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PHP application Security

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Subject:PHP application Security
Summary:an extended view of grepping
Messages:2
Author:Nikos M.
Date:2013-05-07 19:10:31
Update:2013-05-09 22:45:49
 

  1. PHP application Security   Reply   Report abuse  
Picture of Nikos M. Nikos M. - 2013-05-07 20:08:13
Trying to match possible vulnerabilities in a fast manner, using grep is a good approach.

This is more or less how anti-virus applications work, with scanning signatures.

The problme is that nowadays, no hacker with some knowledge, or without any, will use raw php, but rather obfuscated, either hand-crafted or a ready-made script.

The next step is to extend these grep searches for patterns like:

base64_decode(), eval(), etc..

or combinations

  2. Re: PHP application Security   Reply   Report abuse  
Picture of Manuel Lemos Manuel Lemos - 2013-05-09 22:45:49 - In reply to message 1 from Nikos M.
Right, as mentioned in the article this is just fast way to determine if scripts have basic vulnerabilities. More complex vulnerabilities require a deeper code analysis.

Still, many people write code with basic vulnerabilities and this technique would be useful to do basic audits of that code.