ID:               36355
 User updated by:  jnavratil at houston dot rr dot com
 Reported By:      jnavratil at houston dot rr dot com
 Status:           Bogus
 Bug Type:         OCI8 related
 Operating System: Fedora Core 4.2
 PHP Version:      6CVS-2006-02-10 (snap)
 New Comment:

Do you really think that apache should be a member of the oracle group
to run php5_module with OCI8?  A friend, who has been a consultant with
Oracle for the last 10 years doesn't consider it kosher.  My client for
whom I am developing a PHP/Oracle application doesn't particularly like
the idea of a PHP script being able execute any Oracle binary it likes.

Instant client is designed for accessing remote database servers.  It
may be the only way to provide the security needed.  I don't know but
now will have to learn it to find out.  Clearly OCI8 as currently
written is pretty useless for a production environment, at least if
Oracle and Apache are on the same server.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2006-02-10 18:21:13] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

OCI8 extension itself doesn't require any variables, access privileges
etc. Those requirements are set by oracle client libraries, so there is
nothing we can do about it.
And personally I don't consider giving read permissions to apache user
as dangerous.

But you can use Oracle Instant Client that doesn't require nor
ORACLE_HOME (or any other variables) to be set, neither read privileges
for any oracle directories.
See details here:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/instantclient.html

No PHP bug -> bogus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2006-02-10 18:14:46] jnavratil at houston dot rr dot com

ORACLE_HOME is definitely being set before httpd is started.  The
/etc/sysconfig/httpd script is sourced at the start of the httpd init
script (I also echoed $ORACLE_HOME to make sure).

PHP CLI does connect successfully and now I believe I know why...

The issue appears to be related to permissions and I am quickly getting
out of my depth.  When I run the PHP CLI test, I am running as 'oracle'
or in my developer account which, for convenience, is a member of the
'oinstall' group.  I added the 'oinstall' group to the 'apache' user (
usermod -Goinstall apache ) and was able to connect using the
php5_module under apache.  Obviously, giving apache this level of
access to the oracle installation is dangerous and shouldn't be
necessary.  It suggests that the development of the oci8 extension may
have been done with either a less secure Oracle installation or with an
account having more Oracle privilege than it should.

Would it be appropriate for the oci8 extension developers to look into
this security issue?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2006-02-10 17:26:32] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Are you sure ORACLE_HOME is set *before you start* Apache?
Does PHP CLI work?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2006-02-10 17:15:34] jnavratil at houston dot rr dot com

ORACLE_HOME was set in /etc/sysconfig/httpd along with...

ORACLE_BASE=/opt/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0/db_1; export ORACLE_HOME
TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0/db_1/network/admin; export
TNS_ADMIN
PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/JRE:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib;
export CLASSPATH

(As an aside, I experimented with these variables and *BELIEVE*
ORACLE_HOME was the only one necessary, but I was running the CLI
version)

ORACLE_HOME permissions are set to 755.

The patch to oci8.c consisted of adding...

 php_error_docref(NULL TSRMLS_CC, E_WARNING, getenv("ORACLE_HOME"));

... just below ...

 php_error_docref(NULL TSRMLS_CC, E_WARNING, PHP_OCI_INIT_FUNC_NAME "()
failed. There is something wrong with your system - please check that
ORACLE_HOME is set and points to the right directory");

... to report the actual value into the /var/log/httpd/error_log.  I
then remade and installed PHP5.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2006-02-10 16:33:38] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

How do you set ORACLE_HOME and did you set any other environment
variables?
Is ORACLE_HOME dir readable by the user httpd uses for its childs?
What do you mean by "patched oci8.c"?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at
    http://bugs.php.net/36355

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