--- Chris Wanstrath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Lots of great information in this thread as far as solutions go, but
> what I'm wondering is the concept behind how someone actually can
> hijack a session if register_globals is off.

I proposed a talk on this at ApacheCon (in addition to my PHP Attacks and
Defense talk), but it wasn't accepted. I can never tell if there is a lot of
interest in the idea of securing sessions or not. I think most people think it
is too narrow a topic.

At any rate, there is too much information to write in an email, but there are
many methods of impersonation, and almost all of them are independent of
whether register_globals is enabled.

For example, consider that a legitimate user clicks a link and goes to this
URL:

http://www.example.org/foo.php?PHPSESSID=12345

Perhaps the user has cookies disabled, so PHP appends the session identifier to
the URL, or perhaps the developer does it automatically. Either way, what if a
bad guy visits this URL:

http://www.example.org/foo.php?PHPSESSID=12345

Will the application recognize the user as the same as the legitimate user? PHP
certainly will, but it is up to the application to try and lessen the
likelihood of such an attack.

Hope that helps.

Chris

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