XML External Entity Example

This example highlights XML code. It illustrates how to use an external entity reference handler to include and parse other documents, as well as how PIs can be processed, and a way of determining "trust" for PIs containing code.

XML documents that can be used for this example are found below the example (xmltest.xml and xmltest2.xml.)

Example #1 External Entity Example

<?php
$file
= "xmltest.xml";

function
trustedFile($file)
{
// only trust local files owned by ourselves
if (!preg_match("@^([a-z][a-z0-9+.-]*)\:\/\/@i", $file)
&&
fileowner($file) == getmyuid()) {
return
true;
}
return
false;
}

function
startElement($parser, $name, $attribs)
{
echo
"&lt;<font color=\"#0000cc\">$name</font>";
if (
count($attribs)) {
foreach (
$attribs as $k => $v) {
echo
" <font color=\"#009900\">$k</font>=\"<font
color=\"#990000\">
$v</font>\"";
}
}
echo
"&gt;";
}

function
endElement($parser, $name)
{
echo
"&lt;/<font color=\"#0000cc\">$name</font>&gt;";
}

function
characterData($parser, $data)
{
echo
"<b>$data</b>";
}

function
PIHandler($parser, $target, $data)
{
switch (
strtolower($target)) {
case
"php":
global
$parser_file;
// If the parsed document is "trusted", we say it is safe
// to execute PHP code inside it. If not, display the code
// instead.
if (trustedFile($parser_file[$parser])) {
eval(
$data);
} else {
printf("Untrusted PHP code: <i>%s</i>",
htmlspecialchars($data));
}
break;
}
}

function
defaultHandler($parser, $data)
{
if (
substr($data, 0, 1) == "&" && substr($data, -1, 1) == ";") {
printf('<font color="#aa00aa">%s</font>',
htmlspecialchars($data));
} else {
printf('<font size="-1">%s</font>',
htmlspecialchars($data));
}
}

function
externalEntityRefHandler($parser, $openEntityNames, $base, $systemId,
$publicId) {
if (
$systemId) {
if (!list(
$parser, $fp) = new_xml_parser($systemId)) {
printf("Could not open entity %s at %s\n", $openEntityNames,
$systemId);
return
false;
}
while (
$data = fread($fp, 4096)) {
if (!
xml_parse($parser, $data, feof($fp))) {
printf("XML error: %s at line %d while parsing entity %s\n",
xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)),
xml_get_current_line_number($parser), $openEntityNames);
xml_parser_free($parser);
return
false;
}
}
xml_parser_free($parser);
return
true;
}
return
false;
}

function
new_xml_parser($file)
{
global
$parser_file;

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($xml_parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 1);
xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData");
xml_set_processing_instruction_handler($xml_parser, "PIHandler");
xml_set_default_handler($xml_parser, "defaultHandler");
xml_set_external_entity_ref_handler($xml_parser, "externalEntityRefHandler");

if (!(
$fp = @fopen($file, "r"))) {
return
false;
}
if (!
is_array($parser_file)) {
settype($parser_file, "array");
}
$parser_file[$xml_parser] = $file;
return array(
$xml_parser, $fp);
}

if (!(list(
$xml_parser, $fp) = new_xml_parser($file))) {
die(
"could not open XML input");
}

echo
"<pre>";
while (
$data = fread($fp, 4096)) {
if (!
xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp))) {
die(
sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d\n",
xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),
xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));
}
}
echo
"</pre>";
echo
"parse complete\n";
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

?>

Example #2 xmltest.xml

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "/just/a/test.dtd" [
<!ENTITY plainEntity "FOO entity">
<!ENTITY systemEntity SYSTEM "xmltest2.xml">
]>
<chapter>
 <TITLE>Title &plainEntity;</TITLE>
 <para>
  <informaltable>
   <tgroup cols="3">
    <tbody>
     <row><entry>a1</entry><entry morerows="1">b1</entry><entry>c1</entry></row>
     <row><entry>a2</entry><entry>c2</entry></row>
     <row><entry>a3</entry><entry>b3</entry><entry>c3</entry></row>
    </tbody>
   </tgroup>
  </informaltable>
 </para>
 &systemEntity;
 <section id="about">
  <title>About this Document</title>
  <para>
   <!-- this is a comment -->
   <?php echo 'Hi!  This is PHP version ' . phpversion(); ?>
  </para>
 </section>
</chapter>

This file is included from xmltest.xml:

Example #3 xmltest2.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE foo [
<!ENTITY testEnt "test entity">
]>
<foo>
   <element attrib="value"/>
   &testEnt;
   <?php echo "This is some more PHP code being executed."; ?>
</foo>