How can I prevent this script from being freely accessed? - php

I am trying to create a simple PHP/MySQL message system. The following code is a section of the page that displays the messages a user has received, messages.php. The user's messages have been fetched from MySQL and stored in the variable $messages.
foreach($messages as $message) {
// formatting, printing the text, etc.
echo 'Remove';
}
And here is the file msg_del.php:
<?php
$id = $_GET['id'];
// Connect to the database
require("../info/dbinfo.php");
$db_user = constant("DB_USER");
$db_pass = constant("DB_PASS");
$db_name = constant("DB_NAME");
$db_server = constant("DB_SERVER");
try {
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$db_server;dbname=$db_name", $db_user, $db_pass);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$stmt = $conn->prepare("DELETE FROM messages WHERE id = " . $conn->quote($id) . ";");
$stmt->execute();
}
catch(PDOException $e) {
echo "Error connecting to database!";
exit();
}
// Redirect to messages page
header("Location: messages.php");
exit();
?>
The code is fully functional, but the problem is that anyone can type msg_del.php?id=SOMEID into a browser and delete messages. How can I secure this to where messages can only be deleted from the links on messages.php?

You're going to need some sort of token in your request to validate that this is indeed a valid request from your system.
One method would be to append a nonce to your request. This ensures that the request came from a form you control, and someone isn't using an old form to spoof a new request.
There are many nonce libraries for PHP you can choose from.

The script needs to know if the current user has permission to do the action. One simple way to do that is with the $_SESSION variable.
Something like:
session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION['user_id']) && /*permission logic here*/) {
//display an error message
die();
}
// database query here

