Display usernames at random - php

I’m trying to create a script for a user to enter in their username, and then have other logged in usernames randomly show, in a chatroulette fashion.
So, you will enter in your name and hit submit, then your name will be stored in a database and someone else’s name will be pulled out at random and shown. Then the user can hit a next button to see another random user name. When the user closes the page, their name will be unloaded from the system.
What I have tried is creating a simple post submission form which will return you to the same page logged in with your name, and it inserts your name into a mysql database. That worked.
Then I added some PHP code to detect that the name variable has been set and to find a random username in the database by finding the amount of users in the database and using a random integer to pick one out. I’m pretty sure it worked, however I was unable to get the user name to show with echo "$name";.
Then I tried adding an automatic logout by using:
<body onUnload=<?php session_destroy();?>>
That didn’t work. I didn’t get around to creating a next button because I was having a few problems, because I figured out that the logout wouldn’t work because I would be dropping rows from the database that wouldn’t be filled in again as new rows were added to the SQL database with an auto increment function causing blank pages to be shown.
Here is my code:
<html>
<head>
<title>random name</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<h1>random name</h1>
<h5>By DingleNutZ</h5>
</center>
<?php
if (!isset($_POST['name'])){
echo "<form action=\"index.php\" method=\"POST\" name=\"form\"><center><h4>name:</h4><input name=\"name\" id=\"name\" type=\"text\"/><br/>
<input type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\" value=\"Play!\"/></center></form>";
}else{
$name = $_POST['name'];
$host="localhost"; // Host name
$username="root"; // Mysql username
$password=""; // Mysql password
$db_name="ftr"; // Database name
$tbl_name="players"; // Table name
// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect");
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");
// To protect MySQL injection (more detail about MySQL injection)
$name = stripslashes($name);
$name = mysql_real_escape_string($name);
$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name WHERE name='$name'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
// Mysql_num_row is counting table row
$count=mysql_num_rows($result);
if($count==1){
session_register("name");
session_start();
if(session_is_registered(name)){
$players=mysql_query("SELECT MAX (id) FROM $tbl_name");
$chooserand=rand(1,$players);
$callee=mysql_query("SELECT name FROM $tbl_name WHERE id=$chooserand");
echo "$callee";
echo "Logout";
if (isset($playing)){
if ($playing == 1){
$drop_name=mysql_query("DELETE FROM $tbl_name WHERE name=$name");
}}
}
}
echo "show random name here";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
There is a variable in there called $playing which was an attempt at a logout system.
I would be very grateful for any answers. Many thanks in advance.
as i didnt make it obvious (sorry guys) i need to fix my main problem which is being able to show a random user without ever showing a blank page due to the rows being dropped from the database. it is essential that usernames are removed from the system for privacy

You have a few issues in your code, not all are errors as such, some code is unneeded, other code is potentially dangerous.
$name = stripslashes($name); <<-- delete this line.
$name = mysql_real_escape_string($name); <<-- this is all you need.
mysql_real_escape_string() is all you need. No other escaping is need to protect against SQL-injection.
A few caveats apply, which I will discuss below.
$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name WHERE name='$name'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
Select * is an anti-pattern, never use it in production code. Explicitly select the fields you need.
You are using dynamic tablenames, I fail to see the need for this and it's also a dangerous SQL-injection hole.
Never use it but if you must, see this question how to secure your code: How to prevent SQL injection with dynamic tablenames?
You do the query, but you don't test if it succeeds, put a test in there:
$sql = "SELECT id FROM users WHERE name='$name' ";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if ($result)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$user_id = $row['id'];
}
else { do stuff to handle failure }
You are trying to get data out of the database, but this is not the way to do it:
$players = mysql_query("SELECT MAX (id) FROM $tbl_name");
$chooserand = rand(1,$players);
$callee = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM $tbl_name WHERE id=$chooserand");
echo "$callee";
But I see a few issues:
Please stop using dyname tablenames, it is a really bad idea.
The return value of mysql_query is a query_handle, not the actual data you're quering.
I would suggest escaping all values, whether from outside or inside your code; I know this is paranoid, but that way, if you code design changes, you cannot forget to put the escaping in.
Never ever ever echo unsanitized data in an echo statement.
If you echo a $var, always sanitize it using htmlentities. If you don't XSS security holes will be your fate.
See: What are the best practices for avoiding xss attacks in a PHP site
rewrite the code to:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT MAX (id) as player_id FROM users");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$max_player = $row['player_id'];
$chooserand = mysql_real_escape_string(rand(1,$max_player));
//not needed here, but if you change the code, the escaping will already be there.
//this also makes code review trivial for people who are not hep to SQL-injection.
$result = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM users WHERE id = '$chooserand' ");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$callee = $row['name'];
echo "callee is ".htmlentities($callee);
Finally you are deleting rows from a table, this looks like a very strange thing to do, but it is possible, however your code does not work:
$drop_name = mysql_query("DELETE FROM $tbl_name WHERE name=$name");
As discussed mysql_query does not return values.
On top of that only a SELECT query returns a resultset, a DELETE just returns success or failure.
All $vars must be quoted, this is a syntax error at best and an SQL-injection hole at worst.
Technically integers don't have to be, but I insist on quoting and escaping them anyway, because it makes your code consistent and thus much easier to check for correctness and it elimiates the chance of making errors when changing code
Rewrite the code to:
$drop_name = $name;
$result = mysql_query("DELETE FROM users WHERE id = '$user_id' ");
//user_id (see above) is unique, username might not be.
//better to use unique id's when deleting.
$deleted_row_count = mysql_affected_rows($result);
if ($deleted_row_count == 0)
{
echo "no user deleted";
} else {
echo "user: ".htmlentities($drop_name)." has been deleted";
}

