5 PHP Techniques to Minimize Web Security Vulnerabilities

Five Most common vulnerabilities for PHP

Very commonly observed vulnerabilities in PHP are mentioned below:

1. CSRF (Cross-site request forgery)

CSRF or Cross-site request forgery takes place when any hacker gets the chance for certain any link and gets any individual with authentic access such as an administrator for clicking on this specific link. A conventional attack of cross-site request forgery happens when this kind of link gets it a way for creating a new user for the admin who already had a password.

2. SQLi (SQL Injection)

SQLi or SQL Injection occurs when any hacker relays his own set of instructors to your database and implement them there. The PHP developer gets blamed here. It is because he has not evaluated the input from any visitor for any kind of infected code right before sending it to the database.

3. Local and remote file inclusion (LFI and RFI)

Local File Inclusion and Remote File Inclusion are the two kinds of common vulnerabilities for PHP. Remote File Inclusion happens when PHP gets an input like as an URL and relays it to any function that is designed for loading any file. For instance, this function may obtain a code from an infected website in a similar manner and get executed on the website when the hacker desires to. If we are considering a local file which was passed on, such kind of scenario is called Local File Inclusion. For instance, in this way the attacker can have access to the “wp-config.php” file.

4. Authentication bypass

The developers of PHP, sometimes by mistake, validate the fact that a visitor has gained the proper level of access. This takes place with the “is_admin” function that makes some of the developers to consider that the user is the admin. While the fact is that they are simply having a look at the admin page instead of the actual administrator. The outcomes of such a mistake are that the users who are not administrators gain access to certain features that only administrators can see.

5. RCE (Remote Code Execution)

If any intruders make his way for uploading any code to your site and implement it, it is called as RCE or Remote Code Execution. One way any hacker might happen to use the Remote Code Execution is by instructing the site to create any file comprising a code which grants it complete access to the website.

Five Most common vulnerabilities for PHP

Very commonly observed vulnerabilities in PHP are mentioned below:

1. CSRF (Cross-site request forgery)

CSRF or Cross-site request forgery takes place when any hacker gets the chance for certain any link and gets any individual with authentic access such as an administrator for clicking on this specific link. A conventional attack of cross-site request forgery happens when this kind of link gets it a way for creating a new user for the admin who already had a password.

2. SQLi (SQL Injection)

SQLi or SQL Injection occurs when any hacker relays his own set of instructors to your database and implement them there. The PHP developer gets blamed here. It is because he has not evaluated the input from any visitor for any kind of infected code right before sending it to the database.

3. Local and remote file inclusion (LFI and RFI)

Local File Inclusion and Remote File Inclusion are the two kinds of common vulnerabilities for PHP. Remote File Inclusion happens when PHP gets an input like as an URL and relays it to any function that is designed for loading any file. For instance, this function may obtain a code from an infected website in a similar manner and get executed on the website when the hacker desires to. If we are considering a local file which was passed on, such kind of scenario is called Local File Inclusion. For instance, in this way the attacker can have access to the “wp-config.php” file.

4. Authentication bypass

The developers of PHP, sometimes by mistake, validate the fact that a visitor has gained the proper level of access. This takes place with the “is_admin” function that makes some of the developers to consider that the user is the admin. While the fact is that they are simply having a look at the admin page instead of the actual administrator. The outcomes of such a mistake are that the users who are not administrators gain access to certain features that only administrators can see.

5. RCE (Remote Code Execution)

If any intruders make his way for uploading any code to your site and implement it, it is called as RCE or Remote Code Execution. One way any hacker might happen to use the Remote Code Execution is by instructing the site to create any file comprising a code which grants it complete access to the website.

Ways to defend against all kinds of security vulnerabilities

There are certain techniques which can help you in this regard:

1. Evaluate your code as you work on it

Instead of evaluating your code after completing the entire block of code, you need to do it advance. Custom PHP development will provide you with the scope to identify most of the vulnerabilities in the code which will not be feasible if you would evaluate the entire code as a whole.

2. Front-end tests

You do not have to search for finding such vulnerabilities in the back end always when you can make a direct attempt to do the front end test. While such kind of tests might take some time for executing manually, you can get some good software which will do the testing part for you meticulously and quickly.

3. Get consistency with your methods and codes

Gaining consistency with the methods and the codes are considered as “101 of PHP Development”. However, most of the developers of PHP have the habit of making inconsistent and messy codes. It has been observed in the field of Custom PHP development that inconsistent codes are hard to deal. It can also devise a code which results to be security liability and confusing to the PHP Developer.

4. Unit testing

Another kind of evaluating that you need to perform for reducing the security vulnerabilities in your site is Unit Testing. This will facilitate you for performing tests in various functionalities present with the code snippets. This will also let you see if your code is working in the way you want it to.