Grabbing things from database using functions. Is this safe? - php

Question

I have a simple question. I'm not too good at programming yet but is this safe and correct?
Currently I am using functions to grab the username, avatars, etc.
Looks like this:
try {
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=". $mysql_host .";dbname=" . $mysql_db ."", $mysql_username, $mysql_password);
// set the PDO error mode to exception
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);
}
catch(PDOException $e)
{
echo "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}
config.php ^^
function getUsername($userid) {
require "config/config.php";
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT username FROM accounts WHERE id = ? LIMIT 1");
$stmt->execute([$userid]);
$name = $stmt->fetch();
return $name["username"];
}
function getProfilePicture($userid) {
require "config/config.php";
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT profilepicture FROM accounts WHERE id = ? LIMIT 1");
$stmt->execute([$userid]);
$image = $stmt->fetch();
return $image["profilepicture"];
}
Is this correct and even more important, is this safe?

Answer 1

Yes, it's safe with respect to SQL injections.
Some other answers are getting off topic into XSS protection, but the code you show doesn't echo anything, it just fetches from the database and returns values from functions. I recommend against pre-escaping values as you return them from functions, because it's not certain that you'll be calling that function with the intention of echoing the result to an HTML response.
It's unnecessary to use is_int() because MySQL will automatically cast to an integer when you use a parameter in a numeric context. A non-numeric string is interpreted as zero. In other words, the following predicates give the same results.
WHERE id = 0
WHERE id = '0'
WHERE id = 'banana'
I recommend against connecting to the database in every function. MySQL's connection code is fairly quick (especially compared to some other RDBMS), but it's still wasteful to make a new connection for every SQL query. Instead, connect to the database once and pass the connection to the function.
When you connect to your database, you catch the exception and echo an error, but then your code is allowed to continue as if the connection succeeded. Instead, you should make your script die if there's a problem. Also, don't output the system error message to users, since they can't do anything with that information and it might reveal too much about your code. Log the error for your own troubleshooting, but output something more general.
You may also consider defining a function for your connection, and a class for your user. Here's an example, although I have not tested it:
function dbConnect() {
try {
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=". $mysql_host .";dbname=" . $mysql_db ."", $mysql_username, $mysql_password);
// set the PDO error mode to exception
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);
}
catch(PDOException $e)
{
error_log("PDO connection failed: " . $e->getMessage());
die("Application failure, please contact administrator");
}
}
class User {
protected $row;
public function __construct($userid) {
global $conn;
if (!isset($conn)) {
$conn = dbConnect();
}
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT username, profilepicture FROM accounts WHERE id = ? LIMIT 1");
$stmt->execute([$userid]);
$this->row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
}
function getUsername() {
return $this->row["username"]
}
function getProfilePicture() {
return $this->row["profilepicture"]
}
}
Usage:
$user = new User(123);
$username = $user->getUsername();
$profilePicture = $user->getProfilePicture();

Answer 2

That looks like it would work assuming that your config file is correct. Because it is a prepared statement it looks fine as far as security.
They are only passing in the id. One thing you could do to add some security is ensure that the $userid that is passed in is the proper type. (I am assuming an int).
For example if you are expecting an integer ID coming in and you get a string that might be phishy (possible SQL injection), but if you can confirm that it is an int (perhaps throw an error if it isn't) then you can be sure you are getting what you want.
You can use:
is_int($userid);
To ensure it is an int
More details for is_int() at http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-int.php
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

It is safe (at least this part of the code, I have no idea about the database connection part as pointed out by #icecub), but some things you should pay attention to are:
You only need to require your config.php once on the start of the file
You only need to prepare the statement once then call it on the function, preparing it every time might slow down your script:
The query only needs to be parsed (or prepared) once, but can be executed multiple times with the same or different parameters. When the query is prepared, the database will analyze, compile and optimize its plan for executing the query. - PHP Docs
(Not an error but I personally recommend it) Use Object Orientation to help organize your code better and make easier to mantain/understand
As stated by #BHinkson, you could use is_int to validate the ID of the user (if you are using the IDs as numbers)
Regarding HTML escaping, I'd recommend that you already register your username and etc. HTML escaped.