Security Issue While Running Easyapache?

Hello,

The cause is that you recompile PHP from beginning, if anyone tries to open a PHP script, Apache won't find any handler to handle this extension with, so instead it will download the file.

If you tried it a lot of times and the same happened -I didn't try it- then it's a security flaw and maybe a workaround from cPanel that they can stop Apache during the compilation of PHP.

I guess this has been made from their end to prevent any downtime during Recompilation but sure none of us will prefer performance over security except few.

Thanks for pointing to that.

 

I have never seen this behaviour, but if you believe it to be a reproduceable security risk you need to email security [at] cpanel.net instead of posting it publicly.

 

Why does this need a support ticket? Does the EasyApache code take Apache offline or provide a failure handler for PHP files during the entire process or not?

 

So, just as an idea, when EasyApache install starts running, I'd make EA add a directive to httpd.conf so that all *.php files get a temporary 403 Forbidden code. When EA is complete, it would remove this directive. This way end users can't read PHP source code while PHP is being compiled. Feedback is appreciated before I post it as a cPanel/WHM suggestion. There are any number of problems I might not have thought of.

If having an automatic blockage of PHP is a Bad Idea [tm], then it might be interesting to add a button/script under EasyApache "Disable PHP websites from loading on this server." and then display a red warning banner at the top of WHM as long as this feature is turned on.

For now, I plan to STOP the apache service and make sure it stays stopped until PHP is ready. This may be tricky if EA attempts multiple restarts before PHP is ready. This fits in the "experienced server admins wouldn't possibly need this, but WHM/cPanel's target audience might benefit from it" category.

 

This. So much this. There should be no reason for .php files to load as source code during the EasyApache process. Apache runs during it and restarts quickly once it's completed. If Apache goes down during the build it's my understanding that it won't restart until the build completes, but if Apache is down then there should be no way for files to be web accessible at all (barring consideration of nginx or custom setups).

 

So as a guess... It makes me wonder if the OP forced a restart on Apache before everything was built?

 

Hi,

During an EasyApache run, Apache stays running in the background, and only restarts once the new Apache binaries have finished building successfully. This ensures that there is 0 downtime during an EA build. If you stop, restart or mess with Apache while EA 3 is building, this will cause your sites to go down and not come back until after the build has completed.