MVC HttpGet and HttpPost - c#

Recently I have attended a training in mvc. The trainer said that - As per the security concerns we have to use HttpPost instead of HttpGet. Always use HttpPost.
Can anyone explain - what is the security issue when we use HttpGet?

When transmitting data over secure connection (https) body of the post request is encrypted and practically undreadable, you can only see address where data is going but not the data itself. Get on the other hand has no body and data has to be transmitted in either query string or as a path parameter. While it is true that query string does get encrypted as well, due to request logging on the server and browser it is possible to get hold of that data.

Anyone can insert image on public forum or stackoverflow with link to your web-site. Then happens next:
Browser looks at url in image tag
Browser find cookies corresponding to domain in url
Browser sends request to url with cookies of user
Your server performs action
Browser tries to parse response as image and fails
Browser renders error instead of image
But if you mark your action as Http Post only then this scenario isn't applicable for 90% of sites. But you should also consider that if hacker can create a form on other web-site then he still can make browser to perform request. So you need CSRF. Well, browsers made a lot to prevent cross-site requests, but it's still possible in some scenarios.

Related

What is the purpose of th HTTP GET method in forms?

As far as I understand, the GET method asks the server to send something to the client's browser. I set up a HTTPListener in C# and when I access http://localhost:1330/form.html the request I get from the client is: GET /form.html which means that the client is saying "Hey server, I need the HTML code to display that page in the browser", which makes sense.
If I set a <form> with method=POST in form.html, the input fields values are located in the request body which is in context.Request.InputStream in C# which looks similar to this: input_name1=value&input_name2=value2&input_name3=value3... and the URL remains /form.html.
This also makes sense. The client says: "Hey server, take this data that was written in the HTML <input> elements" and the server uses it, maybe storing it in a database or computing something and send it back to the client.
Now if I set the form method to GET, the URL is modified to: /form.html?input_name1=value&input_name2=value2&input_name3=value3 and the context.Request.InputStream remains blank which is the opposite of the POST, in which the InputStream contained the data and the URL had no queries. For me, the GET method in forms doesn't make any sense. Why do we need to get the data from the form client side, send it to the server and then getting it back to client unmodified? Why do I send the data from the browser to C# and then sending it back to browser, if I can just get it client side using simple JavaScript?
In the moment the browser makes the GET request with the queries to the server, the client browser already has that data, so why does it ask the server to give it if it is already at the client's browser?
Generally speaking, an HTTP GET method is used to receive data from the server, while an HTTP POST is used to modify data or add data to a resource.
For example, think about a search form. There may be some fields on the form used to filter the results, such as SearchTerm, Start/EndDate, Category, Location, IsActive, etc, etc. You're requesting the results from the server, but not modifying any of the data. Those fields will be added to the GET request by the client so the server can filter and return the results you requested.
From the MDN article Sending form data:
Each time you want to reach a resource on the Web, the browser sends a
request to a URL. An HTTP request consists of two parts: a header that
contains a set of global metadata about the browser's capabilities,
and a body that can contain information necessary for the server to
process the specific request.
GET requests do not have a request body, so the parameters are added to the URL (this is defined in the HTTP spec, if you're interested).
The GET method is the method used by the browser to ask the server to
send back a given resource: "Hey server, I want to get this resource."
In this case, the browser sends an empty body. Because the body is
empty, if a form is sent using this method the data sent to the server
is appended to the URL.
An HTTP POST method uses the request body to add the parameters. Typically in a POST you will be adding a resource, or modifying an existing resource.
The POST method is a little different. It's the method the browser
uses to talk to the server when asking for a response that takes into
account the data provided in the body of the HTTP request: "Hey
server, take a look at this data and send me back an appropriate
result." If a form is sent using this method, the data is appended to
the body of the HTTP request.
There are plenty of resources online to learn about the HTTP protocol and HTTP verbs/methods. The MDN articles An overview of HTTP, Sending form data, and HTTP request methods should provide some good introductory reading material.