Related

User not being deleted on link click [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
What to do with mysqli problems? Errors like mysqli_fetch_array(): Argument #1 must be of type mysqli_result and such
(1 answer)
Reference - What does this error mean in PHP?
(38 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have a users table and I want to be able to delete a user when a link is clicked. $user_name is set in a session. Here is the link:
<?php echo "Delete Account" ?>
Here is the code on delete_user.php:
<?php
session_start();
session_destroy();
require "connection.php";
?>
<?php
if($_GET['id'] != ""){
$user_name = $_GET['id'];
$sql = "DELETE FROM users WHERE user_name='{$user_name}'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql);
header('Location: register.php');
}
?>
<?php include "footer.php";?>
I don't understand why it's not deleting the user from the database when this code is executed?
There's no clear reason as to why your code is not working. However, you mentioned being new to PHP, so picking up good practices with your code could (1) help solve the issue at hand, (2) make your code more efficient, and easier to debug.
I recommend you use mysqli in the object-oriented manner, it requires less code, and usually easier to follow.
Making the connection is simple:
<?php
$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'USERNAME';
$pass = 'PASS';
$data = 'DATABASE';
$mysqli = new mysqli($host, $user, $pass, $data);
// catch errors for help in troubleshooting
if ($mysqli->errno)
{
echo 'Error: ' . $mysqli->connect_error;
exit;
}
?>
Creating a safe environment for your server keep in mind these things:
Do not trust user input (ever!)
Do not perform direct queries into your database.
When developing, break your code into steps so you can easily troubleshoot each part.
With those three simple things in mind, create a delete file.
<?php
if (isset($_GET['id'])
{
// never trust any user input
$id = urlencode($_GET['id']);
$table = 'users';
// set a LIMIT of 1 record for the query
$sql = "DELETE FROM " . $table . " WHERE user_name = ? LIMIT 1";
// to run your code create a prepared statement
if ($stmt = $mysqli->prepare( $sql ))
{
// create the bind param
$stmt->bind_param('s', $id);
$stmt->execute();
$message = array(
'is_error' => 'success',
'message' => 'Success: ' . $stmt->affected_rows . ' were updated.'
);
$stmt->close();
}
else
{
$message = array(
'is_error' => 'danger',
'message' => 'Error: There was a problem with your query'
);
}
}
else
{
echo 'No user id is set...';
}
The code will help you set the query, and delete the user based on their user_name... Which I am not sure that is the best solution, unless user_name is set to be an unique field on your MySQL database.
Firstly this is a horrible way to do this, you are prone to SQL Injections and also using GET literally just tags the query to the end of the URL which is easily obtainable by a potential hacker or ANY user as a matter of fact. Use POST instead with a bit of jQuery magic, I would also recommend using Ajax so that you don't get redirected to php file and it will just run. As it is not anyone can access that URL and delete users so I recommend using PHP SESSIONS so that only people from your site can delete users. Also simply passing the id to the PHP file is very insecure as ANYONE could simply create a link to your php file on their site and delete users.
Therefore try this to fix your code (with added security):
PLEASE NOTE: I am aware that this may not be the best way nor the worst but it is a fairly secure method that works well.
Your main page, index.php:
<?php
session_start();
// Create a new random CSRF token.
if (! isset($_SESSION['csrf_token'])) {
$_SESSION['csrf_token'] = base64_encode(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(32));
}
// Check a POST is valid.
if (isset($_POST['csrf_token']) && $_POST['csrf_token'] === $_SESSION['csrf_token']) {
// POST data is valid.
}
?>
...
<form id="delete_user_form" action="delete_user.php" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="user_id" value="<?php echo $user_name; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="<?php echo $_SESSION['csrf_token']; ?>" />
<input type="submit" value="Delete User" />
</form>
In your .js file (make sure you have jQuery linked):
window.csrf = { csrf_token: $("input[name= csrf_token]").val() };
$.ajaxSetup({
data: window.csrf
});
$("#delete_user_form").submit(function(event) {
event.preventDefault(); //Stops the form from submitting
// CSRF token is now automatically merged in AJAX request data.
$.post('delete_user.php', { user_id: $("input[name=user_id]").val() }, function(data) {
//When it it's complete this is run
console.log(data); //With this you can create a success or error message element
});
});
Now for your delete_user.php file, this should fix the errors:
<?php
session_start();
require "connection.php";
// Checks if csrf_token is valid
if (isset($_POST['csrf_token']) && $_POST['csrf_token'] === $_SESSION['csrf_token']) {
if(isset($_POST['user_id']) && $_POST['user_id'] != ""){
$user_name = $_POST['user_id'];
$sql = "DELETE FROM users WHERE user_name = '$user_name' LIMIT 1"; //LIMIT 1 only allows 1 record to be deleted
if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
echo "Record deleted successfully"; //You get this in your javascript output data variable
} else {
echo "Error deleting record: " . $conn->error; //You get this in your javascript output data variable
}
$conn->close();
}
}
?>
I don't know what your connection.php contains so this is what I'd put in it:
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

HTTP Error 500 when trying to execucute INSERT INTO sql query

I'm fairly new to php and SQL and just can't figure out the problem. Note that this is a school project, therefore the vulnerability to SQL Injections and saving the blank passwords are nothing to worry about.
After the User filled out the Login-form, he's redirected to this page:
[Some html]
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
ConnectSQL();
}
//Retrieve POSTed Login information
$Username = htmlspecialchars($_POST['RegUsername']);
$Email = htmlspecialchars($_POST['RegEmail']);
$Password = htmlspecialchars($_POST['RegPassword']);
function ConnectSQL() {
// SQL Server Extension Sample Code:
// (ConnectionInfo, obviously it's there in the real file)
$conn = sqlsrv_connect($serverName, $connectionInfo);
// PHP Data Objects(PDO) Sample Code:
try {
$conn = new PDO('sqlsrv:server = tcp:xxx.database.windows.net,1433; Database = userdb', 'arechon', '{NotTheRealPassword}');
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
echo "Successfully connected to SQL Server and DB";
Register();
}
catch (PDOException $e) {
print('Error connecting to SQL Server.');
die(print_r($e));
}
}
function Register($Username, $Email, $Password) {
$regquery = "INSERT INTO dbo.Users (Username, Email, Password) VALUES ('UsernameTest', 'EmailTest', 'PasswordTest')";
$conn->query($regquery);
echo '<script type="text/javascript">window.open("http://xxx.azurewebsites.net/Login.html", "_self");</script>';
The Code always seems to stop at $conn->query($regquery); and doesn't return any error messages. Sometimes it just stops, when I slightly modify the Code (e.g. replacing $conn->query($regquery); with $conn->exec($regquery); or using " instead of ') I get a HTTP500 error.
I found some similiar questions here on stackoverflow as well as on other plattforms, but none of the provided answers could solve this error. Note that I use SQL and NOT MySQL (though it wouldn't be a lot of work to change that if you think that could solve my problem).

