There are a variety of security issues that arise when using shared hosting solutions. There are three php.ini directives that remain important in a shared hosting
open_basedir : The open_basedir directive provides the ability to limit the files that PHP can open
to a specified directory tree. When PHP tries to open a file with, for example, fopen()
or include, it checks the the location of the file. If it exists within the directory tree
specified by open_basedir, then it will succeed; otherwise, it will fail to open the file.
disable_functions : You can disable function like exec, passthru, shell_exec, system etc for security purpose.
disable_classes : You can disable class like DirectoryIterator, Directory for security purpose.
You may set the open_basedir directive in php.ini OR on a per-virtual-host basis in httpd.conf. In the following httpd.conf virtual host example, PHP scripts may only open files located in the /home/user/www and /usr/local/lib/php directories.
DocumentRoot 'C:/wamp/www/zf1_11/public_html'
ServerName zf11.localhost
<Directory 'C:/wamp/www/zf1_11/public_html'>
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>