How to secure PHP web applications and prevent attacks?

Checklist of PHP and web security issues

Make sure you have these items sorted out when deploying your applications to production environments:

1. Cross site scripting (XSS)

2. Injections
o SQL injection
o Directory traversal (path injection)
o Command injection
o Code injection
3. Cross site request forgery (XSRF/CSRF)
4. Public files
5. Passwords
6. Uploading files
7. Session hijacking
8. Remote file inclusion
9. PHP configuration
o Error reporting
o Exposing PHP Version
o Remote files
o open_basedir
o Session settings
10. Use HTTPS

Cross site scripting (XSS)

XSS attacks happen when client-side code (usually JavaScript) gets injected into the output of your PHP script. This can be
through the URL, but can also occur via a stored technique such as the database.

// GET data is sent through URL: http://example.com/search.php?search=<script>alert('test')</script>

$search = $_GET['search'] ?? null;
echo 'Search results for '.$search;

// This can be solved with htmlspecialchars

$search = htmlspecialchars($search, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
echo 'Search results for '.$search;

 ENT_QUOTES is used to escape single and double quotes beside HTML entities
 UTF-8 is used for pre PHP 5.4 environments (now it is default). In some browsers some characters might get pass
the htmlspecialchars().

Injections

SQL injection

When working with databases, one of the most common security vulnerabilities in web applications is definitely
SQL injection attacks. Malicious users can insert SQL queries into inputs handled by code that interacts with
datbases in order to cause unwanted behavior.
Directory traversal (path injection)

Directory traversal attacks, also known as ../ (dot, dot, slash) attacks, happen when users supply filenames as input that can
traverse to parent directories. Data can be set as index.php?page=../secret, or /var/www/secret, or something more
catastrophic:

$page = $_GET['page'] ?? 'home';

require $page;
// or something like this
echo file_get_contents('../pages/'.$page.'.php');

In such cases you must check if there are attempts to access the parent or some remote folder:

// Checking if the string contains parent directory

if (strstr($_GET['page'], '../') !== false) {
throw new \Exception("Directory traversal attempt!");
}

// Checking remote file inclusions

if (strstr($_GET['page'], 'file://') !== false) {
throw new \Exception("Remote file inclusion attempt!");
}

// Using whitelists of pages that are allowed to be included in the first place
$allowed = ['home', 'blog', 'gallery', 'catalog'];
$page = (in_array($page, $allowed)) ? $page : 'home';
echo file_get_contents('../pages/'.$page.'.php');

Command injection

Be careful when dealing with commands executing functions and data you don't trust.

exec('rm -rf '.$GET['path']);

Code injection

Code injection happens when malicious code can be injected via the eval() function, so remember to always sanitize your
data when using it:

eval('include '.$_GET['path']);

Cross site request forgery (XSRF/CSRF)

Cross site request forgery, one click attacks, or session riding is an exploit whereby users execute unwanted actions on web
applications.

Public files

Make sure to move all your application files, configuration files and similar parts of your web application to a folder that
isn't publicly accessible when you visit URLs of your web application. Some types of files (e.g., .yml files) might not be
processed by your web server and users could view them online.

An example of good folder structure:

app/
config/
parameters.yml
src/
public/
index.php
style.css
javascript.js
logo.png

Configure your web server to serve files from the public folder instead of from your application root folder. The public
folder contains the front controller (index.php). In case of a web server misconfiguration resulting in PHP files failing to be
served properly, the source code of index.php will be visible to the public.

Passwords

When working with users' passwords, hash them properly with the password_hash() function.

Uploading files

Many security breaches occur when users can upload files onto a server. Make sure you go through all the vulnerabilities
associated with uploading files and take appropriate precautions against these vulnerabilities, such as by renaming
uploaded files, moving them to publicly inaccessible folders, checking the types of files uploaded and so on.

Session hijacking

Session hijacking is an attack where an attacker steals the session ID of a user. The session ID is sent to the server where
the associated $_SESSION array is populated. Session hijacking is possible through an XSS attack or when someone gains
access to the folder on a server where the session data is stored.

Remote file inclusion

An RFI (remote file inclusion) attack is when an attacker can include custom scripts:

$page = $_GET['page'] ?? 'home'

require $page . '.php';

In the above code, $_GET can be set to a remote file http://yourdomain.tld/index.php?page=http://example.com/evilscript

Make sure you disable this in your php.ini unless you know what you're doing:

; Disable including remote files

allow_url_fopen = off
; Disable opening remote files for include(), require() and include_once() functions.
; If above allow_url_fopen is disabled, allow_url_include is also disabled.
allow_url_include = off

PHP configuration

Always keep the installed PHP version updated. You can use versionscan to check for possible vulnerabilities of your PHP
version. Update open source libraries and applications, and keep your web server well maintained.

Here are some of the important settings from php.ini that you should check out. You can also use iniscan to scan your
php.ini files for best security practices.
Error reporting

In your production environment, you must always turn off displaying errors to the screen. If errors occur in your
application and they are visible to the outside world, an attacker could get valuable data for attacking your application.
display_errors and log_errors directives in the php.ini file:

; Disable displaying errors to screen

display_errors = off
; Enable writing errors to server logs
log_errors = on

Exposing PHP version

PHP version is visible in HTML headers. You might want to consider hiding your PHP version by turning off the
expose_php directive, preventing the web server from sending back the X-Powered-By header:

expose_php = off

Remote files

In most cases, it's important to disable access to remote files:

; disabled opening remote files for fopen, fsockopen, file_get_contents and similar functions
allow_url_fopen = 0
; disabled including remote files for require, include ans similar functions
allow_url_include = 0

open_basedir

This settings defines one or more directories (subdirectories included) where PHP has access to read and write files. This
includes file handling (fopen, file_get_contents) and also including files (include, require):

open_basedir = "/var/www/test/uploads"

Session settings

 session.use_cookies and session.use_only_cookies

PHP is by default configured to store session data on the server and a tracking cookie on client-side (usually called
PHPSESSID) with unique ID for the session.

