On Tuesday, July 2, 2002, at 01:00  PM, Henry wrote:

> Only one concern. Are there any security issues.
> And I suppose more
> importantly, if there are; is there a way to get the php-script to 
> ensure
> that is is being invoked by my cron deamon. Should I put the page in a
> directory and use .htaccess to control security. Or can I check the 
> referrer
> to ensure that it is not being invoked via a browser!!

There are always security issues.  I have no idea about the details of 
your system, your needs, or anything else, so I can't tell you anything 
except to think logically about what you are doing.  Does taking the 
wget path mean that anybody can use links/lynx/wget/telnet/Internet 
Explorer/Mozilla to execute your script?  Most definitely.  Be sure that 
you take this into account when you design it (you may wish to check 
things like the User-agent, IP address, and other HTTP variables to make 
sure that it is being executed "properly").

> I'm going to go down the wget path at the moment. Thanks in advance.

Good idea -- seems like your only option according to what you've told 
us.

Personally I would probably write a Perl script (most hosts have Perl) 
to do whatever it is that needs to be done and have cron execute that, 
this saves you from a whole window of exploit (the web server).  But if 
you don't have Perl or don't know Perl, that's a problem.


Good luck,

Erik





----

Erik Price
Web Developer Temp
Media Lab, H.H. Brown
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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