Re: Session contamination?

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On Thu, April 20, 2006 1:46 pm, Ben Liu wrote:
> After a bit more research, I think I understand why Jochem recommends
> use of session_save_path() rather than just naming each session
> differently. The former method provides more security as you can set
> the location where session cookies are stored. This will help prevent
> an attacker from gaining access to session information and then using
> it to gain inappropriate access to the application the session was
> created for or even other applications running on the same shared
> server. Anyway, I think that's why.

::Possible False Sense Of Security Alert::

If a Bad Guy can read the session data, moving it to a different
directory is probably not going to help, really...

Unless you are running with different Usernames for each client on
your shared server, using FastCGI + suexec or some similar method, the
cookie files are STILL just as readable by the same Bad Guys, using
the same methods.  They just have to change their to:
<?php $path = "/other/path/to/other/cookies";?>
before they start their damage.

There may well be other GREAT reasons for using a different save path,
or a different path for the Cookie, or session_name over each other,
but I don't think Security is the reason behind any of the choices.

I'd personally use ini_set as the last choice because it's remotely
possible that the setting can't be changed from within a script, as a
few are like that -- Or, worse, that they can be changed today, but
in, say PHP 6 or PHP 7, they won't be for some obscure reason we
cannot predict today.

session_name() seems less likely to just disappear completely as a
feature than a "minor" change to a php.ini setting and where it is
allowed.

But that's just my paranoid logic. :-)

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