; in most cases you'll want to enable cookies for storing session

session.use_cookies = 1
; disabled changing session id through PHPSESSID parameter (e.g foo.php?PHPSESSID=<session id>)
session.use_only_cookies = 1
session.use_trans_sid = 0
; rejects any session ID from user that doesn't match current one and creates new one
session.use_strict_mode = 0

 session.cookie_httponly

If the attacker somehow manages to inject JavaScript code for stealing a user's current cookies (the
document.cookie string), the HttpOnly cookie you've set won't show up in the list.

session.cookie_httponly = 1
  session.cookie_domain

This sets the domain for which cookies apply. For wildcard domains you can use .example.com, or set this to the
domain where it should be applied. By default, it isn't enabled, so it's highly recommended for you to enable it:

session.cookie_domain = example.com

 session.cookie_secure

For HTTPS sites, this accepts only cookies sent over HTTPS. If you're still not using HTTPS, you should consider
it.

session.cookie_secure = 1

Use HTTPS

HTTPS is a protocol for securely communication over networks. It's highly recommended that you enable it on all sites.

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Using Templates with PHP

As web development becomes standardized, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture has become more
popular. The basic idea of this mechanism is to separate the data elements (the model), the user interface (the view), and
the code that connects the model and the view (the controller).

Many programming instructors emphasize separating content, layout, and data. However, the way PHP is often
written, it combines all three elements. As a response, web developers often use some form of templating system to try to
separate the content from the view.

Every modern PHP Web application framework employs some kind of templating engine. Most of them use plain
PHP by default (including Symfony 1.x, Zend Framework and CakePHP), but many standalone libraries can be plugged
into your favorite framework or custom application

The Basics of MVC Architecture in PHP

User actions are passed (as HTTP requests, GET or POST methods) to the controller. The controller is a
piece of code that handles and processes user input and then reads and makes necessary changes to the model,
which is responsible for the storage and modification of data. (In simple terms, the model consists of the
database structure and contents, and the code used to access it.) Then, the controller generates the proper view
that will be sent and displayed to user.

Such separation of layers has many advantages…

Code Is Easier to Maintain

Because the model is separated, changing internal data relations without changing the rest of the
application is easier.
You can also check for various conditions (for example, whether the user has confirmed their
registration, paid their monthly fee, etc.), and you can change these rules in one place, without having to change
anything in the other parts of the code.
It also becomes easy to make a platform-independent application that allows for switching between
database engines.
The Same Content in Multiple Views
Separating the view allows a single result to be presented in different forms. For example, based on some
logic, a news page could be displayed in normal, mobile and RSS versions, all using the same content returned
from the controller.

More Secure
Variables are escaped by default before being sent to the view, which is useful in applications that
display user-generated content. Consider a variable with some unknown HTML or JavaScript code being passed
to the view (which should never happen in your application). Escaping the variables prevents malicious code
from being injected in such cases.

Better Code
Separating the layers forces the programmer to design better applications that are easier and cheaper to
maintain. Also, designers and front-end developers don’t have to work with the business-logic code, because
their task is only to display the contents of the variables that are provided to the view. This reduces the risk of the
breaking some PHP code.

MVC architecture with PHP

The Model-View-Controller concept involved in software development evolved in the late 1980s. It is a software
architecture built on the idea that the logic of an application should be separated from its presentation. A system developed
on the MVC architecture should allow a front-end developer and a back-end developer to work on the same system without
interfering with each other.

Model
Model is the name given to the component that will communicate with the database to manipulate the data. It acts as
a bridge between the View component and the Controller component in the overall architecture. It doesn’t matter to the
Model component what happens to the data when it is passed to the View or Controller components.
The code snippet for running first_model.php is:

<?php
class Model
{
public $string;
public function __construct()
{
$this->string = “Let’s start php with MVC”;
}
}
?>

View
The View requests for data from the Model component and then its final output is determined. View interacts with
the user, and then transfers the user’s reaction to the Controller component to respond accordingly. An example of this is a
link generated by the View component, when a user clicks and an action gets triggered in the Controller.
To run first_view.php, type:

<?php

class View
{
private $model;
private $controller;
public function __construct($controller,$model)
{
$this->controller = $controller;
$this->model = $model;
}
public function output()
{
return “<p>” . $this->model->string . “</p>”;
}
}
?>

Controller
The Controller’s job is to handle data that the user inputs or submits through the forms, and then Model updates this
accordingly in the database. The Controller is nothing without the user’s interactions, which happen through the View
component.
The code snippet for running first_controller.php is:

<?php
class Controller
{
private $model;
public function __construct($model)
{
$this->model = $model;
}
}
?>

A simple way to understand how MVC works is given below.

1) A user interacts with View.
2) The Controller handles the user input, and sends the information to the model.
3) Then the Model receives the information and manipulates it (either saving it or updating it by communicating with the
database).
4) The View checks the state of the Model and responds accordingly (lists updated information).
In the following code snippet, by running first_example.php we can see our MVC architecture work with PHP.
To run first_example.php, you must type:

<?php
$model = new Model();
$controller = new Controller($model);
$view = new View($controller, $model);
echo $view->output();
?>

Of course, a number of template engines today add a great deal more to templating. One of the more prominent is Twig.

Twig allows you to use a PHP-like syntax to create powerful templates. It also includes features for populating the
variables that help to separate the data from the presentation and the control.

A number of other popular template engines include Smarty and Savant.