PHP

Impact: Multiple vulnerabilities in PHP 5.2.6

Description: PHP is updated to version 5.2.8 to address multiple vulnerabilities, the most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution. Get details on whats changed in 5.2.8 by clicking here.

At the time of writing this post 5.3.0 is released. And the old problem of missing GD2 library still persists. Apple must have a great reason behind it for sure

Ruby

Impact: Multiple vulnerabilities in Ruby 1.8.6

Description: Multiple vulnerabilities exist in Ruby 1.8.6. This update addresses the issues by updating Ruby to version 1.8.6-p287. Get details about the changes here.

Ok! Lets start the game and start playing with the Web powerhouse under this OS. I switched on Web Sharing, typed in:

http://localhost/~username

And I got the following error:

Forbidden: 403 Error
You dont have permissions to access localhost/~username

Googling the error, I was pointed to this very useful resource: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071027155902154

My solution was the following:

1. Locate httpd.conf file, which should be at /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
2. Edit it and locate <Directory /> using pico. You should be writing like sudo pico httpd.conf while being in the apache2 directory
   
3. Change Deny from all to Allow from all in it
4. Save the file
5. type sudo apachectl stop (to stop the apache server)
6. type sudo apachectl start (plz!)
7. Enjoy

While you were editing the httpd.conf file, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to enable PHP also.

1. Find LoadModule php5_module in httpd.conf
2. Uncomment it i.e. delete # sign before the statement
3. Save the file
4. Stop and start the web server
5. Your phpinfo(); test file should inform that you are running PHP 5.2.4 successfully.
6. Congrates!

Happy coding!

• We can download the latest version of MySql Community Open Source version for Mac form its official site, here. (approx. 61 MB)
• We can also download some GUI tools namely MySql Administrator, Query Browser etc. from here.
• Also, We’ll download the famous web based PHP management tool PHPMyAdmin from here.

Installation:

Installation is pretty straight forward, click and enjoy, nothing fancy about it. The MySql installation package, version 5.0.45 contains 4 items, namely:

• MySql-5.0.45-ox10.4-i686.pkg (The main installation file)
• MySqlStartupItem.pkg (If you want MySql to start automatically on OS boot, then must install it)
• MySql.PrefPane (Copy this file into MacintoshHD > Library > PreferencePane, to control Start/Stop MySql)
• Readme.txt (much about everything I have mentioned above and much more, Please Read)

The above process applies for both Tiger & Leopard.

Post-Installation:

Here, I’m going to refer original documentation for consultation. But, I’ll lay down the basic idea. At the time of installation, the default user created is “Root” without any password. We need to assign password to the “Root” user. In my installation on Leopard, using the GUI based tools, I was able to do pretty much anything. But on Tiger with PhpMyAdmin I was given password invalid message. Therefore, It is better to follow what MySql recommends.

• Please read Installing MySql on Mac OS X for detailed instructions and settings
• Post Installation procedures covers issues regarding applying password to the Root user etc.
• Securing the initial MySql Accounts
• Mac OS X specific notes

Managing MySql through GUI Tools:

I have tried both MySql provided GUI tools and web based ever famous PhpMyAdmin. The GUI tools were quite easy to install and use.

For PhpMyAdmin, just read the Installation instructions under documentation. We need to configure one Config file, which pretty much covers every behavior of the application with MySql.

This completes our LAMP stack. Happy coding from here and give us the next start-up 3.0

In Tiger, you can edit the Httpd.conf a.k.a Apache Configuration file through Terminal. This configuration file controls almost everything about the web server. Be sure to make copy of the file before altering it. The location of the httpd.conf file is /etc/httpd. You can reach the location by entering the following command:

cd /etc/httpd/

On requesting directory listing “ls”, httpd.conf file is listed among other config files.

In Leopard, the location of the file is changed to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, which you can reach by entering:

cd /etc/apache2/

Now lets make respective changes in the file in each OS and start PHP. Type in Tiger:

sudo pico /etc/httpd/httpd.conf

Editing Httpd.conf

Pico is our editor through which we will be editing the file to Uncomment 2 enteries. Its text based but very powerful. As you have guessed it, we have to use Root privileges to edit the file. Now we need to locate the following files:

# LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so
# AddModule mod_php4.c

Easy would be to use the Where command in Pico by entering the following key combination “Control + W”. Now enter “Loadmodule php4″ and you’ll be taken to the exact location. Now again perform Where for “AddModule” and uncomment the function call. Now enter “Control + X” for exit, press “Y” to save the file and exit from pico.

In Leopard, we just need to uncomment one entry by performing similart task with pico:

LoadModule php5_module

Testing PHP

To test if our editing effort has been successful, we will invoke the PHP Info function to see the results. Using any text editor, save the file in /user/<username>/sites directory with the name test.php. Enter the following code in the file:

<?php phpinfo() ?>

Now enter the URL in your favorite browser:

http://localhost/~<username>/test.php (e.g. http://localhost/~munirsalman/test.php)

The result should be similar to the following in Tiger.

A very good resource on PHP on mac, PHPMac