Text Formatted Code

/**
* PortalParts Library Function to filter incomming variables and optional make GLOBAL
* Author: Blaine Lang
*
* The function can be called with just one variable - an Array of variable names
* It will check for POST and then GET and if the variable is found,
* it is filtered and returned.
*
* Optionally, you can make the variable Global and specify GET or POST Vars as the source
*
* Example use:
*      $myvars = array('op','chklist','username','email');
*      ppGetData($myvars,true);
*
* @param        array    $vars          Array of variable name
* @param        boolean  $setglobal     Optional: Set true to make variables global
* @param        string   $type          Optional: Set to 'POST' or 'GET'
* @return   string  Formated HTML containing site footer and optionally right blocks
*
*/

function ppGetData($vars,$setglobal=false,$type='')  {
  $return_data = array();

  #setup common reference to SuperGlobals depending which array is needed
  if ($type == "GET" OR $type == "POST") {
    if ($type =="GET") { $SG_Array =& $_GET; }
    if ($type =="POST") { $SG_Array =& $_POST; }

    # loop through SuperGlobal data array and grab out data for allowed fields if found
    foreach($vars as $key)  {
      if (array_key_exists($key,$SG_Array)) { $return_data[$key]=$SG_Array[$key]; }
    }

  } else {
    foreach ($vars as $key) {
      if (array_key_exists($key, $_POST)) {
        $return_data[$key] = $_POST[$key];
      } elseif (array_key_exists($key, $_GET)) {
        $return_data[$key] = $_GET[$key];
      }
    }
  }

    # loop through $vars array and apply the filter
    foreach($vars as $value)  {
      $return_data[$value]  = ppApplyFilter($return_data[$value]);
    }

  // Optionally set $GLOBALS or return the array
  if ($setglobal) {
      # loop through final data and define all the variables using the $GLOBALS array
      foreach ($return_data as $key=>$value)  {
        $GLOBALS[$key]=$value;
      }
  } else {
      return $return_data;
  }

}

 

Geeklog components by PortalParts -- www.portalparts.com
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Status: offline

Euan

Forum User
Full Member
Registered: 04/22/02
Posts: 292
OK, are there any other possible places (than POST and GET) that we might need to get variable from? Eg cookie vars? Also, is there anything else that we might conceivably need to pass to/get from this function (I can't imagine anything else off the top of my head)? If not, then I'll use your code in my function.inc as well.

Cheers,

Euan.
-- Heather Engineering
-- No job too small
 Quote

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