PHP Script is creating a folder but cannot create a folder inside

Question

I have searched stack overflow and Google for many hours now and cannot find an answer. I have found things that are related but nothing is working.

Here is the code:

$oldmask = umask(0);

if(!is_dir("play")){
    mkdir("play", 0777, true);
    chmod("play", 0777);
}
if(!is_dir("play/playTest")){
    mkdir("play/playTest", 0777, true);
    chmod("play/playTest", 0777);
}

umask($oldmask);

The directory "play" is created fine, however I get this error when it tries to create the "play/playTest" directory.

SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid/gid is 178245/178245 is not allowed to access /a/b/c/play owned by uid/gid 25000/25000 in /a/b/c/script.php

I understand this is a file owner restriction due to safe mode, but why would the user be different when the folder was created in the same script?

I have tried with and without umask and with and without chmod, and many other things but nothing has worked.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

This hacky workaround relies on a safe-mode vulnerability:

(you can recursively create directories if you do it using FTP)

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mkdir.php#104301