Top PHP Security Issues and their Solutions
Sandip Mishra
Championing Innovation and Growth as President & Chief Visionary at SEK Technosoft | Strategic Leader at AResourcePool
PHP is one of the best web development languages for the development of dynamic websites. Most of the IT companies provide PHP development services for the PHP developers to love using PHP due to the amazing features offered and this language offers best application development.Being a PHP development company, you really wanted to make the website which is completely secure and avoid every inadvertently which creep into the development of the website. But still, to make the website secure, a developer is required to understand some of the basic kind of issues which PHP contains. Thus, to understand the blunders you are required to have some details about PHP programming flaws that you can make and its remedies.
Well, this blog will surely be guiding you to understand the PHP flaws and some best remedies to overcome all that to develop more secure websites.
Configuring the PHP Security -The PHP installation makes use of the recent PHP releases such that offers more secure code. So, just make sure that the application of PHP you installed is on a good server with the updated version of PHP. To know about the problems with the configuration of PHP, the remedy is to make page known phpinfo()- The function phpinfo() works to list up php.ini variable and then scan them for all insecure settings.The thing which you are required to remember is not to allow any public access to this profile as there is not any compromise you need to do for the security of your website.
Three things to remember while doing configuration
- Safe-mode: You are required to enable this option if your PHP application opens any local files mostly. This option prevents all unauthorized access.
- Register global: Make sure to disable this option during the configuration. But, if your host does not allow you to disable then make sure to find a new host.
- Diable_function: This function needs to be set in the php.ini file. Make sure to disable it during PHP installation. Doing this can prevent all harmful PHP code to execute at the runtime.
Data handling issue-The error names data handling error occurred when the file system is not handled correctly or in an insecure way. Make sure not to transmit any encrypted data such as customer information or credit card number. Make sure to use SSL security or any malicious eavesdropper for transmitting sensitive data to the browser of the user. This can easily catch up all sensitive data and info out from the network. Whenever you update the PHP application by making use of the FTP which is not a secure protocol so there is always the risk of not handling the data correctly. Make use of SCP or SFTP despite FTP to transmit sensitive files to a server. As now you have known the important tip so you will handle data correctly. This results in kwwping that data which you use often.
Not Validated Input Error-This is the another common issue in the PHP. Here input is referred with the input given by the user which can sometimes not trusted. Sometimes it can be a scan or it might be any malicious. Whatever, input has been given by the user needs to create secure PHP website. So, make sure to restrict the user input some characters or symbols are not need to be part of the input.
Session ID Protection-This is another PHP issue which can create various issue in the development of the website. This session ID has some information of the user who will be using the website and if that user hijacks ID then all information can be seen. For preventing this make sure to provide a unique session ID and assigned to every user. Also, make sure to have a track of risks for migrating them on the internet.
Error Reporting -Make sure to create a website which is completely smart and intelligent such that it can easily report the error else then showing it on the PHP web application. Remember and make sure that the display errors php.ini value is set as '0' if it is not set then all the errors will be displayed on the browser of the user. Also, any malicious user can take benefit of these errors and will take information about all entry point to a website.
Conclusion -It is sure that if someone hire PHP developer then he/she might have expectation from them to develop a website which secured and free from errors. If you are a developer then you might completely understand your responsibility. This blog will help you overcome flaws of PHP and develop a perfect website.