Resolving a PHP PDO Error: SQLSTATE[42000] [1044]

Found lots of similar problems on this site, but the solutions for those issues don't seem to reply. The user in question has full access to the database, and from what I can tell I'm not missing any commas etc. A second set of eyes would be great.
Submitted signature is in an acceptable formatTrying to open a connectionError!: SQLSTATE[42000] [1044] Access denied for user 'emkinsti_user1'#'localhost' to database 'signatures'
<?php
// Tracks what fields have validation errors
$errors = array();
// Default to showing the form
$show_form = true;
// 1. Get the input from the form
// Using the PHP filters are the most secure way of doing it
$name = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'name', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$output = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'output', FILTER_UNSAFE_RAW);
// 2. Confirm the form was submitted before doing anything else
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
// 3. Validate that a name was typed in
if (empty($name)) {
$errors['name'] = true;
}
// 3. Validate that the submitted signature is in an acceptable format
if (!json_decode($output)) {
$errors['output'] = true;
}
}
// No validation errors exist, so we can start the database stuff
if (empty($errors)) {
echo "Submitted signature is in an acceptable format";"<br/>";
$dsn = 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=signatures';
$user = 'emkinsti_user1';
$pass = '6nqq103t26';
}
// 4. Open a connection to the database using PDO
try {
echo "Trying to open a connection";
$db = new PDO($dsn, $user, $pass);
}
catch (PDOException $e) {
print "Error!: " . $e->getMessage() . "<br/>";
die();
}
// Make sure we are talking to the database in UTF-8
$db->exec('SET NAMES utf8');
// Create some other pieces of information about the user
// to confirm the legitimacy of their signature
$sig_hash = sha1($output);
$created = time();
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
// 5. Use PDO prepare to insert all the information into the database
$sql = $db->prepare('INSERT INTO signatures (signator, signature, sig_hash, ip, created)
VALUES (:signator, :signature, :sig_hash, :ip, :created)');
$sql->bindValue(':signator', $name, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sql->bindValue(':signature', $output, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sql->bindValue(':sig_hash', $sig_hash, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sql->bindValue(':ip', $ip, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sql->bindValue(':created', $created, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$sql->execute();
// 6. Trigger the display of the signature regeneration
$show_form = false;
// mysql_close($db);
$db = null;
?>
emkinsti_user1'#'localhost' to database 'signatures'
if you are using CPanel, CPanel uses prefixes also to the database name:
You used: emkinsti_user1 as users.
You should use: emkinsti_signatures as database name.
Log in into your CPanel and there you will find the database name with prefix
Try http://php.net/manual/en/pdo.getavailabledrivers.php to see if the database is supported by PDO.
<?php
print_r(PDO::getAvailableDrivers());
?>
Just an idea. I would expect another error message when it isn't. So, as far as I can tell, the user has no access when accessing the database from the local host.

