[Open] PHPNuke's PHPBB admin failing to work with PHPSuExec

markus · #1 04-12-2004, 03:29 PM

I beleive HostGator recently changed their PHP engine to be using PHPSUExec. I beleive this may have inadvertently broke my installation of PHP Nuke, in particular PHPBB.

When I try and administer PHPBB via PHPNuke's admin pages, I get a 404 error and when I check the logs, I see the following error:

[10-Apr-2004 18:47:41] PHP Warning: Unknown(): Unable to load dynamic library './/tmp/ixed/ixed.lin.4.3.3.pxp' - .//tmp/ixed/ixed.lin.4.3.3.pxp: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0

Does anyone know how to get around this problem? I'm unable to administer PHPBB. All the other functions of PHP Nuke seem to work okay.

Thanks

markus · #2 04-13-2004, 10:09 PM

After alot of long searching on the web on this problem, I beleive I have finally found the solution.

What PHPSuExec does is run all PHP scripts from the owner instead of the "nobody" user. This adds security and also allows Hostgator to better track what is going on and monitor bandwidth.

One of the restrictions is that the new PHP engine will not run PHP scripts that have 777 or any script that has world or group writable set. Also, any directories that are writable are disallowed as well. When this occurs, the PHP engine outputs strange ambigious errors.

To fix, figure out what PHP scripts are being affected and make sure the permissions are set to less than CHMOD 644. Also make sure that all directories permissions are set to CHMOD 755.

It's unfortunate that Hostgator installed this new PHP engine without first informing its customers and secondly, without having adequate knowledge on it's impact on existing PHP scripts, especially popular scripts like Nuke PHP and PHPBB.

There are also a whole slew of limitations that PHPSuExec has on PHP scripts... I only mentioned the access permissions since that was the main reason my scripts didn't work.

Hope this helps.

***GatorBrent*** · #3 04-14-2004, 01:52 AM

We had to put this into affect on only your server. Reason being a spammer was exploiting every phpnuke site on the server to send out thousands of ebay fraud letters. Every time we stopped one insecure script he'd spam through another.

It was either lose the system or install this. We've helped a dozen people or so with their scripts and got them working so email in if you are still having any problems and we can help you to.

markus · #4 04-14-2004, 11:19 PM

Okay. That's good to hear. Besides, PHPSuExec is probably the right thing to do anyway. Seems like alot of ISPs are starting the switch as well.

Since we don't have shell access, is there an easy way for users to set the chmod's for all files to be 0600 and directories to be 0755 instead of doing it one at a time through the file manager?

sonic · #5 04-15-2004, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markus

Okay. That's good to hear. Besides, PHPSuExec is probably the right thing to do anyway. Seems like alot of ISPs are starting the switch as well.

If it breaks the scripts you mentioned (and who knows what else), I do not think it's good to deploy

Regards

markus · #6 04-16-2004, 10:05 PM

Ever since the PHPSUExec was installed, there has been some really funky behaviour with my website. I really hope the Hostgator support team is able to handle the issues associated with this "upgrade".

Now my problem is that I can't seem to access images in a folder that has all the right permissions set. This is driving me crazy!

#7 04-19-2004, 02:32 PM

Markus,

The PHPSuExec on the server you're located on was an emergency solution to an abuse problem we were having. I'm currently working on a solution that provides the same benefits with less "breakage". PHP (overall) is really quite evil... :-)

Popular open source applications like PHP-Nuke and other CMS systems never let me forget this fact. I deal with atleast 1 defaced website per day.. dozens of spammers and many other unpleasant things.. and 99.9% of the time the cause is insecure php scripts and more specifically the above mentioned scripts. When I investigate the issues further... the methods used to perform these acts are always things that phpsuexec (And like systems) prevent.

markus · #8 04-20-2004, 11:24 PM

Understand the need for increased security. Seems that alot of ISPs are going with this approach however, very little information is available on PHPSuExec.

Would be great when you do manage to resolve most of these issues to post up something in the FAQ to help existing users adapt their websites to PHPSuExec.

For instance, the restriction on the file permissions, not being able to place PHP variables in .htaccess files, etc.

GatorJustin · #9 04-26-2004, 05:30 PM

markus, as I am new here, could you please provide an update? Has your issue been resolved? Thanks.

-Justin

markus · #10 04-30-2004, 11:48 AM

To answer your question... YES and NO.

Yes, they seemed to have been resolved and the site seemed to be in working order. It's hard to tell since I need to pretty much test out all the features of the site to see if everythig works. Which is hard when you're using things like Nuke PHP and Gallery.

However, recently, some other change to the server broke my scripts again. This is getting really irritating. Does support ever test server upgrades before putting them into production? Is a migration plan ever developed to help existing websites migrate over to new server settings?

It seems that HostGator is not very good at supporting PHP Nuke and Gallery and perhaps a variety of other open source popular PHP apps since they make changes that consistently break scripts.

Has anyone else been facing this problem or has it just been me? If PHP is such a pain in the ass for Hostgator, I guess I might as well find another provider that specializes in supporting PHP apps like Lunarpages.