Related

empty session value when moving one page to other

Im having a problem of accessing the session variable value.
im creating a login page and this were i set the values of my session variables.
index.php
<?php
session_start();
$result=mysql_query("select * from myuser where id='".$id ."' and password='".$password."'");
if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0){
$user = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
$_SESSION['SESS_ID'] = $user['id'];
$_SESSION['SESS_UNAME'] = $user['username'];
$_SESSION['SESS_PASS'] = $user['password'];
header("location:home.php");
exit();
}
?>
home.php
<?php
session_start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['SESS_ID']) || (trim($_SESSION['SESS_ID'])) == ''){
header("location:index.php");
exit();
}
?>
<html>
<body>
<p>Login Successful</p>
<?php echo $_SESSION['SESS_ID'] ; ?>
</body>
</html>
the problem here is i have no value in $_SESSION['SESS_ID']..so how do i get or access the value of this session variable in my home.php?
Edit: my query for the SQL is
select * from myuser where id='".$id ."' and password='".$password."'
Some points about why you have this issue:
the values you populate the $_SESSION array with come directly from the database, but you have no database SQL query - instead you have
"!--query written here --"
If you can replace this placeholder with a query that returns your id, username and password values then your code should execute as expected.
I'm not certain if your syntax is wrong as such, but it is not the shape I would ever lay it out, my own shape would be:
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql);
while ($outputrow = mysqli_fetch_array($result)){
// In here $outputrow is an array of ONE row of your database, so
// $outputRow['id'] = the id from one row. ordered by the ORDER BY in your SQL query.
}
Add a mysqli_error($connection) clause to your SQL query to detect errors. such as :
Here:
$result=mysqli_query($connection, "<!--query written here -->") or die("error :".mysqli_error($connection));
As I have used across these examples, please, please STOP using MySQL and use at least MySQLi or even PDO. There are a host of improvements and bug fixes and lots of info on this transition on SO.
Also, never, ever compare passwords as strings, passwords saved to a database should as a minimum be saved as hashes with PHP function password_hash(). Never have the line if($_POST['pwd'] == $row['pwd']){.
Finally, as rightly mentioned by Fred-ii- in comments, add error logging and checking into your script so that you know what's going on:
Such as:
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
Add these to the very top of your PHP page and they will display your errors and warnings to you so you can see what is and is not working.
EDIT:
From your edit there are two biq questions, your statement is that:
"select * from myuser where id='".$id ."' and password='".$password."'
so where does the value $id and $password come from? is the <?php at the top of the page, if so, these variables will always be empty, you need to apply a value to these variables.

Echo out user information in the same table to their page base on their store information without echoing out the same information to another user

