HTTP REFERER bug?

[Travis Pupkin]

Hi,

I built a site half a year ago with form that submits to page that
processes the info and then returns the user back to the page they came
from using HTTP_REFERER.

There's one guy -- using an identical set-up to our main testing
platform -- who kept getting the "URL required" error when doing this.
For some reason, on his system alone, HTTP_REFERER was not collecting
any referring URL.

Is it common for HTTP_REFERER to wuss out like this? What causes it?

[Aaron Bertrand [MVP]]

Plenty of things.
http://www.aspfaq.com/2169

--
Aaron Bertrand
SQL Server MVP
http://www.aspfaq.com/


"Travis Pupkin" <tp*****@dorrk.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news.individual.ne t...

Hi,

I built a site half a year ago with form that submits to page that
processes the info and then returns the user back to the page they came
from using HTTP_REFERER.

There's one guy -- using an identical set-up to our main testing
platform -- who kept getting the "URL required" error when doing this.
For some reason, on his system alone, HTTP_REFERER was not collecting
any referring URL.

Is it common for HTTP_REFERER to wuss out like this? What causes it?

[Blair Bonnett]

From what I gather though, it is from a form (either POST or GET) - so the
referrer should be there. The fact that others successfully use it also
suggest the problem is not on that page.

What is most likely to be happening is that he is running a firewall
(Norton AV is notorious for this) which is stripping out the referrer
information. Ask them to disable Privacy Control and see if that works.

By the way, can anybody come up with a good explaination why removing the
referrer increases your security?

Blair
Aaron Bertrand [MVP] <aa***@TRASHaspfaq.com> wrote in article
<#W**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>...

Plenty of things.
http://www.aspfaq.com/2169

"Travis Pupkin" <tp*****@dorrk.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news.individual.ne t...

Hi,

I built a site half a year ago with form that submits to page that
processes the info and then returns the user back to the page they came
from using HTTP_REFERER.

There's one guy -- using an identical set-up to our main testing
platform -- who kept getting the "URL required" error when doing this.
For some reason, on his system alone, HTTP_REFERER was not collecting
any referring URL.

Is it common for HTTP_REFERER to wuss out like this? What causes it?

[Steven Burn]

> By the way, can anybody come up with a good explaination why removing the

referrer increases your security?
Absolutely nothing I can think of (except making it harder for us poor
webmasters to figure out who's coming from where, lol)

--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
Blair Bonnett <bl****@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
news:01c3e30c$1781c880$2e9460cb@default... From what I gather though, it is from a form (either POST or GET) - so the
referrer should be there. The fact that others successfully use it also
suggest the problem is not on that page.

What is most likely to be happening is that he is running a firewall
(Norton AV is notorious for this) which is stripping out the referrer
information. Ask them to disable Privacy Control and see if that works.

By the way, can anybody come up with a good explaination why removing the
referrer increases your security?

Blair
Aaron Bertrand [MVP] <aa***@TRASHaspfaq.com> wrote in article
<#W**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>...

Plenty of things.
http://www.aspfaq.com/2169

"Travis Pupkin" <tp*****@dorrk.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news.individual.ne t...

Hi,

I built a site half a year ago with form that submits to page that
processes the info and then returns the user back to the page they came from using HTTP_REFERER.

There's one guy -- using an identical set-up to our main testing
platform -- who kept getting the "URL required" error when doing this.
For some reason, on his system alone, HTTP_REFERER was not collecting
any referring URL.

Is it common for HTTP_REFERER to wuss out like this? What causes it?

[Aaron Bertrand [MVP]]

> By the way, can anybody come up with a good explaination why removing the

referrer increases your security?

Not security, but privacy. Imagine I come to your site directly from
playboy.com, and you log that referer information. During that session I
register for something on your site, and you associate that referer
information with my e-mail address.

Later, you sell my e-mail address, along with the information about what
sites I visit regularly, to porn spammers (or maybe Playboy directly).