Pass data to a URL on a different web server without the QueryString

I've got an .ashx handler which, upon finishing processing will redirect to a success or error page, based on how the processing went. The handler is in my site, but the success or error pages might not be (this is something the user can configure).
Is there any way that I can pass the error details to the error page without putting it in the query string?
I've tried:
Adding a custom header that contains the error details, but since I'm using a Response.Redirect, the headers get cleared
Using Server.Transfer, instead of Response.Redirect, but this will not work for URLs not in my site
I know that I can pass data in the query string, but in some cases the data I need to pass might be too long for the query string. Do I have any other options?
Essentially, no. The only way to pass additional data in a GET request (i.e. a redirect) is to pass it in the query string.
The important thing to realise is that this is not a limitation of WebForms, this is just how HTTP works. If you're redirecting to another page that's outside of your site (and thus don't have the option of cookies/session data), you're going to have to send information directly in the request and that means using a query string.
Things like Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect are just abstractions over a simple HTTP request; no framework feature can defy how HTTP actually works.
You do, of course, have all kinds of options as to what you pass in the query string, but you're going to have to pass something. If you really want to shorten the URL, maybe you can pass an error code and expose an API that will let the receiving page fetch further information:
Store transaction information (or detailed error messages) in a database with an ID.
Pass the ID in the query string.
Expose a web method or similar API to allow the receiving page to request additional information.
There are plenty of hacky ways you could create the illusion of passing data in a redirect outside of a form post (such as returning a page containing a form and Javascript to immediately do a cross-domain form post) but the query string is the proper way of passing data in a GET request, so why try to hack around it?
If you must perform a redirect, you will need to pass some kind of information in the Query String, because that's how browser redirects work. You can be creative about how you pass it, though.
You could pass an error code, and have the consuming system know what various error codes mean.
You could pass a token, and have the consuming system know how to ask your system about the error information for the given token behind-the-scenes.
Also, if you have any flexibility around whether it's actually performing a redirect, you could use an AJAX request in the first place, and send back some kind of JSON object that the browser's javascript could interpret and send via a POST parameter or something like that.
A redirect is executed by most browsers as a GET, which means you'd have to put the data in the query string.
One trick (posted in two other answers) to do a "redirect" as a POST is to turn the response into a form that POSTs itself to the target site:
Response.Clear();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append("<html>");
sb.AppendFormat(#"<body onload='document.forms[""form""].submit()'>");
sb.AppendFormat("<form name='form' action='{0}' method='post'>",postbackUrl);
<!-- POST values go here -->
sb.AppendFormat("<input type='hidden' name='id' value='{0}'>", id);
sb.Append("</form>");
sb.Append("</body>");
sb.Append("</html>");
Response.Write(sb.ToString());
Response.End();
But I would read the comments on both to understand the limitations.
Basically there are two usual HTTP ways to send some data - GET and POST.
When you redirect to another URL with additional parameters, you make the client browser to send the GET request to the target server. Technically, your server responds to the browser with specific HTTP error code 307 + the URL to go (including the GET parameters).
Alternatively, you may want/need to make a POST request to the target URL. In that case you should respond with a simple HTML form, which consists of several hidden fields pre-filled with certain values. The form's action should point the target URL, method should be "POST", and of course your HTML should include javascript, which automatically submits the form once the document is loaded. This way the client browser would send the POST request instead of the GET one.

