Re: PHP as a secure language? PHP worms? [was: Re: new linux malware]

[Bill Nash <billn () billn net>]

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006, Kevin Waterson wrote:

> This one time, at band camp, Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org> wrote:
>
> > Indeed, the most annoying thing about the PHP worms today is that these 
> > PHP vulnerabilities being exploited are everywhere.
>
> These are not PHP vulnerabilities, these are application vulnerabilities.
>  

        I agree. Unless this thread is focusing on vulnerabilities in the 
PHP parser itself, exploitable simply by pushing arbitrary information 
through any available post/get channel, then I think we can call it a PHP 
vulnerability. Until then, let's keep the FUD to a minimum.

        *ANY* language implemented for *ANY* purpose is as secure as the 
programmer makes it. The way the original post is written, 
s/PHP/(Perl|ASP|C|bash|BASIC|four little buddhist monks fighting over an 
abacus)/ is applicable. The vulnerabilities that we see, that Gadi refers 
to, aren't widespread because PHP is widespread, but because insecure 
applications written in PHP are. A better use of energy would be 
focusing on the most vulnerable platforms and educating the developers.

- billn