Secure string compare function
I just came across this code in the HTTP Auth library of the Zend Framework. It seems to be using a special string compare function to make it more secure. However, I don't quite understand the comments. Could anybody explain why this function is more secure than doing $a == $b ? /** * Securely compare two strings for equality while avoided C level memcmp() * optimisations capable of leaking timing information useful to an attacker * attempting to iteratively guess the unknown string (e.g. password) being * compared against. * * @param string $a * @param string $b * @return bool */ protected