On Monday 08 November 2004 14:40, you wrote:
> Don Calfa wrote:
> > Vaughn Treude wrote:
> >> Hello all:
> >> I know there are a lot of PHP gurus on this list, so hopefully it's
> >> not too off-topic.
> >> I'm a newbie to PHP and I'm struggling with a login script for my
> >> organization's website.  I'm using an example script I got off the
> >> Web somewhere.  It uses MySQL through the "PEAR" database driver.
> >> Here's the code snippet for the connection code in db_connect.php:
> >>
> >> ---------------------------
> >>
> >> //require the PEAR::DB classes.
> >>
> >> require_once 'DB.php';
> >>
> >>
> >> $db_engine = 'mysql';
> >> $db_user = 'XXXX';
> >> $db_pass = 'YYYYYYYY';
> >> $db_host = 'ieeepacn.com';
> >> $db_name = 'ZZZZZZZ';
> >>
> >> $datasource = $db_engine.'://'.
> >>               $db_user.':'.
> >>               $db_pass.'@'.
> >>                $db_host.'/'.
> >>                 $db_name;
> >>
> >>
> >> $db_object = DB::connect($datasource, TRUE);
> >>
> >> ------------------------
> >>
> >> This works, but it occurs to me: how can this thing possibly be
> >> secure?  The password's there in clear text.  A person would only
> >> need read access to get it.  And if the PHP file's not globally
> >> readable, the login fails.  Is there some factor here I'm missing
> >> such that it's more protected than I think?  Or is there a better way
> >> to approach this?
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >> Vaughn
> >
> > 1.  If the webserver parses PHP not as text, no one will be able to
> > read the contents of the file from the browser.
> > 2.  You can create a user for MySQL that only has rights to the DB and
> > not login to the server.
> > 3.  You can split the variables from the connection string into 2 files.
> > 4.  You can encrypt the variables (Like $db_pass = "cGFzc3dvcmQ=";  in
> > 1 file and in another file $db_engine =
> > {...base64_decode($db_pass)...;}. (there are tons of ways to do this)
> > 5.  You can obfuscate the entire script (from:
> > http://richard.fairthorne.is-a-geek.com/utils_obfuscate.php):
> >
> > <? eval(gzinflate(base64_decode('
> > VY9NDoIwEEbXkHCHWZBUE1P2+IMheAGjibohpUwE
> > Iy1QWHh7GaARv676pjPzGh1abPqyxVQricCSmNdF
> > zbaeS8fPsxTVs1QIe2DVxzRvKhHuDbYEb0Msq4Ux
> > xO5zLC+06YiXiFgLqbjUla0pUY3DH1OmzX4uOmF0
> > 30qq/Sw4C4OAcc91HAfAagz0j5EGZ8eJwQzJgbOp
> > GcA+pe2Lv+rshZJUkzgMpVZquK0WMhu4nK+n9dix
> > i74=
> > '))); ?>
> >
> > I use #2 and #3 and make sure only that permission is available from
> > localhost for production.  I sometimes use #5 in situations that I
> > need to protect myself (the tinkerer that messes with the code then
> > suddenly calls 'Hey, this doesn't work!').
> >
> > If anyone wants access to the DB, they'll get it.  You just have to
> > make it not easy.
> >
> >
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>
> That is a great tip, thanks!
>
> JD

Yes, thanks to Don and everyone else who replied.   I think I have some good 
places to start.  I'm still out of my element here, so I needed it.  Right 
now everything I do breaks something, but I'm starting to understand it, 
slowly but surely.  :-)

Vaughn

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