Hi,
I've been considering offering PHP/MySQL hosting on a RedHat Linux server for a while, but my main concern is security. It seems to be quite a problem using PHP in a shared environment since to keep people from viewing other peoples files (and reading database connection information, for instance), you need to turn safe-mode on which can limit PHP's capabilities.
I've heard that products like Ensim allow you to create a virtual root for each user, but the problem with this is that it is very resource intensive since everyone has their own program installations. Also, I've heard of other possible downfalls to using a product like Ensim. Has anyone ever had experience with Ensim. Do you like it?
One other idea that I've read about is to have PHP run as the user of the PHP script that is executed, and thus that user wouldn't be able to use PHP to navigate though other peoples directories.
Also, does anyone has any general thoughts about this issue and how to provide security when hosting PHP in a shared environment?
THanks for any thoughts.
