How to get Url Hash (#) from server side - url

I know on client side (javascript) you can use windows.location.hash but could not find anyway to access from the server side. I'm using asp.net.

We had a situation where we needed to persist the URL hash across ASP.Net post backs. As the browser does not send the hash to the server by default, the only way to do it is to use some Javascript:
When the form submits, grab the hash (window.location.hash) and store it in a server-side hidden input field Put this in a DIV with an id of "urlhash" so we can find it easily later.
On the server you can use this value if you need to do something with it. You can even change it if you need to.
On page load on the client, check the value of this this hidden field. You will want to find it by the DIV it is contained in as the auto-generated ID won't be known. Yes, you could do some trickery here with .ClientID but we found it simpler to just use the wrapper DIV as it allows all this Javascript to live in an external file and be used in a generic fashion.
If the hidden input field has a valid value, set that as the URL hash (window.location.hash again) and/or perform other actions.
We used jQuery to simplify the selecting of the field, etc ... all in all it ends up being a few jQuery calls, one to save the value, and another to restore it.
Before submit:
$("form").submit(function() {
$("input", "#urlhash").val(window.location.hash);
});
On page load:
var hashVal = $("input", "#urlhash").val();
if (IsHashValid(hashVal)) {
window.location.hash = hashVal;
}
IsHashValid() can check for "undefined" or other things you don't want to handle.
Also, make sure you use $(document).ready() appropriately, of course.

[RFC 2396][1] section 4.1:
When a URI reference is used to perform a retrieval action on the
identified resource, the optional fragment identifier, separated from
the URI by a crosshatch ("#") character, consists of additional
reference information to be interpreted by the user agent after the
retrieval action has been successfully completed. As such, it is not
part of a URI, but is often used in conjunction with a URI.
(emphasis added)
[1]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396#section-4

That's because the browser doesn't transmit that part to the server, sorry.

Probably the only choice is to read it on the client side and transfer it manually to the server (GET/POST/AJAX).
Regards
Artur
You may see also how to play with back button and browser history
at Malcan

Just to rule out the possibility you aren't actually trying to see the fragment on a GET/POST and actually want to know how to access that part of a URI object you have within your server-side code, it is under Uri.Fragment (MSDN docs).

Possible solution for GET requests:
New Link format: http://example.com/yourDirectory?hash=video01
Call this function toward top of controller or http://example.com/yourDirectory/index.php:
function redirect()
{
if (!empty($_GET['hash'])) {
/** Sanitize & Validate $_GET['hash']
If valid return string
If invalid: return empty or false
******************************************************/
$validHash = sanitizeAndValidateHashFunction($_GET['hash']);
if (!empty($validHash)) {
$url = './#' . $validHash;
} else {
$url = '/your404page.php';
}
header("Location: $url");
}
}

