[wp-hackers] Rethinking check_admin_referer()

Elliotte Harold elharo at metalab.unc.edu
Wed Apr 19 11:03:21 GMT 2006


Matt Mullenweg wrote:

> If the best an attacker can do is embed a link in a comment or email and 
> hope you click on it, then we've succeeded. At some point we have to 
> stop punishing normal users for the extreme edge cases.


No, If that's possible, you've made a classic mistake. Clicking the link 
should not take any action. That's the difference between GET and POST:

http://cafe.elharo.com/web/rest-mistake-1-confirming-gets/

It's easy to fix. You just need to make sure that all actions take place 
through POST, not GET, regardless of URL. This wouldn't punish anybody.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo at metalab.unc.edu
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
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