PDO Exceptions in PHP

Okay I have a bit of a question dealing with $_POST. I'm attempting to send a few values from an Android App (Using HTTPclient) I'm developing but the PHP sends the message from the exception back. I'm trying to figure out why is that happening and how to fix it:
login
<?php
//load and connect to MySQL database stuff
require("configmob.php");
if (!empty($_POST)) {
//gets user's info based off of a username.
$query = "
SELECT
myusername,
mypassword
FROM Customer
WHERE
myusername = :myusername
mypassword = :mypassword";
$query_params = array(
':myusername' => $_POST['username'],
':mypassword' => $_POST['password']
);
try {
$stmt = $db->prepare($query);
$result = $stmt->execute($query_params);
}
catch (PDOException $ex) {
// For testing, you could use a die and message.
//die("Failed to run query: " . $ex->getMessage());
//or just use this use this one to product JSON data:
$response["success"] = 0;
$response["message"] = "Database Error1. Please Try Again!";
die(json_encode($response));
}
//This will be the variable to determine whether or not the user's information is correct.
//we initialize it as false.
$validated_info = false;
//fetching all the rows from the query
$row = $stmt->fetch();
if ($row) {
//if we encrypted the password, we would unencrypt it here, but in our case we just
//compare the two passwords
if ($_POST['password'] === $row['password']) {
$login_ok = true;
}
}
// If the user logged in successfully, then we send them to the private members-only page
// Otherwise, we display a login failed message and show the login form again
if ($login_ok) {
$response["success"] = 1;
$response["message"] = "Login successful!";
die(json_encode($response));
} else {
$response["success"] = 0;
$response["message"] = "Invalid Credentials!";
die(json_encode($response));
}
}
?>
config
<?php
// These variables define the connection information for your MySQL database
$host = "mysql17.000webhost.com";
$dbname = "a4335408_data1";
$username = "******";
$password = "******";
// UTF-8 is a character encoding scheme that allows you to conveniently store
// a wide varienty of special characters, like ¢ or €, in your database.
// By passing the following $options array to the database connection code we
// are telling the MySQL server that we want to communicate with it using UTF-8
// See Wikipedia for more information on UTF-8:
// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
$options = array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => 'SET NAMES utf8');
// A try/catch statement is a common method of error handling in object oriented code.
// First, PHP executes the code within the try block. If at any time it encounters an
// error while executing that code, it stops immediately and jumps down to the
// catch block. For more detailed information on exceptions and try/catch blocks:
// http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.exceptions.php
try
{
// This statement opens a connection to your database using the PDO library
// PDO is designed to provide a flexible interface between PHP and many
// different types of database servers. For more information on PDO:
// http://us2.php.net/manual/en/class.pdo.php
$db = new PDO("mysql:host={$host};dbname={$dbname};charset=utf8", $username, $password, $options);
}
catch(PDOException $ex)
{
// If an error occurs while opening a connection to your database, it will
// be trapped here. The script will output an error and stop executing.
// Note: On a production website, you should not output $ex->getMessage().
// It may provide an attacker with helpful information about your code
// (like your database username and password).
die("Failed to connect to the database: " . $ex->getMessage());
}
// This statement configures PDO to throw an exception when it encounters
// an error. This allows us to use try/catch blocks to trap database errors.
$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
// This statement configures PDO to return database rows from your database using an
associative
// array. This means the array will have string indexes, where the string value
// represents the name of the column in your database.
$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE, PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
// This block of code is used to undo magic quotes. Magic quotes are a terrible
// feature that was removed from PHP as of PHP 5.4. However, older installations
// of PHP may still have magic quotes enabled and this code is necessary to
// prevent them from causing problems. For more information on magic quotes:
// http://php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.php
if(function_exists('get_magic_quotes_gpc') && get_magic_quotes_gpc())
{
function undo_magic_quotes_gpc(&$array)
{
foreach($array as &$value)
{
if(is_array($value))
{
undo_magic_quotes_gpc($value);
}
else
{
$value = stripslashes($value);
}
}
}
undo_magic_quotes_gpc($_POST);
undo_magic_quotes_gpc($_GET);
undo_magic_quotes_gpc($_COOKIE);
}
// This tells the web browser that your content is encoded using UTF-8
// and that it should submit content back to you using UTF-8
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
// This initializes a session. Sessions are used to store information about
// a visitor from one web page visit to the next. Unlike a cookie, the information is
// stored on the server-side and cannot be modified by the visitor. However,
// note that in most cases sessions do still use cookies and require the visitor
// to have cookies enabled. For more information about sessions:
// http://us.php.net/manual/en/book.session.php
session_start();
// Note that it is a good practice to NOT end your PHP files with a closing PHP tag.
// This prevents trailing newlines on the file from being included in your output,
// which can cause problems with redirecting users.
?>
Thank you and I hope this question isn't too difficult or anyhting.
Try replacing the static error message with the exception message to see what's going wrong
Change:
$response["message"] = "Database Error1. Please Try Again!";
to:
$response["message"] = $ex->getMessage();
Conditions in a WHERE statement must be separated with AND keyword

