I was doing something similar but I moved to using the session in PHP.  Is that wrong? 
 What would be a good login/security script/class to use?

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Oct 5, 2004 3:05 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PHP-DB] Re: Safe / Secure Login Script

These are not PHP specific suggestions, but I see two big problems:

> 5.)     Password is then encrypted using base64_encode() 6.)     

You've confused encryption and encoding. Base64 encoding is trivial to decode, and 
fairly 
obvious to spot as well. All this achieves is that someone can't accidentally - before 
they 
avert their eyes - read the password while doing a "view source". But anyone who wants 
it 
can get it if they're given the base64 encoded representation. I wouldn't use this 
method - or 
a website that did.

> 8.)     If No username is found, Message is sent to end user stating
> username does not exist. 

Don't tell them whether it was the username or the password that was wrong. Doing so 
lets 
a hacker decompose a complex problem into two simpler problems. With your method, I 
would first keep trying until you confirm that I've guessed a valid username, then I 
can go 
about guessing the password. If I don't know which is wrong, the number of 
possibilities is 
increased geometrically.  

Mike Morris
The Music Place
1617 Willowhurst Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
(408) 445-ARTS (2787)
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