Category Archives: unicode

To be honest, I’m not really sure the best title for this question, or the full scope of it, but the motivation behind it is:

Motivation

Assume your server was hacked, you open up your UTF-8 encoded php script and you find a block or lines of characters that mean nothing to you mostly mapping in the UTF-8 char set to “????????????? hacker.ru”

I’m trying to get a grasp on what this could be and do:

Thoughts I’m considering

• Perhaps the text editor selected font doesn’t support those chars?
• Perhaps those chars were copied and pasted from non UTF-8 into the UTF-8 document
  • Crude Example:
    • non-UTF-8 binary 1111->A
    • UTF-8 binary 1111->B
    • Effectively copying bits that don’t map properly
• Is there a way to properly display those chars?
• This is my priority question about these characters Can I assume that these non-mapping chars do nothing? (i.e., they don’t execute aka do damage)
• Are programming languages multi-lingual?
  • Can I write php in russain?
  • Can i write php in english and russian in the same file?

Assumption: if I or anyone opens a UTF-8 encoded file and type into it, in any language or chars it will properly map them and display properly.

Can anyone shine some light on this subject?

Continue reading Hacked: Can a UTF-8 encoded script execute non-UTF-8 characters?→