I realize that, just didn't want to suggest that /tmp was a good solution
instead of a database.  The question is always about security, btw ;)

-Javier

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cummings [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 5:54 PM
To: Javier Muniz
Cc: Teren; PHP-General
Subject: RE: [PHP] Executing shell commands


I did mention database as one of the solutions. The question wasn't about
security so I didn't elaborate.

Cheers,
Rob.

On Sun, 2003-11-09 at 16:45, Javier Muniz wrote:
> Ack! No no no no no! At least put something this critical in a 
> password protected database, not a place that could possibly be 
> written to by a malicious user that gains access to an easily-writable 
> directory like /tmp, the DoS and security ramifications of having a 
> system like this are huge. Be exceptionally careful, and never pretend 
> that /tmp is a safe place for data.  If something is being read from 
> /tmp then it should be treated the same way user-inputted data is, and 
> never trusted.
> 
> -Javier
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Cummings [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 12:47 AM
> To: Teren
> Cc: PHP-General
> Subject: Re: [PHP] Executing shell commands
> 
> 
> On Sun, 2003-11-09 at 03:41, Teren wrote:
> >
> > Hi, I'm trying to write a front end for something and I want to be
> > able to execute shell commands. I tried all of the pre-written 
> > functions and non of them would work. I setup a user that can sudo and 
> > then i set apache to run as that user. So, what I tried to do is 
> > shell_exec("sudo -s; reboot;"); but that didn't work, I also tried 
> > other numerous variations all of which didn't work (also using exec(), 
> > system(), passthru()  ). If any one has any ideas how i can do this, 
> > please let me know. Thanks
> 
> I believe this has been answered quite recently and the large 
> consensus was to have a daemon (cron or otherwise) check for some 
> status file or database entry, which when set it would perform the 
> required function. So for instance to reboot the machine, perhaps a 
> cron job would check for the existence of /tmp/myFrontEnd/reboot and 
> if found reboot the machine. Thus the front end would only need to 
> create the file.
> 
> HTH,
> Rob.
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