International PHP Conference Berlin 2025

$_SERVER

$HTTP_SERVER_VARS [eliminado]

(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

$_SERVER -- $HTTP_SERVER_VARS [eliminado]Información del entorno del servidor y de ejecución

Descripción

$_SERVER es un array que contiene información, tales como cabeceras, rutas y ubicaciones de script. Las entradas de este array son creadas por el servidor web. No hay garantía que cada servidor web proporcione alguna de estas entradas, existen servidores que pueden omitir algunas o proporcionar otras no recogidas aquí. Un gran número de estas variables se encuentran recogidas en » especificación CGI 1.1, así que al menos debe esperar encontrar estas entradas.

Nota: Antes de PHP 5.4.0, $HTTP_SERVER_VARS contenía la misma información inicial, aunque no era una superglobal. (Observe que $HTTP_SERVER_VARS y $_SERVER eran variables diferentes, por lo que PHP las trata de forma distinta).

Índices

Puede encontrar o no los siguientes elementos en $_SERVER. Tenga en cuenta que si ejecuta PHP desde línea de comando pocos o ninguno de los siguientes elementos estarán disponibles (o tendrán algún significado).

'PHP_SELF'
El nombre del archivo de script ejecutándose actualmente, relativa al directorio raíz de documentos del servidor. Por ejemplo, el valor de $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] en un script ejecutado en la dirección http://example.com/foo/bar.php será /foo/bar.php. La constante __FILE__ contiene la ruta completa del fichero actual, incluyendo el nombre del archivo. Si PHP se está ejecutando como un proceso de línea de comando, esta variable es el nombre del script desde PHP 4.3.0. En anteriores versiones no estaba disponible.
'argv'
Array de los argumentos enviados al script. Cuando se ejecuta el script en línea de comando se obtiene acceso a los parámetros de línea de comando con un estilo parecido a como sería en C. Cuando se ejecuta el script mediante el método GET, contendrá la cadena de la consulta.
'argc'
Contiene el número de parámetros de línea de comando enviados al script (si se ejecuta en línea de comando).
'GATEWAY_INTERFACE'
Número de revisión de la especificación CGI que está empleando el servidor, por ejemplo 'CGI/1.1'.
'SERVER_ADDR'
La dirección IP del servidor donde se está ejecutando actualmente el script.
'SERVER_NAME'
El nombre del host del servidor donde se está ejecutando actualmente el script. Si el script se ejecuta en un host virtual se obtendrá el valor del nombre definido para dicho host virtual.

Nota: Bajo Apache 2, se debe establecer UseCanonicalName = On y ServerName. De lo contrario, este valor refleja el nombre del host proporcionado por el cliente, el cual se puede burlar. No es seguro depender de este valor en contextos que necesiten seguridad.

'SERVER_SOFTWARE'
Cadena de identificación del servidor dada en las cabeceras de respuesta a las peticiones.
'SERVER_PROTOCOL'
Nombre y número de revisión del protocolo de información a través del cual la página es solicitada, por ejemplo 'HTTP/1.0'.
'REQUEST_METHOD'
Método de petición empleado para acceder a la página, por ejemplo 'GET', 'HEAD', 'POST', 'PUT'.

Nota:

El script de PHP se considera terminado después de enviar las cabeceras (es decir después de producir cualquier resultado sin emplear buffers para el resultado) si el método de la petición empleado era HEAD.

'REQUEST_TIME'
Fecha Unix de inicio de la petición. Disponible desde PHP 5.1.0.
'REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT'
El timestamp del inicio de la solicitud, con precisión microsegundo. Disponible desde PHP 5.4.0.
'QUERY_STRING'
Si existe, la cadena de la consulta de la petición de la página.
'DOCUMENT_ROOT'
El directorio raíz de documentos del servidor en el cual se está ejecutando el script actual, según está definida en el archivo de configuración del servidor.
'HTTP_ACCEPT'
Contenido de la cabecera Accept: de la petición actual, si existe.
'HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET'
Contenido de la cabecera Accept-Charset: de la petición actual, si existe. Por ejemplo: 'iso-8859-1,*,utf-8'.
'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'
Contenido de la cabecera Accept-Encoding: de la petición actual, si existe. Por ejemplo: 'gzip'.
'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'
Contenido de la cabecera Accept-Language: de la petición actual, si existe. Por ejemplo: 'en'.
'HTTP_CONNECTION'
Contenido de la cabecera Connection: de la petición actual, si existe. Por ejemplo: 'Keep-Alive'.
'HTTP_HOST'
Contenido de la cabecera Host: de la petición actual, si existe.
'HTTP_REFERER'
Dirección de la pagina (si la hay) que emplea el agente de usuario para la pagina actual. Es definido por el agente de usuario. No todos los agentes de usuarios lo definen y algunos permiten modificar HTTP_REFERER como parte de su funcionalidad. En resumen, es un valor del que no se puede confiar realmente.
'HTTP_USER_AGENT'
Contenido de la cabecera User-Agent: de la petición actual, si existe. Consiste en una cadena que indica el agente de usuario empleado para acceder a la pagina. Un ejemplo típico es: Mozilla/4.5 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.9 i586). Entre otras opciones, puede emplear dicho valor con get_browser() para personalizar el resultado de la salida de la página en función de las capacidades del agente de usuario empleado.
'HTTPS'
Ofrece un valor no vacío si el script es pedido mediante el protocolo HTTPS.

