# Solaris and getcwd() - Thread: https://externals.io/message/32530 - Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/32530 - Started by Rob Thompson on 2007-10-02T00:11:41+00:00 - Messages: 4 - Reply by email to internals@lists.php.net - More for agents: search with https://externals.io/search.md?q={query} · JSON API at https://externals.io/api · documentation at https://externals.io/llms.txt --- ## #32530 — Rob Thompson — 2007-10-02T00:11:41+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/32530#32530 Hi everyone, I just subscribed to this list in hopes of working out some PHP bugs that have to do with Solaris. I've been trying to find out some reason why the `getcwd()` PHP function fails under some situations under Solaris. Particularly, when some component of the file path looks like: d--x--x--x (no read perms). This appears to be a security feature that Solaris implements that is not there in Linux. Here is what I found out: If you are not root AND you want to get your current working directory that has parents with without 'r' permissions, you must do one of two things: a) Execute a `getcwd()` program that is suid-root. OR: And this is the strange one... b) Tell Solaris that you already know where you are!! You can accomplish (b) by doing a 'cd /mydir/mysubdir/' where mydir has the permissions (d--x--x--x). Without changing directories with a fully-qualified path, `getcwd()` will return NULL. Here are my questions for the list: 1) Is there any way for a running non-root instance of PHP under Apache or another web server to "know where it is" in the directory tree already, in hopes of implementing (b) above? 2) I'm assuming that the current functionality of PHP include() requires stdio's `getcwd()` in order to function with relative paths. Is this really the case? 3) If #1 is possible and #2 is the case, would it be reasonable to implement a fix for this with doing a `chdir()`, followed by a `getcwd()` if your architecture is Solaris? I could try and attempt a fix, but my knowledge of the PHP source is sorely lacking at this time. I'm working on bettering it! Thanks! -Rob --- ## #32531 — Rob Thompson — 2007-10-02T00:21:07+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/32530#32531 · In reply to: #32530 BTW: Here is the bug that I am referring to: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=41822 & correction: `getcwd()` is not an stdio function ;) Rob Thompson wrote: > Hi everyone, I just subscribed to this list in hopes of working out some > PHP bugs that have to do with Solaris. > > I've been trying to find out some reason why the `getcwd()` PHP function > fails under some situations under Solaris. Particularly, when some > component of the file path looks like: d--x--x--x (no read perms). This > appears to be a security feature that Solaris implements that is not > there in Linux. Here is what I found out: > > If you are not root AND you want to get your current working directory > that has parents with without 'r' permissions, you must do one of > two things: > > a) Execute a `getcwd()` program that is suid-root. > > OR: And this is the strange one... > > b) Tell Solaris that you already know where you are!! > > You can accomplish (b) by doing a 'cd /mydir/mysubdir/' where mydir has > the permissions (d--x--x--x). Without changing directories with a > fully-qualified path, `getcwd()` will return NULL. > > Here are my questions for the list: > > 1) Is there any way for a running non-root instance of PHP under > Apache or another web server to "know where it is" in the directory tree > already, in hopes of implementing (b) above? > > 2) I'm assuming that the current functionality of PHP include() > requires stdio's `getcwd()` in order to function with relative paths. Is > this really the case? > > 3) If #1 is possible and #2 is the case, would it be reasonable to > implement a fix for this with doing a `chdir()`, followed by a `getcwd()` if > your architecture is Solaris? > > I could try and attempt a fix, but my knowledge of the PHP source is > sorely lacking at this time. I'm working on bettering it! > > Thanks! > -Rob --- ## #32535 — Antony Dovgal — 2007-10-02T07:51:57+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/32530#32535 · In reply to: #32530 > I've been trying to find out some reason why the `getcwd()` PHP function > fails under some situations under Solaris. Particularly, when some > component of the file path looks like: d--x--x--x (no read perms). This > appears to be a security feature that Solaris implements that is not > there in Linux. I would not call it a security feature. > a) Execute a `getcwd()` program that is suid-root. UNpossible. > b) Tell Solaris that you already know where you are!! That's exactly what we're trying to figure out, isn't it? > 1) Is there any way for a running non-root instance of PHP under > Apache or another web server to "know where it is" in the directory tree > already, in hopes of implementing (b) above? To "know where it is" it has to call `getcwd()`, which doesn't work on Solaris, or do you know any other ways to get current working dir? > 2) I'm assuming that the current functionality of PHP include() > requires stdio's `getcwd()` in order to function with relative paths. Is > this really the case? Sure. > 3) If #1 is possible and #2 is the case, would it be reasonable to > implement a fix for this with doing a `chdir()`, followed by a `getcwd()` if > your architecture is Solaris? `chdir()` to where? We need to call `getcwd()` to know where we are to do chdir(there). -- Wbr, Antony Dovgal --- ## #32560 — Rob Thompson — 2007-10-02T17:27:11+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/32530#32560 · In reply to: #32535 Right. This does appear to be a "chicken or the egg" issue. Also, turns out (b) below is only the shell caching your last successful cd and spitting it back, not the result of a successful `getcwd()` call. So really, with Solaris, there is not even any chicken ;) Would it be reasonable to catch for a `NULL` `getcwd()` and simply return "." (you are where you are, wherever that is)? I think that this would be universally acceptable and it would at least allow relative paths in include()'s. Not quite sure of the security issues here. Relative references and directory navigation still work in Solaris, even with the `getcwd()` bug/issue: [1310][root@opteron:/]$ find ./test -ls 449400 1 d--x--x--x 4 root root 512 Oct 2 13:07 ./test 449401 1 d--x--x--x 2 root root 512 Oct 2 13:07 ./test/testa 449403 1 d--x--x--x 2 root root 512 Oct 2 13:08 ./test/testb 449405 1 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 5 Oct 2 13:08 ./test/testb/testfile [1311][root@opteron:/]$ su nobody $ cd /test/testa $ cat ../testb/testfile test $ Antony Dovgal wrote: > > > […] > > I would not call it a security feature. > > > […] > > UNpossible. > > > […] > > That's exactly what we're trying to figure out, isn't it? > > > […] > > To "know where it is" it has to call `getcwd()`, which doesn't work on Solaris, > or do you know any other ways to get current working dir? > > > […] > > Sure. > > > […] > > `chdir()` to where? > We need to call `getcwd()` to know where we are to do chdir(there).