Hi,
tl;dr: <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/144854> stops supporting
MediaWiki instances with register_globals enabled.
When PHP 5.3 was released, register_globals was officially deprecated,
and that was over 5 years ago[1]. It was then removed in PHP 5.4.
Since MediaWiki still supports 5.3, we've had a check at the top of
WebStart.php and in the installer to recommend disabling
register_globals if it's still enabled. When working with configuration
database-related things as well as general code review of extensions,
I've noticed code that does isset( $wgFoo ) in an unsafe manner. We
could fix those individual issues, but I think it would be easier to
just stop supporting installs that have register_globals enabled. It's 2014!
I've uploaded a patchset[2] that will disable any current installation
that has register_globals enabled. It also modifies the command-line
installer to prevent installation if it is enabled.
[1]
http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php
[2]
https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/144854
-- Legoktm