How to enable safe mode for php.ini in Xampp?

Question

I want to put my home server online for private use (using Xammp), so i need to put safe mode on (my OS is Windows XP)

So i changed the congif of php.ini in the php folder located in xampp to this:

Safe Mode
;
safe_mode = On

; By default, Safe Mode does a UID compare check when
; opening files. If you want to relax this to a GID compare,
; then turn on safe_mode_gid.
safe_mode_gid = On

; When safe_mode is on, UID/GID checks are bypassed when
; including files from this directory and its subdirectories.
; (directory must also be in include_path or full path must
; be used when including)
safe_mode_include_dir =

; When safe_mode is on, only executables located in the safe_mode_exec_dir
; will be allowed to be executed via the exec family of functions.
safe_mode_exec_dir =

; Setting certain environment variables may be a potential security breach.
; This directive contains a comma-delimited list of prefixes.  In Safe Mode,
; the user may only alter environment variables whose names begin with the
; prefixes supplied here.  By default, users will only be able to set
; environment variables that begin with PHP_ (e.g. PHP_FOO=BAR).
;
; Note:  If this directive is empty, PHP will let the user modify ANY
; environment variable!
safe_mode_allowed_env_vars = PHP_

; This directive contains a comma-delimited list of environment variables that
; the end user won't be able to change using putenv().  These variables will be
; protected even if safe_mode_allowed_env_vars is set to allow to change them.
safe_mode_protected_env_vars = LD_LIBRARY_PATH

But i still get PHP is NOT running in "safe mode", now i don't wanna put my server online before this happens can anyone tell me how to correct this error i have googled it but it has not helped

Also please suggest any other security measures/ configurations that i should take/change before putting it online

Solution

I just note that you have not filled in safe_mode_exec_dir and I hope that you've defined open_basedir. For multiple directories, be sure to separate the paths with a semi-colon and double quote the whole path string. For example:

safe_mode = On
safe_mode_exec_dir = "F:\WWW\HTML;F:\batfiles\batch"
open_basedir = "F:\WWW\HTML;F:\batfiles\batch"

Also from the PHP manual :

Safe Mode is deprecated in PHP 5.3.0 and is removed in PHP 6.0.0.

From the same source:

for NT (IIS) each virtual host can run from different user account, so there is no need in Safe Mode restrictions at all, if proper NTFS rights are set.

Comments

[DaveParillo]

+1 good answer, but safe mode is (today) applicable to xampp

[Mau España]

How can I do that on Mac os X?