How can I disable PHP's "easter egg" URLs?
I recently found out about the so-called "easter egg URLs" in PHP:
These are the four QUERY strings you can add to the end of a PHP web page to view a (somewhat) hidden image or web page:
?=PHPE9568F36-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42
This one is the most interesting, and displays an "easter egg" image of either a rabbit in a house (Sterling Hughes' rabbit, named Carmella), a brown dog in the grass, a black Scottish Terrier dog, a sloppy child hand-drawn, crayon-colored php logo, a guy with breadsticks (looks like pencils or french fries) sticking out of his mouth like a walrus, or a PHP elephant logo.
Others include:
?=PHPE9568F34-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42(PHP Logo)?=PHPE9568F35-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42(Zend logo)?=PHPB8B5F2A0-3C92-11d3-A3A9-4C7B08C10000(PHP Credits)
I was shocked to discover that this does work on a lot of websites, including my own. I think this is idiotic and want to disable it, but from what I hear the only way to do it is in php.ini withexpose_php = Off, and it can't be set at runtime withini_set().
I don't have direct access to php.ini on the live server. I have, however, figured out how to unset theX-Powered-By header by using .htaccess, orheader('X-Powered-By: ') in the PHP code.
Is there any other way I can disable these "easter eggs", or do I have to get this setting changed in the mainphp.ini (and is that indeed the correct/only way to disable these URLs)?
Answer
Solution:
in php.ini
This will effectively remove the easter eggs
Answer
Solution:
A quick HTACCESS global rewrite could regex the exact string right out of every URL thus getting rid of the only fun part of PHP without touching the ini file nor needing a function at the beginning of every file.
Haven't tested this yet, but this should work:
Of course, just copy the last 2 lines for each of the other possible queries, or write a more generic regex. I'm not good with regex. :)
This version covers all of the easter egg fun and was found here:
Answer
Solution:
Update: This is removed in PHP 5.5, note how these links no longer work on php.net
http://phpsadness.com/sad/11