I have been relying quite extensively on the PHP shell in order to perform effective (and bandwidth-forgiving) backups of my frihost site, and also to ease FTP bandwidth. With some recent changes - the system() and ini_parse() functions being nerfed - these tools have become broken, and for a questionable gain in security.
Of course giving people fake shell access is a security risk, but PHP itself is a security risk, and the number of people with sufficient technical skill to screw themseleves over with these functions is far smaller than the number of people who insist on taking up huge amounts of bandwidth and, more importantly, processing power, with their own poorly-written and bloated scripts.
Please consider,
Carl van tonder
Of course giving people fake shell access is a security risk, but PHP itself is a security risk, and the number of people with sufficient technical skill to screw themseleves over with these functions is far smaller than the number of people who insist on taking up huge amounts of bandwidth and, more importantly, processing power, with their own poorly-written and bloated scripts.
Please consider,
Carl van tonder
