Re: magic_quotes

maarten@webfauna.com wrote:

> I agree that magic quotes is not a very nice solution. Although 
> it makes it a little harder to manipulate queries, it will
> make your code less clear. Some strings in you application are
> escaped (from POST data) and some are not (e.g. from database.) 
> Sometimes it's not completly clear what the origin of a
> variable (string) is.

FACK. Additional, magic_quotes are not reliable (some hosters deactivate
that) and it could be easily forget, that a application relies on
magic_quotes_*.

So let Applications not rely on things, which can be easily switched off
(e.g. safe_mode, open_basedir, automagic session_start, etc.) - not only
for security reasons.

> I think it's easier and safer if you can concider all 
> strings to be unescaped and make sure you escape them in a query.

I think, it's most important to check every piece of data, which is not
defined in the skript itself (including includes). This leads to be
thrifty with data (KISS).

> You need clear and easy to understand code to make your application secure. 

FACK. KISS is very important in buildung secure applications.

> In this case, I'd also use the intval() function. If you want an 
> integer value, this makes sure it is.

Another way ist looking if data is valid (e.g. with reg exp) and handle
violations as errors (and handle errors adequate, too). Sometimes, this
violations can be esteemed as threat. But it's a case-by-case decition
and no general advice.

Greetings,
Chris