Hi William

Wow! Thanks
I tend to use stored procedures (microsoft SQL server) so I assign the ARGS
to VARS.
I have not been using the BIND metatag, but I will definaelty get to work on
changing that.
So I can see some of the steps.
        1)      Assign the ARG to a VAR ( which I am already doing)
        2)      Use string function to define the length of the VAR and look 
for and
discard too long VARS.
                ( I imagine here you would use an IF statement to STOP the 
current action
if a too-long or suspect VAR is created.
        3)      USe the BIND mettag when using the VAR so that I can make the 
datatype &
length  explicit.

*******Question*******
        How do you truncate an ARG, or do you do this is the ASSIGN action?
        How do you tell if an ARG has been truncated?
        I use the <@PURGE> tag for VARS how do get rid of suspect ARGS?
        Does the name of the ARG matter like  NAME=PASSWORD, should I make this
less obvious?


Thanks again for the reply with so much important information.

JAnet QSN


-----Original Message-----
From: William M Conlon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 1:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Witango-Talk: security issues and ARGS


Nothing's a stupid question when worried about hacking.

The most important things is to validate the args -- don't trust
anything!

Here's how I usually approach things:
1.  I explicitly use <@SEARCHARG> and <@POSTARG>.  In case someone is
looking for buffer overrun exploits by POSTing long arguments to your
search args.
2. I immediately truncating the arguments to the maximum length
allowed.  I also throw an error if anything was truncated, as this
indicates either a programming error, or an attempt to hack.
3. I validate the type (char, numeric, date, or in the case of radio/
checkbox to the list of permitted values).  I have a few others like
NANP (North American Numbering Plan) for phone numbers.  This helps
to reduce dbms errors.
4.  If you use DirectDBMS, then use <@BIND> or make sure any SQL
characters are escaped to avoid SQL injection attacks.
5.  I have a custom error page that looks nice, but doesn't disclose
any info to hackers.  The error handler also mails me the full error
trace (thanks, Scott).

On Sep 10, 2006, at 6:34 PM, quicknote wrote:

>
> I don't know anything about hacking, so this might be stupid
> question, but
> here it goes.
> In my  'enter.TAF' I use args names like password, userid, and then as
> necessary  I assign them to variables with similar names.
> Do hackers look for args & vars with these types of names?
> Of course I keep these ARGS hidden and the site is encrypted etc,
> but I was
> just wondering if I should change the names of these args?
>
> Janet Case, QSN
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> __
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Bill

William M. Conlon, P.E., Ph.D.
To the Point
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