Nota: Tenga en cuenta que si se emplea ISAPI con IIS el valor será off si la petición no se ha realizado a través del protocolo HTTPS.

'REMOTE_ADDR'
La dirección IP desde la cual está viendo la página actual el usuario.
'REMOTE_HOST'
El nombre del host desde el cual está viendo la página actual el usuario. La obtención inversa del dns está basada en la REMOTE_ADDR del usuario.

Nota: Su servidor web debe estar configurado para crear esta variable. Por ejemplo en Apache necesita que exista HostnameLookups On dentro de httpd.conf. Consulte tambien gethostbyaddr().

'REMOTE_PORT'
El puerto empleado por la máquina del usuario para comunicarse con el servidor web.
'REMOTE_USER'
El usuario autenticado.
'REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER'
El usuario autenticado si la petición es redirigida internamente.
'SCRIPT_FILENAME'

La ruta del script ejecutándose actualmente en forma absoluta.

Nota:

Si un script se ejecuta mediante CLI como ruta relativa, como por ejemplo file.php o ../file.php, entonces $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] contendrá la ruta relativa especificada por el usuario.

'SERVER_ADMIN'
El valor dado a la directiva SERVER_ADMIN (de Apache) en el archivo de configuración del servidor web. Si el script se está ejecutando en un host virtual, el valor dado será el definido para dicho host virtual.
'SERVER_PORT'
El puerto de la máquina del servidor usado por el servidor web para la comunicación. Para las configuraciones por omisión, el valor será '80'; el empleo de SSL, por ejemplo, cambiará dicho valor al valor definido para el puerto HTTP seguro.

Nota: Bajo Apache 2, se debe establecer UseCanonicalName = On, así como UseCanonicalPhysicalPort = On para poder obtener el puerto físico (real), de otro modo, este valor podría ser burlado y podría o no devolver el valor del puerto físico. No es seguro confiar en este valor en contextos que requieran seguridad.

'SERVER_SIGNATURE'
Cadena que contiene la versión del servidor y el nombre del host virtual que son añadidas a las páginas generadas por el servidor, si esta habilitada esta funcionalidad.
'PATH_TRANSLATED'
Ruta de acceso basada en el sistema (no en el directorio raíz de documentos del servidor) del script actual, después de cualquier mapeo de virtual a real realizada por el servidor.

Nota: A partir de PHP 4.3.2, PATH_TRANSLATED no está definida de forma implícita en el SAPI de Apache 2, en comparación a la situación de Apache 1, donde era necesario establecer el mismo valor que la variable del servidor SCRIPT_FILENAME cuando no era proporcionada por Apache. Este cambio ha sido realizado para cumplir la especificación CGI donde PATH_TRANSLATED sólo debe existir si PATH_INFO esta definida. Los usuarios de Apache 2 pueden emplear AcceptPathInfo = On dentro de httpd.conf para definir PATH_INFO.

'SCRIPT_NAME'
Contiene la ruta del script actual. Esto es de utilidad para las páginas que necesiten apuntarse a si mismas. La constante __FILE__ contiene la ruta absoluta y el nombre del archivo actual incluido.
'REQUEST_URI'
La URI que se empleó para acceder a la página. Por ejemplo: '/index.html'.
'PHP_AUTH_DIGEST'
Cuando se hace autenticación Digest HTTP, esta variable se establece para el encabezado 'Authorization' enviado por el cliente (el cual se debe entonces usar para hacer la validación apropiada).
'PHP_AUTH_USER'
Cuando se hace autenticación HTTP, esta variable se establece para el nombre de usuario provisto por el usuario.
'PHP_AUTH_PW'
Cuando se hace autenticación HTTP, esta variable se establece para la clave provista por el usuario.
'AUTH_TYPE'
Cuando se realiza la autenticación HTTP, está variable se establece para el tipo de autenticación.
'PATH_INFO'
Contiene cualquier información sobre la ruta proporcionada por el cliente a continuación del nombre del fichero del script actual pero antecediendo a la cadena de la petición, si existe. Por ejemplo, si el script actual se accede a través de la URL http://www.example.com/php/path_info.php/some/stuff?foo=bar, entonces $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] contendrá /some/stuff.
'ORIG_PATH_INFO'
Versión original de 'PATH_INFO' antes de ser procesado por PHP.