Best Way to avoid Reinsertion of data in ASP.net on Page Refresh

I want to know what is the best way to avoid the reinsertion of data in ASP.net.
I am currently doing
Response.Redirect('PageURL');
Thanks in Advance
Don't put your insertion code in the Page_Load method, or if you are, make sure you are checking Page.IsPostBack first.
Yes, normally we have an identity autoincrement number id, wich should be sent back to your form after the insertion. So you just have to check on server if that number is > 0 and execute an update instead of an insert.
Your redirect solution is valid. This pattern is called Post/Redirect/Get.
Post/Redirect/Get (PRG) is a web development design pattern that
prevents some duplicate form submissions, creating a more intuitive
interface for user agents (users). PRG implements bookmarks and the
refresh button in a predictable way that does not create duplicate
form submissions.
When a web form is submitted to a server through an HTTP POST request,
a web user that attempts to refresh the server response in certain
user agents can cause the contents of the original HTTP POST request
to be resubmitted, possibly causing undesired results, such as a
duplicate web purchase.
To avoid this problem, many web developers use the PRG pattern[1] —
instead of returning a web page directly, the POST operation returns a
redirection command. The HTTP 1.1 specification introduced the HTTP
303 ("See other") response code to ensure that in this situation, the
web user's browser can safely refresh the server response without
causing the initial HTTP POST request to be resubmitted. However most
common commercial applications in use today (new and old alike) still
continue to issue HTTP 302 ("Found") responses in these situations.
Use of HTTP 301 ("Moved permanently") is usually avoided because
HTTP-1.1-compliant browsers do not convert the method to GET after
receiving HTTP 301, as is more commonly done for HTTP 302.[2] However,
HTTP 301 may be preferred in cases where it is not desirable for POST
parameters to be converted to GET parameters and thus be recorded in
logs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post/Redirect/Get

Why my REST API clients need JSONP request?

I created REST base webAPI in MVC 4 and hosted on server when I call this from HTML on other domain and on my local pc I need to call it as JSONP request like put callback=? in url so it can be jsonp. My question is that why this is so? if its due to cross domain then how google and facbook and other companies host their api we also call it from our own domain but we dont keep callback=? in their url.
so why my API need callback=? in url if i call it from other domain or on my local pc with simple jquery html.
Its because of the Same Origin Policy imposed by the browsers.
See
http://www.w3.org/Security/wiki/Same_Origin_Policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_origin_policy
.
Also note that CORS might be a better option than JSONP in the future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing
EDIT: ------------
If you have gone through above links you would see that JSONP allows users to work-around this Same Origin Policy security measure imposed by the browsers.
Trick is browsers allow tags to refer files in other domains than the origin.
Basically what happens is with JSONP, you send a callback function name to the server appended to the query string. Then the server will pad or prefix it's otherwise JSON request with a call to this function, hence the P in the name to denote response is padded or prefixed.
For example you can create a script tag like
then the target server, should send a response such that
mymethod({normal: 'json response'})
when this repsone is evaluated on the client side (as for any other javascript file) it will effectively call your method with the JSON response from that server.
However, this can only do GET requests.
If you want to make POST (PUT/DELETE) requests you need to use CORS in which server needs to set a specific header beforehand.
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: www.ext.site.com
Hope this helps.
Because of the same-origin policy limitations. The same-origin policy prevents a script loaded from one domain from getting or manipulating properties of a document from another domain. That is, the domain of the requested URL must be the same as the domain of the current Web page. This basically means that the browser isolates content from different origins to guard them against manipulation.

Is there any way to check Rewrited URL in browser

In my Project i don't want to show query string values to users. For that case i used URL Rewriting in asp.net. So my URL Looks like below.
http://localhost/test/default.aspx?id=1
to
http://localhost/test/general.aspx
The first URL will be rewrites to second URL, but it will still executes the default.aspx page with that query string value. This is working fine.
But my question is that, is there any way the user can find that original URL in browser?
The answer is no.
The browser can't tell what actual script ended up servicing the request - it only knows what it sent to the server (unless the server issued a redirect, but then the browser would make a new request to the redirect target).
Since URL rewriting takes an incoming request and routes it to a different resource, I believe the answer is yes. Somewhere in your web traffic you are requesting http://localhost/test/default.aspx?id=1 and it is being rewritten as the new request http://localhost/test/general.aspx.
While this may hide the original request from displaying in the browser, at some point it did send that original URL as an HTTP GET.
As suggested, use Firebug or Fiddler to sniff the traffic.
I figured answer for my question. We can easily found the rewritten urls. If we saw the view source of that page in browser then we can see that original url with querystring values.

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