Login form always takes more then one try

I have a slight problem with my log in script in PHP. When a user logs in, it only works after the second try, there is no error but it just looks like the user entered the wrong password on the first attempt.
Sometimes when I've been testing the site, after i try log in in the first time it sends me back to the log in page. Then I manually enter the url of the home page it will let me go there sometimes. (There's some php at the top that checks if the user is logged in already so im guessing sometimes the log in script sets the SESSION to true)
Majority of the time it doesn't do that though. It will just redirect me back to the log in with out printing the error message. I believe the problem is at the top of the home page and not with the log in script because after removing the redirect if mysql doesn't return a row with a user/password match it will direct me to the log in page anyways.
Here is my login script
<?php
session_start();
// Include required MySQL configuration file and functions
// Check if user is already logged in
if (isset($_SESSION['logged_in'])) {
// If user is already logged in, redirect to main page
redirect('home.php');
}
else {
// Make sure that the user submitted a username/password and username
// only consists of alphanumeric Chars
if ( (!isset($_POST['username'])) || (!isset($_POST['password'])) OR
( !ctype_alnum($_POST['username'])) ) {
redirect('login.php');
}
// Connect to database
$mysqli = #new mysqli(DB_HOSTNAME, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_DATABASE);
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) { printf ("Unable to connect to database %s",
mysqli_connect_error());
exit();
}
//Escape any unsafe characters before querying database
$username = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['username']);
$password = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['password']);
// construct SQL statement for query & execute
$sql = "SELECT * FROM peeps WHERE name = '" . $username . "'
AND pword = SHA1('" . $password . "') ";
$result = $mysqli->query($sql);
// If one row is returned, username and password are valid.
if ($result->num_rows == 1 ) {
// Set the session variable for login status to true
$_SESSION['logged_in'] = true;
$_SESSION['name'] = $username;
echo "successfull ";
redirect('home.php');
}
else {
echo "didnt return row<hr>";
redirect back to login page.
redirect('loginPage.php');
}
}
?>
And here is the code at the top of my home page..
<?php
// Start session
session_start();
// Include required functions file
require_once('functions.php');
// Check login status... if not logged in redirect to login screen
if (check_login_status() == false) {
redirect('loginPage.php');
}
$username = $_SESSION['name'];
?>
Any help would be appreciated, if you want to a little more clarification on what I mean you can sign up for gateKeeper and see what I'm talking about.
Also this is my first question so any comments on how I asked it would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Try debugging it by replacing
if (check_login_status() == false) {
redirect('loginPage.php');
}
with
if (!isset($_SESSION['name'])) { #could be any session variables that you like..
redirect('loginPage.php');
}
or do print_r($_SESSION) on top of your homepage.
I assume that the first page is the script that processes the form from loginPage.php (or loginPage.php itself) and the second one the page that you access after being authenticated.
If I'm not mistaken, the problem seems to be that sometimes you are not correctly identified and that's redirecting you to your login again. Can you show us how the code for the check_login_status() function?

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