Historial de cambios

Versión Descripción
5.4.0 $HTTP_SERVER_VARS ya no está disponible debido a la eliminación de arrays grandes de registro.
5.3.0 La directiva register_long_arrays, la cual hacía que estuviera disponible $HTTP_SERVER_VARS está obsoleta.

Ejemplos

Ejemplo #1 Ejemplo de $_SERVER

<?php
echo $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];
?>

El resultado del ejemplo sería algo similar a:

www.example.com

Notas

Nota:

Esta es una 'superglobal' o una variable automatic global. Significa simplemente que es una variable que está disponible en cualquier parte del script. No hace falta hacer global $variable; para acceder a la misma desde funciones o métodos.

Ver también

add a note

User Contributed Notes 38 notes

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154
Vladimir Kornea
15 years ago
1. All elements of the $_SERVER array whose keys begin with 'HTTP_' come from HTTP request headers and are not to be trusted.

2. All HTTP headers sent to the script are made available through the $_SERVER array, with names prefixed by 'HTTP_'.

3. $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] is dangerous if misused. If login.php/nearly_arbitrary_string is requested, $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] will contain not just login.php, but the entire login.php/nearly_arbitrary_string. If you've printed $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] as the value of the action attribute of your form tag without performing HTML encoding, an attacker can perform XSS attacks by offering users a link to your site such as this:

<a href='http://www.example.com/login.php/"><script type="text/javascript">...</script><span a="'>Example.com</a>

The javascript block would define an event handler function and bind it to the form's submit event. This event handler would load via an <img> tag an external file, with the submitted username and password as parameters.

Use $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] instead of $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']. HTML encode every string sent to the browser that should not be interpreted as HTML, unless you are absolutely certain that it cannot contain anything that the browser can interpret as HTML.
up
55
vcoletti at tiscali dot it
4 years ago
To list all the $_SERVER parameters, simply do:

foreach ($_SERVER as $parm => $value) echo "$parm = '$value'\n";

No need to list all possible keys of the array.
up
36
MarkAgius at markagius dot co dot uk
13 years ago
You have missed 'REDIRECT_STATUS'

Very useful if you point all your error pages to the same file.

File; .htaccess
# .htaccess file.

ErrorDocument 404 /error-msg.php
ErrorDocument 500 /error-msg.php
ErrorDocument 400 /error-msg.php
ErrorDocument 401 /error-msg.php
ErrorDocument 403 /error-msg.php
# End of file.

File; error-msg.php
<?php
$HttpStatus
= $_SERVER["REDIRECT_STATUS"] ;
if(
$HttpStatus==200) {print "Document has been processed and sent to you.";}
if(
$HttpStatus==400) {print "Bad HTTP request ";}
if(
$HttpStatus==401) {print "Unauthorized - Iinvalid password";}
if(
$HttpStatus==403) {print "Forbidden";}
if(
$HttpStatus==500) {print "Internal Server Error";}
if(
$HttpStatus==418) {print "I'm a teapot! - This is a real value, defined in 1998";}

?>
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38
Lord Mac
15 years ago
An even *more* improved version...

<?php
phpinfo
(32);
?>
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25
jonbarnett at gmail dot com
16 years ago
It's worth noting that $_SERVER variables get created for any HTTP request headers, including those you might invent:

If the browser sends an HTTP request header of:
X-Debug-Custom: some string

Then:

<?php
$_SERVER
['HTTP_X_DEBUG_CUSTOM']; // "some string"
?>

There are better ways to identify the HTTP request headers sent by the browser, but this is convenient if you know what to expect from, for example, an AJAX script with custom headers.

Works in PHP5 on Apache with mod_php. Don't know if this is true from other environments.
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23
pierstoval at example dot com
7 years ago
As PHP $_SERVER var is populated with a lot of vars, I think it's important to say that it's also populated with environment vars.

For example, with a PHP script, we can have this:

MY_ENV_VAR=Hello php -r 'echo $_SERVER["MY_ENV_VAR"];'

Will show "Hello".

