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RECOVERY: What are these strange (URL-Encoded) characters doing in my code?
| Author(s): | Rliskey | Experience level: | Beginner | Contributors: | Joomla! version: |  | Date added: | Tuesday, 30 November 1999 | Date last changed: | Thursday, 26 July 2007 |
Attackers sometimes hide code away from prying eyes by URL Encoding it.
The purpose of URL Encoding is to allow non-URL compatible characters to be passed via the URL. There are many legitimate reasons for doing this, such as hiding email from spammers, dealing with spaces in file names. etc.
However, if you find odd, URL-encoded text in your site's files, you should investigate immediately. URL encoded text is very easy to translate using PHP, javascript, or one of the many free, online translators.
Here are some trivial, non-functioning examples of URL Encoded text:
| Original |
URL Encoded |
| this line has spaces | this%20line%20has%20spaces |
| eval(evil_script(http://www.evilsite/?evilscript.pl")); |
%65val%28%65%76il_%73cri%70t %28%68tt%70%3A//%77%77%77. %65%76il%73ite/%3F%65%76il%73 cript.%70l%22%29%29%3B |
Resources
- Text Unescape Utility
http://www.linkedresources.com/tools/unescaper_v0.2b1.html - HTML URL-encoding Reference
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp
Last Updated Thursday, 26 July 2007
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