Not the X!
Some chick called “Safire” has republished my Safe Dynamic Includes snippet on her tutorial site. (Fingers in mouth gagging here; I thought people had stopped creating these lame tutorial sites.) Alongside the code is the advice that, in normal dynamic includes “it’s just the x= that makes it unsafe
“, and swapping this letter for a ‘z’ makes it all okay again.
Incidentally, this random swapping of letter renders file_exists as “file_ezists” which isn’t going to work.
Anyway, the funny thing is the idea that without any other protection (although of course my code already has it), simply swapping the letter will protect you against hacking and other malicious acts.
Oh, if only all of developing were so easy.
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“file_ezists” - mocking me
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 10:09 pmGah…not another one. When will these kind of tutorial sites die?
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 10:27 pmOh yes, the letter x is very dangerous. *nod* x is the unknown, and the unknown is dangerous! muahaha… If we can change it to any letter, can I change it to R? I think R is a cool letter. But is it safe? O_O
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 10:39 pmI am in awe at such blatant incomprehension of the $_GET superglobal. Don’t give fucking PHP tutorials if you don’t understand *that*. @Rachael: j is the safest letter in dah world.
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 10:50 pmPsh. Everyone knows x is unsafe. DUH To make the tutorial safe again, you have to remove ALL the Xs. Don’t replace them! They’re bad! In fact, while you’re at it, remove every other letter as well, all letters are unsafe. Once you have done that, your site will be supah safe! (I kid. Obviously. But seriously, when she says “this is insecure but I don’t know why” or whatever, it really gives you the utmost trust in what she’s “teaching” you. *Eyeroll*)
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 11:00 pmThe letter X will kill you in your sleep! Where did she get that idea?
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 11:02 pmUrgh her text in the header is soo tiny! I cannot even read it!! How do you know when people have stole your stuff, i.e how do you find it? Do you google lines of your own content, or was this random: did someone just stumble on it accidently??
Response posted: November 19th, 2007 at 11:30 pmThat is a truly impressive lack of logic she’s got going on there.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 12:14 amI never liked X’s, they always seemed like they were hiding something.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 12:26 amHmm, this day is just getting better. It may be Monday, but I had cake for lunch, no homework, and now this… the only downer is that math test. Oh well, this makes that seem nonexistent.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 1:06 amIf that doesn’t scream wanna be PHP tutorial master person thing, I don’t know what does. If you are that stupid to copy the whole code and then find/replace ALL the x’s, then you shouldn’t be allowed to copy anything if you do xD
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 1:17 am3 words for her: What a twat
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 1:41 am@Vasilli - pss someone else made that xD change the x to comething lk qD HAHA
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 2:17 amOh no, Jem, she took it down!
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 6:21 amI don’t really mind about most teenybopper websites with their illegible font, etc. it’s just when these people try to give stupid advice to others that I say, ‘Oh God, WHY?’
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 7:40 am“Each of these tutorials took time to make.” Oh really? I thought ‘taking time to make a tutorial’ involves actually writing out the tutorial yourself and making sure you fully understand what you’re writing? o_O Oh, and she took the tutorial down already.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 7:53 am[quote]How do you know when people have stole your stuff, i.e how do you find it?[/quote] More often than not, people e-mail. That was the case this time.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 9:14 amI never liked X’s anyway, it’s all A,B and C’s for me. *rolls eyes*
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 10:52 am[quote]“it’s just the x= that makes it unsafe”, and swapping this letter for a ‘z’ makes it all okay again.[/quote] I’m literally tearing up now. Please, no more. I’m going to die of laughter.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 11:52 amI say fuck all letters and numbers, and start replacing variables with hearts and stars! is there an ascii code for ponies? THAT’S WHAT I’M GOING TO USE!
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 3:24 pmIt’s nice to know she took it down… upsetting she even done this in the first place. Anyway I have never commented on your site before, I was kind of afraid to leave my website because I might get a “pants” award, lol. Anyway hopefully people will stop doing that! Best of luck!
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 3:28 pm@Melissa: I’m not too keen on glitters personally, but your site is not even close (in terms of “badness”) to some I’ve seen.
That said, I’d recommend you ditch Waks Ask & Answer, it’s awfully insecure.
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pmAt least your site is readable melissa! lol
Response posted: November 20th, 2007 at 6:41 pmThanks for replying Jem and Carly! Not to inappropriately spam the comments… but I’m so used to Waks Ask & Answer, I just continue to use it
Oh and about the font size, I know! I’m trying my hardest to make everything sort of “accessible” if that’s the correct word! Off to read your new blog now 
Response posted: November 21st, 2007 at 1:48 am@ Melissa Using a script that is insecure is just ignorant, no matter if you like it better than another script or not.
Response posted: November 21st, 2007 at 11:40 pm@ melissa… you’re leaving yourself open to hacking. I’ve seen lots of blogs hacked when people haven’t updated their wordpress to the latest version… mooch around this site and there’s a list of alternatives Jem recommends. And yes, accessable is the right word!
Response posted: November 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 amstrangely, i don’t think she meant it X= My mother says “Everyone makes a mistake.” But, I’m still figuring out if she has read the Disclaimer page of yours. X) Lame tutorial sites? Sorry for being a n00b, but did you mean tutorial sites that steal other people tutorials? X=
Response posted: December 20th, 2007 at 11:32 am