Why use Magic Quotes
I find it useful to define a simple utility function for magic quotes so the application functions as expected regardless of whether magic_quotes_gpc is on:
function strip_magic_slashes($str)
{
return get_magic_quotes_gpc() ? stripslashes($str) : $str;
}
Which can be annoying to add the first time you reference every $_GET /$_POST/$_COOKIE variable, but it prevents you from demanding your users to change their configurations.
Why not to use Magic Quotes
- Portability Assuming it to be on, or off, affects portability. Use get_magic_quotes_gpc() to check for this, and code accordingly.
- Performance Because not every piece of escaped data is inserted into a database, there is a performance loss for escaping all this data. Simply calling on the escaping functions (like addslashes()) at runtime is more efficient. Although php.ini-dist enables these directives by default, php.ini-recommended disables it. This recommendation is mainly due to performance reasons.
- Inconvenience Because not all data needs escaping, it's often annoying to see escaped data where it shouldn't be. For example, emailing from a form, and seeing a bunch of \' within the email. To fix, this may require excessive use of stripslashes().
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User Contributed NotesWhy not to use Magic Quotes
sir dot steve dot h+php at gmail dot com
07-Dec-2007 06:45
07-Dec-2007 06:45
rjh at netcraft dot com
13-Jun-2007 12:50
13-Jun-2007 12:50
Additionally, addslashes() is not a cure-all against SQL injection attacks. You should use your database's dedicated escape function (such as mysql_escape_string) or better yet, use parameterised queries through mysqli->prepare().
gerard at modusoperandi dot com dot au
14-May-2007 07:53
14-May-2007 07:53
Apparently it will be removed in PHP 6:
http://www.php.net/~derick/meeting-notes.html#magic-quotes
11-Feb-2006 11:47
It is also important to disable Magic Quotes while in development enivronment. For the reasons mentioned above, not everybody is using Magic Quotes.
An application that works fine with Magic Quotes enabled may have security problems (ie can be subject to SQL attacks) when distributed.