But, internally, PHP makes sure that "internal" keys in $_SERVER are not overriden, so you wouldn't be able to do something like this:

REQUEST_TIME=Hello php -r 'var_dump($_SERVER["REQUEST_TIME"]);'

Will show something like 1492897785

However, a lot of vars are still vulnerable from environment injection.

I created a gist here ( https://gist.github.com/Pierstoval/f287d3e61252e791a943dd73874ab5ee ) with my PHP configuration on windows with PHP7.0.15 on WSL with bash, the results are that the only "safe" vars are the following:

PHP_SELF
SCRIPT_NAME
SCRIPT_FILENAME
PATH_TRANSLATED
DOCUMENT_ROOT
REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT
REQUEST_TIME
argv
argc

All the rest can be overriden with environment vars, which is not very cool actually because it can break PHP applications sometimes...

(and I only tested on CLI, I had no patience to test with Apache mod_php or Nginx + PHP-FPM, but I can imagine that not a lot of $_SERVER properties are "that" secure...)
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14
chris at ocproducts dot com
7 years ago
Guide to absolute paths...

Data: __FILE__
Data type: String
Purpose: The absolute pathname of the running PHP file, including the filename.
Caveat: This is not the file called by the PHP processor, it's what is running. So if you are inside an include, it's the include.
Caveat: Symbolic links are pre-resolved, so don't trust comparison of paths to be accurate.
Caveat: Don't assume all operating systems use '/' for the directory separator.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: Yes

Data: __DIR__
Data type: String
Purpose: The absolute pathname to the running PHP file, excluding the filename
Caveat: This is not the file called by the PHP processor, it's what is running. So if you are inside an include, it's the include.
Caveat: Symbolic links are pre-resolved, so don't trust comparison of paths to be accurate.
Caveat: Don't assume all operating systems use '/' for the directory separator.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: Yes

Data: $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']
Data type: String
Purpose: The absolute pathname of the origin PHP file, including the filename
Caveat: Not set on all PHP environments, may need setting by copying from __FILE__ before other files are included.
Caveat: Symbolic links are not pre-resolved, use PHP's 'realpath' function if you need it resolved.
Caveat: Don't assume all operating systems use '/' for the directory separator.
Caveat: "Filename" makes you think it is just a filename, but it really is the full absolute pathname. Read the identifier as "Script's filesystem (path)name".
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: Yes

Data: $_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']
Data type: String
Purpose: The absolute pathname of the origin PHP file, including the filename
Caveat: It's probably not set, best to just not use it. Just use realpath($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']) (and be aware that itself may need to have been emulated).
Caveat: Symbolic links are pre-resolved, so don't trust comparison of paths to be accurate.
Caveat: Don't assume all operating systems use '/' for the directory separator.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Data: $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']
Data type: String
Purpose: Get the absolute path to the web server's document root. No trailing slash.
Caveat: Don't trust this to be set, or set correctly, unless you control the server environment.
Caveat: May or may not have symbolic links pre-resolved, use PHP's 'realpath' function if you need it resolved.
Caveat: Don't assume all operating systems use '/' for the directory separator.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Note that if something is not set it may be missing from $_SERVER, or it may be blank, so use PHP's 'empty' function for your test.

Note that if you call "php --info" on the command line then naturally some of these settings are going to be blank, as no PHP file is involved.
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22
Richard York
15 years ago
Not documented here is the fact that $_SERVER is populated with some pretty useful information when accessing PHP via the shell.

["_SERVER"]=>
array(24) {
["MANPATH"]=>
string(48) "/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/X11/man"
["TERM"]=>
string(11) "xterm-color"
["SHELL"]=>
string(9) "/bin/bash"
["SSH_CLIENT"]=>
string(20) "127.0.0.1 41242 22"
["OLDPWD"]=>
string(60) "/Library/WebServer/Domains/www.example.com/private"
["SSH_TTY"]=>
string(12) "/dev/ttys000"
["USER"]=>
string(5) "username"
["MAIL"]=>
string(15) "/var/mail/username"
["PATH"]=>
string(57) "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin"
["PWD"]=>
string(56) "/Library/WebServer/Domains/www.example.com/www"
["SHLVL"]=>
string(1) "1"
["HOME"]=>
string(12) "/Users/username"
["LOGNAME"]=>
string(5) "username"
["SSH_CONNECTION"]=>
string(31) "127.0.0.1 41242 10.0.0.1 22"
["_"]=>
string(12) "/usr/bin/php"
["__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"]=>
string(9) "0x1F5:0:0"
["PHP_SELF"]=>
string(10) "Shell.php"
["SCRIPT_NAME"]=>
string(10) "Shell.php"
["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]=>
string(10) "Shell.php"
["PATH_TRANSLATED"]=>
string(10) "Shell.php"
["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]=>
string(0) ""
["REQUEST_TIME"]=>
int(1247162183)
["argv"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(10) "Shell.php"
}
["argc"]=>
int(1)
}
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13
ywarnier at beeznest dot org
7 years ago
Note that $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] might include the scheme and domain in certain cases.

