Building Secure PHP Apps
Building Secure PHP Apps
is your PHP app truly secure? Let's make sure you get home on time and sleep well at night.
About the Book
Do you ever wonder how vulnerable you are to being hacked? Do you feel confident about storing your users sensitive information? Imagine feeling confident in the integrity of your software when you store your user's sensitive data. No more fighting fires with lost data, no more late nights, your application is secure. In this short book I'll give you clear, actionable details on how to secure various parts of your web application. You will also find scenarios to handle and improve existing legacy issues.
Several years ago I was writing a web application for a client in the CodeIgniter PHP framework, *shudder*, but CodeIgniter didn't include any type of authentication system built in. I of course did what any good/lazy developer would do and went on the hunt for a well made library to supply authentication capabilities. To my chagrin I discovered that there weren't any clean, concise libraries that fit my needs for authentication in CodeIgniter. Thus began my journey of creating Ion Auth, a simple authentication library for CodeIgniter, and a career long crusade for securing web applications as well as helping other developers do the same.
Here we are years later, a lot of us have moved on to other frameworks or languages, but I still repeatedly see basic security being overlooked. So let's fix that. I want to make sure that you'll never have to live the horror of leaking user passwords, or have someone inject malicious SQL into your database, or the suite of other "hacks" that could have been easily avoided. Let's make sure we all get home on time and sleep well at night.
Topics
This is a quick read, at just over 100 pages. This is a handbook style guide to specific items you can act on. The following sections will be covered:
- Never trust your users - escape all input
- HTTPS/SSL/BCA/JWH/SHA and other random letters, some of them actually matter
- Password Encryption and Storage for Everyone
- Authentication, Access Control, and Safe File Handing
- Safe Defaults, Cross Site Scripting and other Popular Hacks
Format
All code examples are written in PHP with accompanying source code on GitHub.
Progress
This book is now 100% complete and ready to school you. There will be occasional releases for errata and to keep things up to date.
About the Contributors

Eric "Aken" Roberts is the Director of Application Development at Swarming Technology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You can often find him helping out in #Laravel and pinging people on Twitter. Outside of a text editor, he writes and reviews various publications (okay, that's may happen in a text editor, too), plays tennis and drums, collects Hot Wheels, torments his cats, and drinks too much Mountain Dew. And he's getting married in October!
You can find Aken on Twitter @cryode, on GitHub @cryode, or at his website, Cryode.com.

