What are the potential security risks of allowing PHP scripts to access files on a different drive in a Windows environment?

Allowing PHP scripts to access files on a different drive in a Windows environment can pose a security risk as it may lead to unauthorized access to sensitive files or directories. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to restrict file access to only specific directories within the same drive where the PHP script is located. 

<?php

// Restrict file access to specific directories within the same drive
$allowedDirectories = ['C:/xampp/htdocs', 'C:/xampp/temp'];

// Check if the file path is within the allowed directories
$filePath = 'C:/xampp/htdocs/example.txt';
if (!in_array(dirname($filePath), $allowedDirectories)) {
    die('Access denied');
}

// Proceed with file operations
$fileContent = file_get_contents($filePath);
echo $fileContent;

?>

Keywords

PHP security risks file access different drive Windows environment

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