This happens, for example, when calling the page through a call to stream_context_create() with a HTTP header of 'request_fulluri' set to 1.

For example:

$http = ['request_fulluri' => 1, /* other params here */];
$context = stream_context_create(array( 'http' => $http ));
$fp = fopen($some_url, 'rb', false, $context);

When outputting $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] on the server at $some_url, you will get
https://some_url/some_script.php

Remove the request_fulluri => 1 option, and $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] gets back to its "normal":
/some_script.php

Apparently, request_fulluri is useful when using some proxy servers.

In this case, there is no proper way to "detect" if this option was set or not, and you should probably use a combination of other $_SERVER[] elements (like REQUEST_SCHEME, SERVER_NAME and SERVER_PORT) to determine if this was the case.

One quick (and improvable) way to detect it would be to compare the start of the REQUEST_URI with REQUEST_SCHEME:

$scheme = $_SERVER['REQUEST_SCHEME'] . '://';
if (strcmp(substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 0, strlen($scheme)), $scheme) === 0) {
// request_fulluri was set
}
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12
chris at ocproducts dot com
7 years ago
Guide to URL paths...

Data: $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']
Data type: String
Purpose: The URL path name of the current PHP file, including path-info (see $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']) and excluding URL query string. Includes leading slash.
Caveat: This is after URL rewrites (i.e. it's as seen by PHP, not necessarily the original call URL).
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: Tenuous (emulated to contain just the exact call path of the CLI script, with whatever exotic relative pathname you may call with, not made absolute and not normalised or pre-resolved)

Data: $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']
Data type: String
Purpose: The URL path name of the current PHP file, excluding path-info and excluding URL query string. Includes leading slash.
Caveat: This is after URL rewrites (i.e. it's as seen by PHP, not necessarily the original call URL).
Caveat: Not set on all PHP environments, may need setting via preg_replace('#\.php/.*#', '.php', $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: Tenuous (emulated to contain just the exact call path of the CLI script, with whatever exotic relative pathname you may call with, not made absolute and not normalised or pre-resolved)

Data: $_SERVER['REDIRECT_URL']
Data type: String
Purpose: The URL path name of the current PHP file, path-info is N/A and excluding URL query string. Includes leading slash.
Caveat: This is before URL rewrites (i.e. it's as per the original call URL).
Caveat: Not set on all PHP environments, and definitely only ones with URL rewrites.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Data: $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
Data type: String
Purpose: The URL path name of the current PHP file, including path-info and including URL query string. Includes leading slash.
Caveat: This is before URL rewrites (i.e. it's as per the original call URL). *
*: I've seen at least one situation where this is not true (there was another $_SERVER variable to use instead supplied by the URL rewriter), but the author of the URL rewriter later fixed it so probably fair to dismiss this particular note.
Caveat: Not set on all PHP environments, may need setting via $_SERVER['REDIRECT_URL'] . '?' . http_build_query($_GET) [if $_SERVER['REDIRECT_URL'] is set, and imperfect as we don't know what GET parameters were originally passed vs which were injected in the URL rewrite] --otherwise-- $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?' . http_build_query($_GET).
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Data: $_SERVER['PATH_INFO']
Data type: String
Purpose: Find the path-info, which is data after the .php filename in the URL call. It's a strange concept.
Caveat: Some environments may not support it, it is best avoided unless you have complete server control
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Note that if something is not set it may be missing from $_SERVER, or it may be blank, so use PHP's 'empty' function for your test.
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16
krinklemail at gmail dot com
12 years ago
If requests to your PHP script send a header "Content-Type" or/ "Content-Length" it will, contrary to regular HTTP headers, not appear in $_SERVER as $_SERVER['HTTP_CONTENT_TYPE']. PHP removes these (per CGI/1.1 specification[1]) from the HTTP_ match group.

They are still accessible, but only if the request was a POST request. When it is, it'll be available as:
$_SERVER['CONTENT_LENGTH']
$_SERVER['CONTENT_TYPE']

[1] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875
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6
lemonostif at gmail dot com
5 years ago
PHP_SELF is a disgrace of a programmer's work. One of the most widespread PHP vulnerabilities since version 4 and the manual says nothing about the dangers. At least clarify that ITS VALUE CAN BE PROVIDED BY THE USER with capitals preferably if you want to make the internet a safer place...
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10
Tonin
16 years ago
When using the $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] variable in an apache virtual host setup with a ServerAlias directive, be sure to check the UseCanonicalName apache directive. If it is On, this variable will always have the apache ServerName value. If it is Off, it will have the value given by the headers sent by the browser.

