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Bug #29776 magic_quotes_gpc = off not affecting GPC keys
Submitted: 2004-08-21 00:11 UTC Modified: 2005-03-07 20:30 UTC
Votes:3
Avg. Score:4.7 ± 0.5
Reproduced:3 of 3 (100.0%)
Same Version:1 (33.3%)
Same OS:1 (33.3%)
From: jps at corah dot org Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Strings related
PHP Version: 5.0.0 OS: GNU/Linux
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2004-08-21 00:11 UTC] jps at corah dot org
Description:
------------
The $_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE index keys (having the latter two not been confirmed) get escaped even when magic_quotes_gpc is disabled.  This is not a big problem since few people will actually use special characters on those, but it seems inconsistent to me, so I am reporting it.  I didn't really test the the $_POST and $_COOKIE variables, but I guess the behaviour would be the same.  This problem does not affect other regular array keys.

Personally I'd rather that you remove the whole magic_quotes stuff once and for all, and send all lame programmers who depend on it to hell, since this setting makes it much harder to write portable code and php has builtin functions to specificly escape strings.

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
  echo("magic_quotes_runtime is ".
    (get_magic_quotes_runtime() ? "on" : "off")."<br />");

  echo("magic_quotes_gpc is ".
    (get_magic_quotes_gpc() ? "on" : "off")."<br />");

  while (list($key, $val) = each($_GET))
    echo(htmlentities($key." = ".$val)."<br />");

  echo(htmlentities("For: ".$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"])."<br />");
?>

Expected result:
----------------
magic_quotes_runtime is off
magic_quotes_gpc is off
"get" = "hello"
For: /~jps/flot/calls/poc.php?"get"="hello"


Actual result:
--------------
magic_quotes_runtime is off
magic_quotes_gpc is off
\"get\" = "hello"
For: /~jps/flot/calls/poc.php?"get"="hello"


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 [2005-02-03 00:57 UTC] php at kaiundina dot de
Not only PHP5 is affected of this inconsistence - PHP4 behaves different, but still strange.
The text below was intended to be used as user-note for gpc_magic_quotes() (the link for posting the note is broken on php.net), so it might contain quite more information as needed. Nevertheless it should be enough information to discuss the behavior in detail.

If this issue won't be fixed, it should be reclassified as documentation for my taste.

here we go:
------------------------------------

First I expected that keys in submitted gpc-arrays are never escaped.
Anyway. After I saw escaped keys, I assumed they're escaped according to the settings of magic quotes.
... it's even worse...

It took me over 2 days of testing to figure out the exact behavior and creating two functions (one for each php-version) that strips slashes reliably from any array submitted to a script. Hope this saves someones time and nerves.

The following is true for $_GET- and $_POST-arrays. I hope other arrays affected by magic quotes behave equally.
I did not test the behavior for cases where magic_quotes_sybase is set.

== legend for possible case combinations ==
Px = php version we're using
	P4 = php 4.3.9
	P5 = php 5.0.2

MQ = MagicQuotes GPC
	+MQ = magic quotes enabled
	-MQ = magic quotes disabled

TL = TopLevel key
	+TL = key is on top level (i.e. $_GET['myKey'])
	-TL = key is nested within another array (i.e. $_GET['myList']['myKey'])

AK = ArrayKey
	+AK = the value of the key is another array (i.e. is_array($_GET['myKey']) == true)
	-AK = the value is a normal string (i.e. is_string($_GET['myKey']) == true)

== legend for possible results ==
KE = KeyEscaping
	+KE = control chars are prefixed with a backslash
	-KE = key is returned as submitted and needn't to be stripped

VE = ValueEscaping (doesn't apply for array as value)
	+VE = control chars are prefixed with a backslash
	-VE = value is returned as submitted and needn't to be stripped

== here we go - the following rules apply ==
 1) P4 +MQ +AK +TL --> -KE
 2) P4 +MQ +AK -TL --> +KE
 3) P4 +MQ -AK +TL --> -KE +VE
 4) P4 +MQ -AK -TL --> +KE +VE
 5) P4 -MQ +AK +TL --> -KE
 6) P4 -MQ +AK -TL --> -KE
 7) P4 -MQ -AK +TL --> -KE -VE
 8) P4 -MQ -AK -TL --> -KE -VE
 9) P5 +MQ +AK +TL --> -KE
10) P5 +MQ +AK -TL --> +KE
11) P5 +MQ -AK +TL --> +KE +VE
12) P5 +MQ -AK -TL --> +KE +VE
13) P5 -MQ +AK +TL --> -KE
14) P5 -MQ +AK -TL --> -KE
15) P5 -MQ -AK +TL --> +KE -VE
16) P5 -MQ -AK -TL --> +KE -VE
17) The chars '.', ' ' are always replaced by '_' when used in keys.

Example (rule 15):
When running under php 5.0.2 having magic quotes disabled, gpc-keys on top level containing strings are escaped while their associated values are not.

== The following function will strip GPC-arrays for php 4.3.9 ==
function transcribe($aList, $aIsTopLevel = true) {
	$gpcList = array();
	$isMagic = get_magic_quotes_gpc();
	
	foreach ($aList as $key => $value) {
		$decodedKey = ($isMagic && !$aIsTopLevel)?stripslashes($key):$key;
		if (is_array($value)) {
			$decodedValue = transcribe($value, false);
		} else {
			$decodedValue = ($isMagic)?stripslashes($value):$value;
		}
		$gpcList[$decodedKey] = $decodedValue;
	}
	return $gpcList;
}

== The following function will strip GPC-arrays for php 5.0.2 ==
function transcribe($aList, $aIsTopLevel = true) {
	$gpcList = array();
	$isMagic = get_magic_quotes_gpc();
	
	foreach ($aList as $key => $value) {
		if (is_array($value)) {
			$decodedKey = ($isMagic && !$aIsTopLevel)?stripslashes($key):$key;
			$decodedValue = transcribe($value, false);
		} else {
			$decodedKey = stripslashes($key);
			$decodedValue = ($isMagic)?stripslashes($value):$value;
		}
		$gpcList[$decodedKey] = $decodedValue;
	}
	return $gpcList;
}

Usage:
$unstrippedGET = transcribe($_GET);
$unstrippedPOST = transcribe($_POST);

Maybe someone is willing to test those combinations for other php-versions and with magic_quotes_sybase set to 'on' - let me know.
Sorry for this huge amount of text, but its complete. I was unable to compress the the decision table more than this.

-----------------
 [2005-03-07 20:30 UTC] sniper@php.net
Duplicate of bug #29165 (reported earlier than this, note about this report added there)


 
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