Security Issues with MySQL 3.51 ODBC Drivers?

[iaresean]

Hello;

I am trying to get my web host to install MySQL 3.51 ODBC drivers on the box that houses my site so that it can interact with an offsite database.

The web hosting company has however refused to do so, stating that this would cause a security risk for others as it is a shared hosting environment. The funny thing is though, is that they do offer MySQL as one of their database packages! Sounds ridiculous to me.

Are they talking out there ass, or do they have a genuine argument here?

I would appreciate any and all comments/ammunition for either side of the argument.

Thanks!

Sean.

 

[TonyGroves]

They're probably thinking in terms of their firewall, but just as likely is that they're thinking of their profits. They offer a fixed package, and if you want anything more, you have to upgrade to a dearer fixed package.

There might be ways around it. If you have Perl access, you could check if DBI and DBD::MySQL are available, and whether it works for remote databases. Other scripting languages would have something similar.