Related

how to verify referrer inside a MVC or Web Api ajax call

my MVC app has common ajax methods (in web api and regular controller). I'd like to authorize these calls based on which area (view) of my app the call is coming from. The problem I am facing is how to verify the origin of the ajax call.
I realize that this is not easily possible since ajax calls are easy to spoof, but since I have full control of how the view gets rendered (full page source) perhaps there is a way to embed anti-forgery type tokens that could later be verified to a Url Referrer.
Authentication is already handled and I can safely verify the identity of the call, the only problem is verifying which URL (MVC route) the call came from. More specifically, preventing the user from being able to spoof the origin of the ajax call.
I tried creating a custom authorization header and passing it between view render and ajax calls, and that works, but still easy to spoof (since a user could sniff the headers from another part of the site and re-use those). In the end I am not sure how to safely verify that the header has not been spoofed. The only thing that comes to mind is encoding some info about the original context inside the token, and validating it somehow against incoming call context (the one that's passing the token in ajax call).
I see that MVC has AntiForgery token capabilities, but I am not sure if that can solve my problem. If so I'd like to know how it could be used to verify that /api/common/update was called from /home/index vs /user/setup (both of these calls are valid).
Again, i'd like a way to verify which page an ajax call is coming from, and user identity is not the issue.
update
as per #Sarathy recommended I tried implementing anti-forgery token. As far as I can tell this works by adding a hidden field with token on each page, and comparing it to a token set in a cookie. Here is my implementation of custom action filter attribute that does token validation:
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var req = filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
var fToken = req.Headers["X-Request-Verification-Token"];
var cookie = req.Cookies[AntiForgeryConfig.CookieName];
var cToken = cookie != null
? cookie.Value
: "null";
log.Info("filter \ntoken:{0} \ncookie:{1}", fToken, cToken);
AntiForgery.Validate(cToken, fToken);
base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);
}
then my anti forgery additional data provider looks like this:
public class MyAntiForgeryProvider : IAntiForgeryAdditionalDataProvider
{
public string GetAdditionalData(System.Web.HttpContextBase context)
{
var ad = string.Format("{0}-{1}",context.Request.Url, new Random().Next(9999));
log.Info("antiforgery AntiForgeryProvider.GetAdditionalData Request.AdditionalData: {0}", ad);
log.Info("antiforgery AntiForgeryProvider.GetAdditionalData Request.UrlReferrer: {0}", context.Request.UrlReferrer);
return ad;
}
public bool ValidateAdditionalData(System.Web.HttpContextBase context, string additionalData)
{
log.Info("antiforgery AntiForgeryProvider.ValidateAdditionalData Request.Url: {0}", context.Request.Url);
log.Info("antiforgery AntiForgeryProvider.ValidateAdditionalData additionalData: {0}", additionalData);
return true;
}
this works, in that i can see correct pages logged in the provider, and anti forgery breaks w/out the tokens.
however, unless i did something wrong, this seems trivial to spoof. for example
if i go to pageA and copy the token form pageB (just the form token, not even the cookie token), this still succeeds, and in my logs i see pageB while executing ajax method from pageA
confirmed that this is pretty easy to spoof.
I am using csrf to generate ajax tokens like this:
public static string MyForgeryToken(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper)
{
var c = htmlHelper.ViewContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request.Cookies[AntiForgeryConfig.CookieName];
string cookieToken, formToken;
AntiForgery.GetTokens(c != null ? c.Value : null, out cookieToken, out formToken);
return formToken;
}
I then pass the form token back with each ajax call and have a custom actionfilterattribute where I read/validate it along with cookie token
public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var req = filterContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
var fToken = req.Headers[GlobalConstants.AntiForgeKey];
var cookie = req.Cookies[AntiForgeryConfig.CookieName];
var cToken = cookie != null
? cookie.Value
: "null";
log.Info("MyAntiForgeryAttribute.OnActionExecuting. \ntoken:{0} \ncookie:{1}", fToken, cToken);
AntiForgery.Validate(cToken, fToken);
this all works (changing anything about the token throws correct exception), then in my IAntiForgeryAdditionalDataProvider I can see what it thinks it's processing.
as soon as i override the csrf token from another view, it thinks it's that view. I don't even have to tamper with the UrlReferrer to break this :/
one way this could work if i could force the cookie to be different on every page load
I am assuming you can use IAntiForgeryAdditionalDataProvider for this.
public class CustomDataProvider : IAntiForgeryAdditionalDataProvider
{
public string GetAdditionalData(HttpContextBase context)
{
// Return the current request url or build a route or create a hash from a set of items from the current context.
return context.Request.Url.ToString();
}
public bool ValidateAdditionalData(HttpContextBase context, string additionalData)
