#50210 [Opn]: apache: PHP won't parse multipart/form-data if it was originally chunk encoded.

From: Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:39:26 +0000
Subject: #50210 [Opn]: apache: PHP won't parse multipart/form-data if it was originally chunk encoded.
References: 1  Groups: php.bugs 
Request: Send a blank email to php-bugs+get-145598@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message
 ID:               50210
 User updated by:  tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com
 Reported By:      tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com
 Status:           Open
 Bug Type:         Feature/Change Request
 Operating System: Unix (probably all)
 PHP Version:      5.2.11
 New Comment:

I haven't gotten any feedback regarding this issue in some time. Sorry,
that code is the most compact I can make it while still showing the
issue. Please let me know if you need anything else to evaluate this
bug.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-11-18 20:27:05] tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com

Here is the test code, please excuse its length but this is not a
simple scenario. The test involves two scripts "sender.php" and
"receiver.php". 

RECEIVER.PHP:
<?php
	$input = file_get_contents('php://input');
	$stdin = file_get_contents('php://stdin');

	print "FILES: ";
	print_r($_FILES);
	
	print("<br>POST: ");
	print_r($_POST);
	
	print("<br>input: ".$input);
	print("<br>stdin: ".$stdin);
?>

SENDER.PHP
<?php
	// when 'true' multipart data is NOT parsed, but is present at
php://stdio
	// when 'false' multipart is parsed into $_FILES and $_POST
	$chunked = false;

	$body1 =
	"--AaB03x\r\n".
	"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"forPOST\"\r\n".
	"\r\n".
	"1257880790\r\n".
	"--AaB03x\r\n";
	
	$body2 =
	"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"test_file\";
filename=\"test.file\"\r\n".
	"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n".
	"\r\n".
	"binary data\r\n".
	"--AaB03x--";
	
	// change the POST to the location of your "receiver.php"
	$header = 
	"POST /test/receiver.php HTTP/1.1\r\n".
	"Connection: close\r\n".
	"Host: ".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."\r\n".
	"Content-Type: multipart/form-data, boundary=AaB03x\r\n";
	
	if ($chunked){
		$body = dechex(strlen($body1))."\r\n".$body1."\r\n".
				dechex(strlen($body2))."\r\n".$body2."\r\n0\r\n\r\n";	
		$header .= "Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n";
	}
	else{
		$body = $body1 . $body2;
		$header .= 	"Content-Length: ".strlen($body)."\r\n"; 	
	}
	$header .= "\r\n";

	$final = $header . $body;
	print "<pre>".$final."<br><br>";
	
	$fp = fsockopen($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
	if (!$fp) {
		echo "$errstr ($errno)<br />\n";
	} 
	else {
		fwrite($fp, $final);
		while (!feof($fp)) {
			print fgets($fp, 128);
		}
		fclose($fp);
	}
	print "</pre>";
?>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-11-18 17:01:57] tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com

A simple HTML form would not transfer the data as "transfer-encoding:
chunked". Unfortunately, it requires 3rd party software to reproduce
this error short of creating a complex PHP script that can simulate both
chunked and multipart.

I will spend some time today on a socket-based example which sends data
from one page to another, but it is less than simple. The test I have is
fairly extensive, but I'll attempt to dumb it down.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-11-18 16:50:50] jani@php.net

Need reproduce script. Uploading simple form with files works just fine
for me under Apache2..

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-11-17 22:49:28] tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com

Excuse me, I accidentally mixed up the Expect and Actual result.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-11-17 22:46:23] tyler dot thackray at gmail dot com

Description:
------------
When POSTing multipart/form-data to a PHP script, PHP will
automatically parse the data into $_FILES and $_POST super globals. In
this case, php://stdio will be empty. 

Apache 2 supports chunked encoded requests. When sending
multipart/form-data with "transfer-encoding: chunked" Apache 2 will
dechunk the request and pass it onto PHP. However, in this case PHP will
NOT parse the multipart/form-data and the RAW data can be seen at
php://stdio. I've examined the headers and the only difference between
the working and not working is the "transfer-encoding: chunked"; the
"content-type: multipart/form-data, boundry=XXXX" is still present. 

Perhaps this is an issue with mod_php? Perhaps the chunked header is
confusing PHP? In any case, I would expect PHP to parse the
multipart/form-data regardless if it was originally chunked or not, as
Apache should take care of the chunks.

It's interesting to note that the headers can be combined with
php://stdio and resent to the same script (not chunked but still
multipart/form-data encoded) and PHP will actually parse it.

There's no easy way to provide sample code for this issue, suffice it
to say that if you send multipart/form-data using chunked encoding to
any PHP script, you will find that $_FILES and $_POST are empty and the
raw data is present at php://stdio.
 

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
    print_r($_FILES);
    print_r($_POST);
?>

Expected result:
----------------
"Array() Array()"

Actual result:
--------------
The $_FILES and $_POST super global should contain parsed data.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


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