First of all I stored users in the same table and I created a page called welcome.php, where I want it to be echoing out user info from MySQL based on their entry.
Now when I created first user and echo it out to this welcome.php, it comes out from the table, and if I create another user info in the same table for it to echo out at the same welcome.php based on the user login info such as, if I create a user called John Fred etc and a user called Michael Kenneth etc.
So user John Fred comes out to the welcome.php with its information from the same table, and then user Michael Kenneth doesn't come to welcome.php when i sign with user Michael Kenneth instead it shows only user John Fred. I don't know where this error comes from; maybe from the login.php, or from welcome.php.
Here is my code echoing in welcome.php
<?php
$tnumber2 = "{$_SESSION['tnumber2']}";
// Connect to the database
$db = mysql_connect("$Sname","$Uname","$Pname") or die("Could not connect to the Database.");
$select = mysql_select_db("$Dname") or die("Could not select the Database.");
$sql="SELECT * FROM `$Tname` LIMIT 0, 25 ;";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
$rows=mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
<? echo $rows['tnumber2']; ?>
Another script for other user info which I store for another table:
<?php
// Connect to the database
$tnumber2 = "{$_SESSION['tnumber2']}";
$db = mysql_connect("$Sname","$Uname","$Pname") or die("Could not connect to the Database.");
$select = mysql_select_db("$Dname") or die("Could not select the Database.");
$sql="SELECT * FROM `$UPname` LIMIT 0, 25 ;";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
?>
<?php
while($rows=mysql_fetch_array($result)){ // Start looping table row
?>
<? echo $rows['pdate']; ?>
<?php
// Exit looping and close connection
}
mysql_close();
?>
And here is my login.php in this case am using one input form:
<?php
session_start();
ob_start();
?>
<?php
if ($_POST['submit']) {
$tnumber2 = $_POST['user'];
if ($tnumber2) {
require("connect.php");
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE tnumber2='$tnumber2'");
$numrows = mysql_num_rows($query);
if($numrows == 1) {
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
$id = $row['id'];
$tnumber2 = $row['tnumber2'];
if ($tnumber2 == $tnumber2) {
$_SESSION['id'] = $id;
$_SESSION['tnumber2'] = $tnumber2;
header("Location: welcome.php");
}
}
else
include "error.php";
}
}
?>
I have tried all I can on this, maybe I might be a fool to think that such thing is possible but I am not a PHP professional, just a learner, please any help will be gladly appreciated.
Assuming the session has indeed stored the data of the logged-in user, you need to change "welcome.php" so it reads the correct user with a WHERE clause:
<?php
// Retrieve the ID of the user (and untaint it too)
$id = (int) $_SESSION['id'];
// Connect to the database (I've removed the unnecessary quotes)
$db = mysql_connect($Sname, $Uname, $Pname) or die("Could not connect to the Database.");
$select = mysql_select_db($Dname) or die("Could not select the Database.");
// Here is the query from the users table, we're selecting one user here
$sql="SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `id` = $id;";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$rows = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
<!-- Let's see what is in rows now, should be just one record -->
<?php print_r($rows) ?>
I would advise that you try to understand each part of the code above, and indeed the same for the code you have - don't just copy-and-paste without knowing what each bit does. If you get stuck on something, don't be afraid to look it up in the manual!
I've used print_r to just dump the row result - you can use the contents of that to determine what columns and other data you wish to extract out of it. After you have done that, the print_r can be removed.
Bear in mind that your login is not testing for password correctness - it only checks that someone has entered a particular username in login.php. If you want users to log on with a username and password, that needs to be designed and implemented as well. There are many questions on this site with best-practice techniques on how to do that, if that's of interest to you.
It has, incidentally, been rather difficult to understand what you are doing. I don't think this is a problem with your English, which seems fine to me. Rather, it's worth remembering to write in short sentences (no more than 20 words, say) and short paragraphs (no more than 4 or 5 sentences). And keep your descriptions as short as you can - it makes the difference between people helping you and their deciding they don't understand what you are trying to do. I expect this advice would be just as relevant in your native language as well!
Also, remember to add as much useful information to a question as you can, and if people ask for clarification, make sure you answer all their questions. Remember that people here are volunteers, and you need to make their job as easy as possible.

