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Bug #60315 mysql_error: "connection actively refused" when no database info is supplied
Submitted: 2011-11-16 22:51 UTC Modified: 2011-11-20 16:38 UTC
From: jacob at frende dot me Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: MySQL related
PHP Version: 5.3.8 OS: Windows Server 2008
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2011-11-16 22:51 UTC] jacob at frende dot me 
Description:
------------
If no connection currently exists and mysql_query is run without specifying connection info, mysql_error returns:
"No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it."

This is not true.

This is heinously deceptive:
• "target machine" indicates a database server.
• "actively refused" means a server RECEIVED the request AND DENIED it.

This leads one to believe invalid credentials have been supplied or that the specified account is not configured (Host=) as expected.

The error message should be changed to reflect the fact that no database connection (or connection information) exists.

(this is especially troublesome when working with PDO coupled with a function since functions are only aware of the variables that are passed to them)

Test script:
---------------
<?php
	mysql_query("SELECT * FROM database.table;") or die(mysql_error());
?>

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 [2011-11-18 16:14 UTC] anon at anon dot anon 
>This leads one to believe invalid credentials have been supplied or that the specified account is not configured (Host=) as expected.

That's what happens. The behavior of mysql_query if a connection has not been opened is (for some reason) to call mysql_connect() with no arguments to try and establish one first. And when mysql_connect is not given arguments, it uses the server settings in php.ini, and if that's not configured, it will just try to connect to localhost:3306 with the process username and an empty password.

In your case, the preconfigured mysql_connect values aren't pointing at a valid server and/or port, so the TCP/IP connection fails, and mysql_query fails in turn. That error message is not generated by PHP; it comes from the underlying Windows sockets library. See the text for WSAECONNREFUSED: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms681391%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#wsaeconnrefused

PHP couldn't replace the message completely without losing potentially valuable information on the details of the problem, but I guess they could chain error messages to make it more descriptive. E.g., "mysql_query could not issue the query because a database connection was not established and mysql_connect failed with the following error: Attempted to connect to localhost:3306 but received the following error from the system: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it."
 [2011-11-20 16:38 UTC] johannes@php.net 
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

Historic behavior. Don't use mysql_* functions for new stuff. Use mysqli or PDO.
 [2011-11-20 16:38 UTC] johannes@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Bogus
 
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