{
// Check whether the allowed list contains additional data or delegate the validation to a separate component.
return false;
}
}
Register the provider in App_Start like below.
AntiForgeryConfig.AdditionalDataProvider = new CustomDataProvider();
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.helpers.iantiforgeryadditionaldataprovider(v=vs.111).aspx
Hope this helps in your scenario.
You mentioned in your question that you're looking for Anti-forgery token capabilities.
Hence, I think what you're asking about is an anti-CSRF solution (CSRF=cross site request forgery).
One way to do this is to render a true random number (a one-time token) into your page, then passing it on each request, which can be done by adding a key/value pair to the request header and then checked at the backend (i.e. inside your controller). This is a challenge-response approach.
As you mentioned, in the server-side code you can use
var fToken = req.Headers["X-Request-Verification-Token"];
to get it from the requesting page.
To pass it along from each client AJAX request of the page, you can use
var tokenValue = '6427083747'; // replace this by rendered random token
$(document).ajaxSend(function (event, jqxhr, settings) {
jqxhr.setRequestHeader('X-Request-Verification-Token', tokenValue);
});
or you can set it for each request by using
var tokenValue = '2347893735'; // replace this by rendered random token
$.ajax({
url: 'foo/bar',
headers: { 'X-Request-Verification-Token': tokenValue }
});
Note that tokenValue needs to contain the random number which was rendered by the web server when the web page was sent to the client.
I would not use cookies for this, because cookies don't protect you against CSRF - you need to ensure that the page, which is requesting is the same as the page which was rendered (and hence created by the web server). A page being on a different tab in the same browser window could use the cookie as well.
Details can be found on the OWASP project page, in the OWASP CSRF prevention cheat sheet.
My quick interim solution was to use custom tokens created on each page load (guid which i keep track of in my token cache), which are passed as headers in all ajax calls. Additionally i create a original url hash and combine it into the custom auth token.
in my ajax methods I then extract the hash and compare it with UrlReferrer hash to ensure that hasn't been tampered with.
since the custom token is always different it's less obvious to guess what's going on as token appears to be different on every page load. however this is not secure because with enough effort the url hash can be uncovered. The exposure is somewhat limited because user identity is not the problem so worst case is a given user would gain write access to another section of the site but only as himself. My site is internal and i am auditing every move so any temper attempts would be caught quickly.
I am using both jQuery and angular so appending tokens with all requests like this:
var __key = '#Html.GetHeaderKey()' //helper method to get key from http header
//jQuery
$.ajaxSetup({
beforeSend: function (xhr, settings) {
xhr.setRequestHeader('X-Nothing-To-See-Here', __key); // totally inconspicuous
})
//angular
app.config(['$httpProvider', function ($httpProvider) {
$httpProvider.defaults.headers.common['X-Nothing-To-See-Here'] = __key;
});
update
the downside of this approach is that custom tokens need to be persisted across a web farm or app restarts. Based on #Sarathy's idea I am trying to side step this by leveraging MVC anti forgery framework. Basically add/remove my "salt" and let the framework manage the actual token validation. That way it's a bit less to manage for me. Will post more details once i verify that this is working.
So this is going to be one of those "you're doing it wrong" answers that I don't like, and so I apologize up front. In any case, from the question and comments, I'm going to propose you approach the problem differently. Instead of thinking about where did the request come from, think about what is the request trying to do. You need to determine if the user can do that.
My guess as to why this is hard in your case is I think you have made your api interface too generic. From your example api "api/common/update" I'm guessing you have a generic update api that can update anything, and you want to protect updating data X from a page that is only supposed to access data Y. If I'm off base there then ignore me. :)
So my answer would be: don't do that. Change your api around so it starts with the data you want to work with: api/dataX api/dataY. Then use user roles to protect those api methods appropriately. Behind the scenes you can still have a common update routine if you like that and it works for you, but keep the api interface more concrete.
If you really don't want to have an api for each table, and if its appropriate for you situation, perhaps you can at least have an api for protected/admin tables and a separate api for the standard tables. A lot of "if"s, but maybe this would work for your situation.
In addition, if your user can update some dataX but not other dataX, then you will have to do some sort of checking against your data, ideally against some root object and whether your user is authorized to see/use that root object.
So to summarize, avoid an overly generic api interface. By being more concrete you can use the existing security tools to help you.
And good luck!

