On DevShed today, there's a new tutorial on showing how to create a simple application to use one of the simpler protocols - FTP.

PHP has many functions that help us to implement Internet and/or networking protocols. In this article, we will look at how to implement some of those protocols using PHP.

They introduce the FTP functions for PHP (a basic list, PHP manual style) and include the code - the CSS to make it easier to use and the PHP code to make the FTP connection and grab the remote file listing. A screenshot is included to give you an idea of the end result.

Ed Finkler, a long-time user of SFTPDrive on his Windows machine, has noticed something a bit odd lately when using the new Zend Studio (Eclipse):

For some reason, ZSfE just doesn’t show me my “k:” drive (the SFTP mount) when browsing for a project directory. This throws a real wrench in my usual workflow �" ZS 5.5 had built-in SFTP support, and I could also use the local mount if I wanted.

Finding nothing in the traditional places, he's made this blog post hoping someone might have the answer. Turns out that the fix (as provided by Josh Johnston) is to create a new project around a new Remote Folder.

Demian Turner has posted about the latest version of the Seagull framework (0.6.3) and an update to correct a remote file disclosure issue (up to version 0.6.4).

Well it took a bit of time but after quite a few months a new release of Seagull is finally out, 0.6.3 (0.6.4). Things have been keeping pretty busy with the startup I'm working on, but it's been a great opportunity to refine some features of the framework and optimize the performance. The early indications are good, after less than 10 weeks of going live Kindo users are creating up to 20k profiles/day and the server load is staying comfortably below 0.5.

The update is a different download that helps correct an issue with the framework allowing user-inputted values from the GET string. Be sure and update your version to keep this security issue under wraps.

The Ubuntu linux group has released an update for their PHP packages to help protect their users from issues like security bypass and remote exploits.

This fixes a weakness and some vulnerabilities, where some have unknown impacts and others can be exploited by malicious, local users to bypass certain security restrictions and by malicious users to bypass certain security restrictions.

Packages can either be downloaded manually or via the linux distro's package manager. This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.