I have a question about PHP under apache.
I was playing with some PHP4.0.6 apps running under apache 1.3.20 on a
vanilla
RedHat 7.1 box. I was logged in as 'xyz' on the box via SSH.
I 'su'd to root to restart apache (/etc/init.d/httpd restart) a few times
during testing.

In one of my tests I exploited an exec function that sent unchecked input to
shell. The input I gave was "...some expected input; echo TEST|mail
myuserID"
and I ended up getting the email but (the part that concerns me even more
than
the "hole") is that the email came from the 'xyz' userID!

A peek at 'ps' shows httpd -is- running as 'apache' (as expected)
but...after quite a lengthy investigation, phpinfo(), e.g.
  <?
  // phpinfo.php
  phpinfo();
  ?>
shows, in the "Environment" section of the output, the environment VARS
(PATH,
MANPATH, USER, SSH session, etc... ) of the -xyz- user that restarted httpd!

I rebooted and let httpd come up "normally" and the same exploit sends mail
as
'anonymous'. But after 'xyz' login, su and restart...email is sent
as -xyz-?!?

After more investigation, I see this has been discussed before:

Some defensiveness from apache developers:
http://www.geocrawler.com/mail/thread.php3?subject=general%2F6600%3A+phpinfo
%28%29+returns+a+user+environment&list=192

workaround offered at:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/mail/php-developer-list/2001042/0459.php

So... I added "env -i" to the /etc/init.d/httpd script
  e.g. daemon env -i $httpd ......

'xyz' login, su and restart (with 'env -i') and now the phpinfo() output has
-nothing- listed in the Environment section. I guess that's to be expected
but
I'm still left scratching my head as to why the 'env -i' is not used
-by default- in the RedHat (or other) httpd rc script for apache and what
else
might be impacted by doing so.

Is this just a PHP-under-apache issue?
Insight anyone?


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