Pro PHP Security: From Application Security Principles to the Implementation of XSS Defenses, Second Edition

Making Dangerous Operations Safe

These two different kinds of commands are dangerous in very different ways. The root-level commands need access to deep resources, while the resource-intensive ones don't. The root-level commands can usually be executed nearly instantaneously, while the resource-intensive ones can't. But both can cause havoc on your own and possibly others' systems.

Both problems, however, can be solved in the same general way, by creating a queuing system where an unprivileged PHP script must hand off a potentially dangerous operation to a privileged or administrative user. That privileged user (in most cases an automated process) is capable of evaluating the appropriateness of the command (should it be executed at all?) and ...