Re: Form submit hash keys

Marcel van der Boom wrote:
> 23-02-2009 13:10]:Jason wrote:
>> Yes, the approach I think we should have, is - if the entry and exit
>> points do
>> not match up - is to basically create a new entry point and give the user
>> another chance to submit the form. The point is not to dump them into
>> an error
>> page and discard all their data.
> 
> Sure, but how? If the submission is really "evil" the discarding is
> right, is it not?

*IF*. In the majority of cases it is not.

> How do you propose to distinguish the accident vs the real abuse? 

I don't. That is up to the user. The user is given a form with data in, and a
message at the top saying "this form was not accepted - please try again or
cancel". If the user knows he is trying to submit a form, then they can try
again. If the user gets this after clicking a dodgy link, then they can cancel
(not only that, they can see the data that was present in the submission
attempt, so have a better chance to trace its source).

> If you
> want to recreate the form *with* populated data in the traditional
> sense, i.e. the server processes the URI and displays the new form, that
> is basically the same as accepting the data, just conditionally
> processing it.

If you mean what I think you mean, then probably yes. The data goes up to the
server, then comes back down again in a form with an error/warning message. The
data does not go into the database at all.

> If that is the intention, that sounds ok, but has the risk of indeed
> opening up the secured submission, depending on what you do with the
> submitted data.

Depending on what the user does, presumably.

> Perhaps i'm missing something?

I don't know. I'm just suggesting something we could do to increase the
usability without (IMO) reducing the security.

-- JJ