Adding a 'check username' to registration form PHP

Please could someone give me some much needed direction...
I have a registration form, however I need to add a condition that if the username is already in the table, then a message will appear. I have a had a few goes except it just keeps adding to the SQL table.
Any help would be much appreciated. Here is my current code:
Thanks in advance!
<?php
session_start();session_destroy();
session_start();
$regname = $_GET['regname'];
$passord = $_GET['password'];
if($_GET["regname"] && $_GET["regemail"] && $_GET["regpass1"] && $_GET["regpass2"] )
{
if($_GET["regpass1"]==$_GET["regpass2"])
{
$host="localhost";
$username="xxx";
$password="xxx";
$conn= mysql_connect($host,$username,$password)or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("xxx",$conn);
$sql="insert into users (name,email,password) values('$_GET[regname]','$_GET[regemail]','$_GET[regpass1]')";
$result=mysql_query($sql,$conn) or die(mysql_error());
print "<h1>you have registered sucessfully</h1>";
print "<a href='login_index.php'>go to login page</a>";
}
else print "passwords don't match";
}
else print"invaild input data";
?>
User kingkero offered a good approach. You could modify your table so that the username field is UNIQUE and therefore the table cannot contain rows with duplicate usernames.
However, if you cannot modify the table or for other reasons want to choose a different approach, you can first try to run a select on the table, check the results and act accordingly:
$result=mysql_query('SELECT name FROM users WHERE name="'.$_GET['regname'].'"');
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
You can then check $row if it contains the username:
if($row['name']==$_GET['regname'])
If this statement returns true, then you can show the user a message and tell him to pick a different username.
Please note
Using variables that come directly from the client (or browser) such as what might be stored in $_GET['regname'] and using them to build your SQL statement is considered unsafe (see the Wikipedia article on SQL-Injections).
You can use
$regname=mysql_escape_string($_GET['regname'])
to make sure that its safe.
Firstly, there is some chaos on the second line:
session_start();session_destroy();
session_start();
Why you doing it? Just one session_start(); needed.
Then you can find users by simple SQL query:
$sql="SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = '$regname'";
$result=mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
//...echo your message here
}
When you got it, I suggest you to rewrite your code with use of PDO and param data binding, in order to prevent SQL injections and using of obsolete functions.

PHP If Statements With mySQL Results

The code below is supposed to check if there is a person in the database with a row in the database with the username it gets from the cookie login.And if there is it is supposed to include a page and if there isn't a person in the database with this user_id it is supposed to echo.Here is my code so far please tell me how I would do this.I also already know before someone tells me that mySQL statements like I have it are becoming depreciated.Here is My code:
<?php
include("dbconnect.php");
mysql_select_db("maxgee_close2");
$username = $_COOKIE['maxgee_me_user'];
$result = mysql_query("select user_id from users where username = '$username'");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
mysql_free_result($result);
$check = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM events_main WHERE user_id ='$row['user_id']'") or die(mysql_error());
if(1==1){
if (mysql_num_rows($check)>0)
{
include("example.php");
}
else
{
echo "example";
}
}
?>
In the double-quoted string, your array variable $row['user_id'] is being incorrectly parsed due to the fact that you have quoted the array key without surrounding the whole thing in {}. It is permissible to omit the {} in a double-quoted string if you don't quote the array key, but the {} adds readability.
check = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM events_main WHERE user_id ='{$row['user_id']}'") or die(mysql_error());
//-------------------------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
// Also acceptable, but not as tidy, and troublesome with multidimensional
// or variable keys - unquoted array key
check = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM events_main WHERE user_id ='$row[user_id]'") or die(mysql_error());
//-------------------------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As mentioned above, $_COOKIE is never considered a safe value. You must escape its values against SQL injection if you continue to use the old mysql_*() API:
$username = mysql_real_escape_string($_COOKIE['maxgee_me_user']);
2 Things right off the bat, like Waleed said you're open to SQL injection, not very nice thing to have happen to you. I would look into reading tutorials about MySQLi and PDOs, from there try and dive into a better way or running queries.
Also you are choosing to use cookies instead of sessions to store the username? Cookies can be modified client-side to say anything a smart user with firebug would want them to be. Sessions are stored server-side and the client (end-user) is only given an id of the session. They cannot modify the username if you send it as a session. (They could try and change the session id to another random bunch of numbers but thats like pissing into the wind, pardon my french.
Heres some pseduo code that will get you on your way I think
<?php
include("dbconnect.php");
$database = "maxgee_close2"; //Set the database you want to connect to
mysql_select_db($database); //Select database
$username = $_SESSION['maxgee_me_user']; //Grab the username from a server-side stored session, not a cookie!
$query = "SELECT user_id FROM `users` WHERE `username` = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($username) . "' LIMIT 1"; //Note the user of mysql_real_escape_string on the $username, we want to clean the variable of anything that could harm the database.
$result = mysql_query($query);
if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
//Query was ran and returned a result, grab the ID
$userId = $row["user_id"];
mysql_free_result($result); //We can free the result now after we have grabbed everything we need
$query_check = "SELECT * FROM `events_main` WHERE `user_id` = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($userId) . "'";
$check = mysql_query($query_check);
if (mysql_num_rows($check)>0) {
include("example.php");
}
else {
echo "example";
}
}
?>
That code may/may not work but the real key change is that fact that you were running
mysql_free_result($result);
before your script had a chance to grab the user id from the database.
All in all, I would really go back and read some more tutorials.

