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At some point hitherto, Rodent of Unusual Size hath spake thusly:
> "Derek D. Martin" wrote:
> > 
> > I'll go one better than that.  If you use PHP, STOP.  They have
> > security bulletins released about once a week, it seems (o.k. I'm
> > exaggerating A LITTLE).  About the only "vendor" with more frequent
> > releases is Microsoft...
> 
> Eh, I don't buy that.  Please back it up with some references.

Ok, I'll back down partially in that upon review, many of the
advisories I've seen I've mis-remembered; they were not actually PHP
advisories, but for software written in PHP.  However, just this year:

http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/258995
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/258662
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/255037
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/254846
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/254005
http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/250196

Some of these are considered fairly minor, in that the vulnerability
is a possible exposure of what may be considered sensitive info.  Some
of these are things that can be fixed by altering the configuration of
PHP.  The problem is that it shows a pattern of failing to think
about programming security issues.

There are also some earlier advisories which complain about the design
of PHP encouraging the development of insecure code.  It seems that
writing secure PHP scripts is also very difficult, and there are quite
number of advisories for software written in PHP, which are not
necessarily the fault of PHP, but perhaps encouraged by the design of
PHP.  

I stand by what I said: if you're using PHP, it is my opinion that
you're better off from a security standpoint using something else.
You have to worry about security problems in the software written
using PHP, as well as those of PHP itself.  For example, Perl has zero
reported vulnerabilities over the same period of time, and only one
report of a vulnerability in software written in it (a file disclosure
bug caused by bad input validation).  I personally don't feel that PHP
has a track record that warrants confidence in the security of your
web server, and possibly your network depending on other trust
relationships with your web server.  Better, mmore proven alternatives
exist.

- -- 
Derek Martin               [EMAIL PROTECTED]    
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