Depending on what you want to do the content of this variable, put in On or Off.
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8
info at mtprod dot com
15 years ago
On Windows IIS 7 you must use $_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR'] rather than $_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR'] to get the server's IP address.
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7
jarrod at squarecrow dot com
15 years ago
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is incredibly useful especially when working in your development environment. If you're working on large projects you'll likely be including a large number of files into your pages. For example:

<?php
//Defines constants to use for "include" URLS - helps keep our paths clean

define("REGISTRY_CLASSES", $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/SOAP/classes/");
define("REGISTRY_CONTROLS", $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/SOAP/controls/");

define("STRING_BUILDER", REGISTRY_CLASSES. "stringbuilder.php");
define("SESSION_MANAGER", REGISTRY_CLASSES. "sessionmanager.php");
define("STANDARD_CONTROLS", REGISTRY_CONTROLS."standardcontrols.php");
?>

In development environments, you're rarely working with your root folder, especially if you're running PHP locally on your box and using DOCUMENT_ROOT is a great way to maintain URL conformity. This will save you hours of work preparing your application for deployment from your box to a production server (not to mention save you the headache of include path failures).
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8
Stefano (info at sarchittu dot org)
14 years ago
A way to get the absolute path of your page, independent from the site position (so works both on local machine and on server without setting anything) and from the server OS (works both on Unix systems and Windows systems).

The only parameter it requires is the folder in which you place this script
So, for istance, I'll place this into my SCRIPT folder, and I'll write SCRIPT word length in $conflen

<?php
$conflen
=strlen('SCRIPT');
$B=substr(__FILE__,0,strrpos(__FILE__,'/'));
$A=substr($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], strrpos($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']));
$C=substr($B,strlen($A));
$posconf=strlen($C)-$conflen-1;
$D=substr($C,1,$posconf);
$host='http://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].'/'.$D;
?>

$host will finally contain the absolute path.
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5
Mark Simon
5 years ago
So near, and yet so far …

$_SERVER has nearly everything you need to know about the current web page environment. Something which would have been handy is easy access to the protocol and the actual web root.

For the protocol, you may or may not have $_SERVER['HTTPS'] and it may or may not be empty. For the web root, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] depends on the server configuration, and doesn’t work for virtual hosts.

For practical purposes, I normally include something like the following in my scripts:

<?php
// Web Root
// Usage: include("$root/includes/something.inc.php");
$root = $_SERVER['WEB_ROOT'] = str_replace($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'],'',$_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);

// Host & Protocol
// Usage: $url = "$protocol://$host/images/something.jpg";
$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$protocol=$_SERVER['PROTOCOL'] = isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && !empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) ? 'https' : 'http';
?>
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steve at sc-fa dot com
15 years ago
If you are serving from behind a proxy server, you will almost certainly save time by looking at what these $_SERVER variables do on your machine behind the proxy.

$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'] in place of $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']

$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'] and
$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_SERVER'] in place of (at least in our case,) $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']
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1
kamil00110
1 year ago
This code can be used to help find somone that tries to dig throught the server files to find something.

.htaccess

ErrorDocument 404 /your.php
ErrorDocument 403 /your.php

<?php
//get time
$time = date("H:i:s d.m.y");
//get user address
$usr = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
//get entered url of the "visitor"
$url = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
//get your servers address
$ip = $_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR'];
//put toogether
$sus = "[".$time."] ".$usr." ".$ip.$url.PHP_EOL;
//write an log file
file_put_contents("susip.txt", $sus, FILE_APPEND);
?>
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2
Daniels118
2 years ago
If you need to know the protocol (http or https) used by the client, then the $_SERVER['HTTPS'] variable may not actually report the truth if your server is behind a proxy or a load balancer (In fact the client could connect to the load balancer using https, and then the load balancer forward the request to the server using http).
If the proxy/load balancer is correctly configured it could send the original request protocol in a header, and you will find it in the $_SERVER[HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO] variable.
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5
pomat at live dot it
11 years ago
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] may contain backslashes on windows systems, and of course it may or may not have a trailing slash (backslash).
I saw the following as an example of the proper way we're supposed to deal with this issue:

<?php
include(dirname($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']) . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'file.php');
?>

Ok, the latter may be used to access a file inside the parent directory of the document root, but actually does not properly address the issue.
In the end, don't warry about. It should be safe to use forward slashes and append a trailing slash in all cases.
Let's say we have this:

<?php
$path
= 'subdir/file.php';
$result = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $path;
?>

On linux $result might be something like
1) "/var/www/subdir/file.php"
2) "/var/www//subdir/file.php"
String 2 is parsed the same as string 1 (have a try with command 'cd').