Creating an Admin product system in PHP - Authentication error

I'm creating an e-commerce website. I am working on an admin page that lets the "store manager" log in to do things like add or remove products. In my database, I created a table called admin, with these fields:
id
password
time_last_logged_in
I inserted a row for my store manager, I can see the username and password so I know the person exists in the database, but when I try to log in it echoes out the error below.
admin_login.php
<?php
session_start();
if (isset($_SESSION["manager"])) {
header("location: index.php");
exit();
}
?>
<?php
if (isset($_POST["username"]) && isset($_POST["password"])) {
$manager = preg_replace('#[^A-Za-z0-9]#i', '', $_POST["username"]); // filter everything but numbers and letters
$password = preg_replace('#[^A-Za-z0-9]#i', '', $_POST["password"]); // filter everything but numbers and letters
// Connect to the MySQL database
include "../scripts/connect_to_mysql.php";
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM admin WHERE username='$manager' AND password='$password' LIMIT 1"); // query the person
// ------- MAKE SURE PERSON EXISTS IN DATABASE ---------
$existCount = mysql_num_rows($sql); // count the row nums
if ($existCount == 1) { // evaluate the count
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
$id = $row["id"];
}
$_SESSION["id"] = $id;
$_SESSION["manager"] = $manager;
$_SESSION["password"] = $password;
header("location: index.php");
exit();
} else {
**echo 'That information is incorrect, try again Click Here';**
exit();
}
}
?>
I use a connect_test.php script to verify that it's connecting to the database and that there's no problem connecting.
index.php
<?php
session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION["manager"])) {
header("location: admin_login.php");
exit();
}
// Be sure to check that this manager SESSION value is in fact in the database
$managerID = preg_replace('#[^0-9]#i', '', $_SESSION["id"]); // filter everything but numbers and letters
$manager = preg_replace('#[^A-Za-z0-9]#i', '', $_SESSION["manager"]); // filter everything but numbers and letters
$password = preg_replace('#[^A-Za-z0-9]#i', '', $_SESSION["password"]); // filter everything but numbers and letters
// Run mySQL query to be sure that this person is an admin and that their password session var equals the database information
// Connect to the MySQL database
include "../scripts/connect_to_mysql.php";
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE id='$managerID' AND username='$manager' AND password='$password' LIMIT 1"); // query the person
// ------- MAKE SURE PERSON EXISTS IN DATABASE ---------
$existCount = mysql_num_rows($sql); // count the row nums
if ($existCount == 0) { // evaluate the count
echo "Your login session data is not on record in the database.";
exit();
}
?>
Why might my code return That information is incorrect, try again Click Here'; instead of a successful validation?
The Problem(s?)
The way I see it, there are several problems with your code. I'll try to address each one and tell you how to solve each issue.
Issue #1: You are using REGEX To strip your code.
There are much better alternatives, the best of which is prepared statements which you should obviously use. Sadly, mysql_* functions don't support it. Which get's me to the next issue:
Issue #2: You are using mysql_* functions.
You shouldn't be using functions like mysql_query() and mysql_num_rows(), instead, consider moving to a better and more secure alternative, such as MySQLi (Good) or PDO (Awesome).
Issue #2.5: You are not using prepared statements.
A Prepared statement is automatically escaped and any malicious code or characters is render useless, same goes for SQL injections. You should use a better database handler that supports it (See Issue #2).
Issue #3: You are testing specifically.
You seem to test only if the row count is equal to exactly one. But what if there are (by accident) 2? Instead of testing what should be, test for what should not be:
if ($existCount != 0) { ...
Issue #4: You are not selecting the correct fields.
You only select the id field in your query, where instead you should be selecting all of the relevant fields (like username and password), in order to receive information.
Issue #5: You are not using secure storing.
If someone were to steal your database, they would have easy access to all your passwords. Consider using an encrypting method like sha1().
Issue #6: You are not testing for errors.
Errors can and will occur, you should test for them, with mysql_query() you should probably do something like
mysql_query("SELECT....") or die(mysql_error());
In PDO that would be something like
if (!$stmt->execute()) { throw new Exception("Execution failed.` . var_export($stmt->errorInfo(), true)); }
Try to correct those, and tell us if your problem persists.
Good luck :)
Try doing:
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT ... LIMIT 1") or die(mysql_error());
Your code assumes the query succeeds, which is very bad form. Always check for error conditions. You may have failed to connect to the database. perhaps your DB is malformed and you've got 2 or more records with the same username/password combo, etc...
I'm new to PHP myself, but I noticed that your select statement in the first code sample above selects only the id. That might be the problem. You should change it to select * and see if that makes any difference.
Good luck

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