PHP 5.2 was released in 2006. If you are still running PHP 5.2, it is time to join 2013 and upgrade to at least PHP 5.4 if not to the currently stable PHP 5.5.6. There are many reasons to upgrade your PHP stack to the latest and greatest — not only does every release include new features and stability improvements, but more importantly, they also have security fixes. Security is essential for the trust of your users. If you are continuing to run PHP 5.2 you are throwing your users’ trust away. There were over 100 vulnerabilities in the first four releases in PHP 5.2.x. It is outdated, expired, past due and no longer suitable for production applications. Strong words, eh? Just take a look at the list of known vulnerabilities since PHP 5.2:

• OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities
• PHP Security Checklist
• PHP Security Notes

Do the right thing and make some progress on your technical debt. Your users will thank you.

Find out how to upgrade on your distribution

• Upgrading on Windows
• Upgrading on Linux
• Upgrading on OSX
• Upgrading PHP in the cloud
• Migration guide for PHP 5.5

At AppDynamics we support PHP from version 5.3 to 5.5 (and PHP 5.2 coming soon due to popular demand). If you aren’t running PHP 5.4 or newer you really should take the time to update. Not only are there critical security fixes, but you will see better performance immediately!

Take it a step further and harden PHP and check your project for known vulnerabilities

• Hardened PHP Project + Suhosin
• SensioLabs Insight
• Symfony Security Checker

“PHP, like any other large system, is under constant scrutiny and improvement. Each new version will often include both major and minor changes to enhance security and repair any flaws, configuration mishaps, and other issues that will affect the overall security and stability of your system. Like other system-level scripting languages and programs, the best approach is to update often, and maintain awareness of the latest versions and their changes.”

Take five minutes to get complete visibility into the performance of your production applications with AppDynamics Pro today.

As always, please feel free to comment if you think I have missed something or if you have a request for content in an upcoming post.