Log Requests from some Link

How can i log requests that are going on some link?
I need to store requests Headers, Verb (Get or Post etc.), Request Data and Request Body.
It's must be some separate application like Fiddler.
DESC: I have web application. It makes some search. I want to log data of search request using another application which can log any requests for some site (in my case for my web app). How to make it? I make research for solution but find many examples where user can create some Module or Filter which must be included in web application. This case for me is not allowed.
If you have control of both sides, you can basically do whatever you want..
Maybe link to an action first that acts as a tracker:
public ActionResult Track()
{
//get whatever data you want here
//Request.Headers, Request.RequestType ect
//track the data in a database or whatever
SaveSomeData();
//get the original url from a post variable, or querystring, where you put it
var redirectUrl = Request["redirect"];
return Redirect(redirectUrl);
}
Then you would change your links for example a link to http://google.com, would change to
http://mywebsite.com/mycontroller/track?url=http://google.com
Another possible way would be to create a proxy, and monitor the data that goes through it.
Need a better idea of what you need though to help out more.

Access parameters from a URL in ActionResult

I am receiving the following URL and the Callback view from the ProcessToken controller is being displayed:
http://localhost:4151/ProcessToken/CallBack#token_type=Bearer&access_token=54EXXXXXXXXX3GE4
In Callback ActionResult code, I want to access the token_type and access_token.
How do I do this?
Please provide more information and an example of what you think the ActionResult method should be. But based on what I think you are asking:
public ActionResult CallBack(string token_type, string access_token){ //Do Something }
do what ken4z suggested, if not, you can always read the query strings from the Request object.
Request.QueryString["token_type"]
Request.QueryString["access_token"]
It is part of the fragment and therefore you cannot access it at server side.
Read this: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396#section-4
When a URI reference is used to perform a retrieval action on the
identified resource, the optional fragment identifier, separated from
the URI by a crosshatch ("#") character, consists of additional
reference information to be interpreted by the user agent after the
retrieval action has been successfully completed. As such, it is not
part of a URI, but is often used in conjunction with a URI.
You can access query-string-parameters with model-binding as ken4z pointed out.
You can read the hash-part with jquery:
var data = window.location.hash.substring(1);
$.post('[YOUR_URL]', data, function () {
// SUCCEEDED, redirect or so
});
Like ken4z says, you should use parameters to model bind. Otherwise, you can use Request.QueryString to access them.

Pass javascript parameter to partial view in asp.net mvc

lets say I want to a partial view like the following sample
#Html.RenderAction("ListDocuments", "MultiFileAttachments", new { id = jsparameter });
in the jsparameter I want to pass as a parameter that is the result of a javascript function. Maybe this is not logical because javascript runs on the client, but how can I achieve a similar functionality ? thank you in advance
If you need to call a part of a page based on some actions or values determined by actions on the client side, then you should think to use JavaScript (preferably jQuery) and Ajax.
Through jQuery-Ajax, you could easily call a Partial view through the Contoler and since it's a regular HTTP request, you would be able to pass all the parameters you need.
Using code as :
#Html.RenderAction("ListDocuments", "MultiFileAttachments", new { id = jsparameter });
is not possible since it is rendered by the server before it's sent to the client browser.

ActionResult return to page that called it

I have a ActionLink, that calls my public ActionResult, and I would like it to return back to the page that it was called from, but how?
There are a couple of tricks that you can use for this.
The simplest is ...
return Redirect(HttpContext.Request.UrlReferrer.AbsoluteUri);
AbsoluteUri may not give you the exact path you are looking for, but UrlReferrer should have the imformation you are looking for. Redirect returns a subclass of ActionResult so it is a valid return value.
Another idea is to base the redirect location off of stored values. This is useful when you are going to make multiple requests before you want to redirect, such as when you validate a form and show validation issues on the first response. Another situation will be when the referrer is not a local site. In either case, your referrer won't be what you want it to and you will need to retrieve the correct location from somewhere else.
Specific implementations include using a hidden input field on your form, session state, pulling a descriminator value from your route data, or even just a more constant value like HttpContext.Request.ApplicationPath.
Good luck.
Keep in mind that due to the state-less nature of the web, your ActionResult isn't "called from" your ActionLink as much it is simply a url that the user-agent requested.
Because of this, the only real "built-in" way you can know where that user was coming from is by inspecting the http Request headers to see what the referring page was:
string referrer = Request.Headers["referer"];
You'd then be responsible for parsing out the Action method from this url, if you were going to call it directly. Be aware that this referrer may not be a link within your own site.

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