Does this Auth script have an unwanted loop?

[Phil Latio]

Found the below script in a book I am reading.

However it seems to me to fatal flaw that if you run it but type in the
wrong the details, you're basically buggered. As far as I can see, whatever
is initially entered into PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW are stored and then
compared against the database. However #10 simply looks for the presence of
data in PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW, finds something and compares it
again in a loop you cannot break out of.

Can someone confirm what I am saying or have I missed something obvious.

Cheers

Phil


<?php
/* Program: Auth.php
* Desc: Program that prompts for a user name and
* password from the user using HTTP authentication.
* The program then tests tests whether the user
* name and password match a user name and password
* pair stored in a MySQL database.
*/

//Testing whether the user has been prompted for a user name
if (!isset($_SERVE R['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) #10
{
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="secret section"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized'); #13
exit("This page requires authentication! "); #14
} #15

// Testing the user name and password entered by the user
else
#18
{
include("Vars.i nc");
#20
$user_name = trim($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']);
#21
$user_password= trim($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']);
$connection = mysqli_connect( $host, $user, $passwd) or die("Couldn't
connect to server."); #24
$db = mysqli_select_d b($connection, $database) or
die("Couldn't select database.");
$sql =
"SELECT user_name FROM Valid_User WHERE user_name = '$user_name' AND
password = md5('$user_pass word')";
$result = mysqli_query($c onnection, $sql) or die("Couldn't execute
query."); #31
$num = mysqli_num_rows ($result);
#32

if ($num < 1) // user name/password not found #33
{
exit("The User Name or password you entered is not valid.<br>");
} #37
} #38
// Web page content. #39
include ("Welcome.inc") ; #40
?>

[AlexVN]

Re: Does this Auth script have an unwanted loop?



On Nov 1, 9:09 pm, "Phil Latio" <phil.la...@f-in-stupid.co.ukwro te:

Found the below script in a book I am reading.
>
However it seems to me to fatal flaw that if you run it but type in the
wrong the details, you're basically buggered. As far as I can see, whatever
is initially entered into PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW are stored and then
compared against the database. However #10 simply looks for the presence of
data in PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW, finds something and compares it
again in a loop you cannot break out of.
>
Can someone confirm what I am saying or have I missed something obvious.

Looks you are right. Please consider the examples on

http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/authentication.php?article=authentication

When user provided wrong credentials, the 401 error should be sent
again.

Sincerely,
Alexander
http://www.alexatnet.com/ - PHP/ZendFramework/Ajax blog