Tech Reviewer

Tech Reviewer & Grammar Freak
Table of Contents
-
Constructor
- Format
- Errata
- Sample Code
- About the Author
-
Chapter 1 - Never Trust Your Users. Sanitize ALL Input!
- SQL Injection
- Mass Assignment
- Typecasting
- Sanitizing Output
-
Chapter Two - HTTPS/SSL/BCA/JWH/SHA and Other Random Letters; Some of Them Actually Matter.
- What is HTTPS
- Limitations
- When to use HTTPS
- Implementing HTTPS
- Paths
-
Chapter 3 - Password Encryption and Storage for Everyone
- The Small Print
- What is a Hash?
- Popular Attacks
- A Pinch of Salt
- Hashing Algorithms
- Storage
- Validation
- Putting It All Together
- Brute Force Protection
- Upgrading Legacy Systems
- Resources
-
Chapter 4 - Authentication, Access Control, and Safe File Handing
- Authentication
- Access Control
- Validating Redirects
- Obfuscation
- Safe File Handing
-
Chapter 5 - Safe Defaults, Cross Site Scripting, and Other Popular Hacks
- Never Trust Yourself - Use Safe Defaults
- Never Trust Dynamic Typing. It’s Not Your Friend.
- Cross Site Scripting
- Attack Entry Points
- Cross Site Request Forgery
- Multiple Form Submits
- Race Conditions
- Outdated Libraries / External Programs
-
Destructor
- About the Author
- Security Audit / Consulting
- Notes
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
80% Royalties. Earn $16 on a $20 book.
We pay 80% royalties. That's not a typo: you earn $16 on a $20 sale. If we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book or course for $20, you'll earn $80,000.
(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)
In fact, authors have earned$12,307,240writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
Personal Finance
Jason AndersonThis textbook provides an in-depth analysis on personal finance that is both practical and straightforward in its approach. It has been written in such a way that the readers can gain knowledge without getting overwhelmed by the technical terms. Suitable for both beginners and advanced learners.
Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Trisha Gee and Helen ScottIf we treat our IDE as a text editor, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Using a combination of tutorials and a questions-and-answers approach, Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA will help you find ways to use IntelliJ IDEA that enable you to work comfortably and productively as a professional developer.
C++20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. JosuttisAll new language and library features of C++20 (for those who know previous C++ versions).
The book presents all new language and library features of C++20. Learn how this impacts day-to-day programming, to benefit in practice, to combine new features, and to avoid all new traps.
Buy early, pay less, free updates.
Other books:
Mastering STM32 - Second Edition
Carmine NovielloWith more than 1200 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the most complete guide around introducing the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL and STM32CubeIDE development environment.
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
Machine Learning Q and AI
Sebastian Raschka, PhDHave you recently completed a machine learning or deep learning course and wondered what to learn next? With 30 questions and answers on key concepts in machine learning and AI, this book provides bite-sized bits of knowledge for your journey to becoming a machine learning expert.
Stats One
William FooteThe Rails 7 Way
Obie Fernandez, Lucas Dohmen, and Tom Henrik AadlandThe Rails™ 7 Way is the comprehensive, authoritative reference guide for professionals delivering production-quality code using modern Ruby on Rails. It illuminates the entire Rails 7 API, its most powerful idioms, design approaches, and libraries. Building on the previous editions, this edition has been heavily refactored and updated.
Gradual Modularization for Ruby and Rails
Stephan HagemannGet yourself a new tool to manage your Rails application and your growing engineering organization! Prevent the ball-of-mud (and fix it!). Go for microservices or SOA if it makes sense not just because you don't have any other tool. Do all this through a low-overhead tool: packages. Enable better conversations to make practical changes today.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #3
1500 QUIZ COMMENTATI (3 libri)
3 Books
Tre libri dei QUIZ MMG Commentati al prezzo di DUE! I QUIZ dei concorsi ufficiali di Medicina Generale relativi agli anni: 2000-2001-2003-2012-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 +100 inediti Raccolti in unico bundle per aiutarvi nello studio e nella preparazione al concorso. All'interno di ogni libro i quiz sono stati suddivisi per... - #4
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #5
Practical FP in Scala + Functional event-driven architecture
2 Books
Practical FP in Scala (A hands-on approach) & Functional event-driven architecture, aka FEDA, (Powered by Scala 3), together as a bundle! The content of PFP in Scala is a requirement to understand FEDA so why not take advantage of this bundle!? - #6
Modern C++ Collection
3 Books
Get All about Modern C++C++ Standard Library, including C++20Concurrency with Modern C++, including C++20C++20Each book has about 200 complete code examples. Updates are included. When I update one of the books, you immediately get the updated bundle. You can expect significant updates to each new C++ standard (C++23, C++26, .. ) and also... - #7
Linux Administration Complet
4 Books
Ce lot comprend les quatre volumes du Guide Linux Administration :Linux Administration, Volume 1, Administration fondamentale : Guide pratique de préparation aux examens de certification LPIC 1, Linux Essentials, RHCSA et LFCS. Administration fondamentale. Introduction à Linux. Le Shell. Traitement du texte. Arborescence de fichiers. Sécurité... - #9
Development and Deployment of Multiplayer Online Games, Part ARCH. Architecture (Vol. I-III)
3 Books
What's the Big Idea? The idea behind this book is to summarize the body of knowledge that already exists on multiplayer games but is not available in one single place.And quite a fewof the issues discussed within this series (planned as three nine volumes ~300 pages each), while known in the industry, have not been published at all (except for... - #10
Growing Agile: The Complete Coach's Guide
7 Books
Growing Agile: Coach's Guide Series This bundle provides a collection of training and workshop plans for a variety of agile topics. The series is aimed at agile coaches, trainers and ScrumMasters who often find themselves needing to help teams understand agile concepts. Each book in the series provides the plans, slides, handouts and activity...