Ok I am very new to Linux so bear with me here...

I have a webserver running with Apache2, MySQL, and php4.3.8. I am looking to upgrade to php 4.3.11 as I believe this is the newest version (not including the version 5 series).

The 2 questions I have are:

1. Are there any major security flaws with version 4.3.8?
2. If I should upgrade, how should I go about doing it.

I am running Mandrake 10.1 Official and the software I have installed was done so with the urpmi utility.

Thanks in advance

The best place to check for security flaws for software poducts is at the developers website. There is usually a changelog or some sort of security bulletin. I am sure Mandrake provides security updates for php. You can use the upgrade utility in the Mandrake Control Centers software module or you can configure some upgrade sources using the directions from easyurpmi.

I tried updating php through the Mandrake Control Center and all I got was a couple updates for php 4.3.8. I know that the php website says you should upgrade to 4.3.11 as soon as possible because aparantly that version fixed some bugs but I can't seem to find any instructions.

I just found this neat document http://speculation.org/garrick/urpmifaq.txt which more or less explains the ins and outs of urpmi and according to that document and easyurpmi I seem to have the proper media and directories configured so when I run urpmi apache2-mod_php, it should return any updates if they are available. Since this returns nothing it should be safe to say that there are no updates at this time.

I think I may have answered my own question but if there is anything else I should know please feel free to tell me

Cheers!

If you can't get any Mandrake updates, you could try compiling apache, php and mysql on your on.

I suppose I could do that. It would probably be the best way to learn. But I can get updates from Mandrake but I just assumed that it would have the version of php that I wanted. I did update some of my software with Mandrake Control Center and the rest with urpmi. They both downloaded and updated most of the software I had installed.

I have a feeling that urpmi and Mandrake Control Center are both working fine as the software seems to have updated. It may just be that the folks who control urpmi and Mandrake Control Center updates decided not to put php 4.3.11 there for some reason or another.

I will look around to see if there are major vulnerabilities with php 4.3.8 and if not I may leave it like that and if there is maybe I will just have to start from scratch by compiling apache, php, and mysql on my own with the newest versions.

Your help is very much appreciated! Cheers!