On windows $result might be something like
1) "C:/apache/htdocs/subdir/file.php"
2) "C:/apache/htdocs//subdir/file.php"
3) "C:\apache\htdocs/subdir/file.php"
4) "C:\apache\htdocs\/subdir/file.php"
All those strings are parsed as "C:\apache\htdocs\subdir\file.php" (have a try with 'cd').
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2
lilJoshu
6 years ago
Remember,

Although $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] is initially built with GET, POST, PUT, HEAD in mind, a server can allow more.

This may be important if you're building a RESTful interfaces that will also use methods such as PATCH and DELETE.

Also important as a security risk as a possible point of injection. In the event of building something acting based on REQUEST_METHOD, it's recommended to put it in a switch statement.

<?php
switch ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]){
case
"PUT":
foo_replace_data();
break;
case
"POST":
foo_add_data();
break;
case
"HEAD";
foo_set_that_cookie();
break;
case
"GET":
default:
foo_fetch_stuff()
break;
}

?>
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5
Tom
12 years ago
Be warned that most contents of the Server-Array (even $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']) are provided by the client and can be manipulated. They can also be used for injections and thus MUST be checked and treated like any other user input.
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6
chris
15 years ago
A table of everything in the $_SERVER array can be found near the bottom of the output of phpinfo();
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pudding06 at gmail dot com
15 years ago
Here's a simple, quick but effective way to block unwanted external visitors to your local server:

<?php
// only local requests
if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] !== '127.0.0.1') die(header("Location: /"));
?>

This will direct all external traffic to your home page. Of course you could send a 404 or other custom error. Best practice is not to stay on the page with a custom error message as you acknowledge that the page does exist. That's why I redirect unwanted calls to (for example) phpmyadmin.
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3
picov at e-link dot it
13 years ago
A simple function to detect if the current page address was rewritten by mod_rewrite:

<?php
public function urlWasRewritten() {
$realScriptName=$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
$virtualScriptName=reset(explode("?", $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']));
return !(
$realScriptName==$virtualScriptName);
}
?>
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4
silverquick at gmail dot com
16 years ago
I think the HTTPS element will only be present under Apache 2.x. It's not in the list of "special" variables here:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html#RewriteCond
But it is here:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond
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1
centurianii at yahoo dot co dot uk
7 years ago
If you apply redirection in ALL your requests using commands at the Apache virtual host file like:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond "%{REQUEST_URI}" "!=/index.php"
RewriteRule "^/(.*)$" "index.php?$1" [NC,NE,L,QSA]
you should expect some deviations in your $_SERVER global.

Say, you send a url of: [hostname here]/a/b?x=1&y=2
which makes Apache to modify to: /index.php?/a/b?x=1&y=2

Now your $_SERVER global contains among others:
'REQUEST_URI' => '/a/b?x=1&y=2', it retains the initial url after the host
'QUERY_STRING' => 'a/b&x=1&y=2', notice how php replaces '?' with '&'
'SCRIPT_NAME' => '/index.php', as it was intended to be.

To test your $_SERVER global:
function serverArray(){
$arr = array();
foreach($_SERVER as $key=>$value)
$arr[] = '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\'' . $key . '\' => \'' . (isset($value)? $value : '-') . '\'';
return @\sort($arr)? '$_SERVER = array(<br />' . implode($arr, ',<br />') . '<br />);' : false;
}
echo serverArray();
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mirko dot steiner at slashdevslashnull dot de
15 years ago
<?php

// RFC 2616 compatible Accept Language Parser
// http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt, 14.4 Accept-Language, Page 104
// Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1

foreach (explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']) as $lang) {
$pattern = '/^(?P<primarytag>[a-zA-Z]{2,8})'.
'(?:-(?P<subtag>[a-zA-Z]{2,8}))?(?:(?:;q=)'.
'(?P<quantifier>\d\.\d))?$/';

$splits = array();

printf("Lang:,,%s''\n", $lang);
if (
preg_match($pattern, $lang, $splits)) {
print_r($splits);
} else {
echo
"\nno match\n";
}
}

?>

example output:

Google Chrome 3.0.195.27 Windows xp

Lang:,,de-DE''
Array
(
[0] => de-DE
[primarytag] => de
[1] => de
[subtag] => DE
[2] => DE
)
Lang:,,de;q=0.8''
Array
(
[0] => de;q=0.8
[primarytag] => de
[1] => de
[subtag] =>
[2] =>
[quantifier] => 0.8
[3] => 0.8
)
Lang:,,en-US;q=0.6''
Array
(
[0] => en-US;q=0.6
[primarytag] => en
[1] => en
[subtag] => US
[2] => US
[quantifier] => 0.6
[3] => 0.6
)
Lang:,,en;q=0.4''
Array
(
[0] => en;q=0.4
[primarytag] => en
[1] => en
[subtag] =>
[2] =>
[quantifier] => 0.4
[3] => 0.4
)
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php at isnoop dot net
14 years ago
Use the apache SetEnv directive to set arbitrary $_SERVER variables in your vhost or apache config.

SetEnv varname "variable value"
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0
sammyhacker at gmail dot com
3 years ago
To put it simply, $_SERVER contains all the environment variables.

CGI works by an HTTP application server filling in all the required environment variables and invoking the PHP process. And these environment variables are stored under $_SERVER.
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plugwash at p10link dot net
9 years ago
Be aware that it's a bad idea to access x-forwarded-for and similar headers through this array. The header names are mangled when populating the array and this mangling can introduce spoofing vulnerabilities.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brion_VIBBER/Cool_Cat_incident_report for details of a real world exploit of this.
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jit_chavan at yahoo dot com
10 years ago
searched $_SERVER["REDIRECT_URL"] for a while and noted that it is not mentioned in php documentation page itself. look like this is only generated by apache server(not others) and using $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] will be useful in some cases as mine.
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chris at ocproducts dot com
7 years ago
Guide to script parameters...

Data: $_GET
Data type: Array (map)
Purpose: Contains all GET parameters (i.e. a parsed URL query string).
Caveat: GET parameter names have to be compliant with PHP variable naming, e.g. dots are not allowed and get substituted.
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Data: $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']
Data type: String
Purpose: Gets an unparsed URL query string.
Caveat: Not set on all PHP environments, may need setting via http_build_query($_GET).
Works on web mode: Yes
Works on CLI mode: No

Data: $_SERVER['argv']
Data type: Array (list)
Purpose: Get CLI call parameters.
Works on web mode: Tenuous (just contains a single parameter, the query string)
Works on CLI mode: Yes
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wbeaumo1 at gmail dot com
14 years ago
Don't forget $_SERVER['HTTP_COOKIE']. It contains the raw value of the 'Cookie' header sent by the user agent.
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2962051004 at qq dot com
6 years ago
<?php
/*
Sometimes you will find that your website will not get the correct user IP after adding CDN, then this function will help you
*/
function real_ip()
{
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
if (isset(
$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']) && preg_match_all('#\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}#s', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'], $matches)) {
foreach (
$matches[0] AS $xip) {
if (!
preg_match('#^(10|172\.16|192\.168)\.#', $xip)) {
$ip = $xip;
break;
}
}
} elseif (isset(
$_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']) && preg_match('/^([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}$/', $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'])) {
$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
} elseif (isset(
$_SERVER['HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP']) && preg_match('/^([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}$/', $_SERVER['HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP'])) {
$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP'];
} elseif (isset(
$_SERVER['HTTP_X_REAL_IP']) && preg_match('/^([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}$/', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_REAL_IP'])) {
$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_REAL_IP'];
}
return
$ip;

}
echo
real_ip();

?>
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Johan Winge
4 years ago
It should probably be noted that the value of $_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL'] will never contain the substring "HTTPS". Assuming this is a common source of bugs and confusion. Instead, see $_SERVER['HTTPS'].
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cupy at email dot cz
15 years ago
Tech note:
$_SERVER['argc'] and $_SERVER['argv'][] has some funny behaviour,
used from linux (bash) commandline, when called like
"php ./script_name.php 0x020B"
there is everything correct, but
"./script_name.php 0x020B"
is not correct - "0" is passed instead of "0x020B" as $_SERVER['argv'][1] - see the script below.
Looks like the parameter is not passed well from bash to PHP.
(but, inspected on the level of bash, 0x020B is understood well as $1)

try this example:

------------->8------------------
cat ./script_name.php
#! /usr/bin/php

if( $_SERVER['argc'] == 2)
{
// funny... we have to do this trick to pass e.g. 0x020B from parameters
// ignore this: "PHP Notice: Undefined offset: 2 in ..."
$EID = $_SERVER['argv'][1] + $_SERVER['argv'][2] + $_SERVER['argv'][3];
}
else
{ // default
$EID = 0x0210; // PPS failure
}
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