your opinion on this

[henribaeyens]

Hello,

So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents (generally Word documents) but they have to
pay for that. We use micropayments. Upon payment, a script looks up the
file name in a database, establishes a url, and the dl begins. I want to
protect the directory the downloadable files reside in; obviously an
htaccess directive would prevent all access and thence all downloads. So
I thought of this: store the files in an htaccess-protected directory,
and when it is requested, copy it to a public directory, give it a random
name, and feed the url to the browser. To prevent files from piling up in
the download directory, I would have to set up a task (cron job?) to
delete all files whose date of creation (or last access) is more the a
given period of time. The idea here is also to prevent anyone from, say,
jotting down the file's url and access it at a date. Granted, he/she/it
did pay for the file but he/she/it could as well pass the url on to
someone else.

What do you think about that; both on the principle and on the
methodology.

Thanks

I realize it might not be the correct group to ask such a question, but
someone here perhaps has come accross a similar issue

[Mark]

Doesn't sound like an elegant solution. I'm no expert in this field,
but .htaccess wouldn't prevent you from doing this, would it?

<?php
// downloading a file
$filename = $_GET['path'];

// fix for IE catching or PHP bug issue
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0"); // set expiration time
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
// browser must download file from server instead of cache

// force download dialog
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Type: application/download");

// use the Content-Disposition header to supply a recommended filename
and
// force the browser to display the save dialog.
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename=".basename($filename).";");

/*
The Content-transfer-encoding header should be binary, since the file
will be read
directly from the disk and the raw bytes passed to the downloading
computer.
The Content-length header is useful to set for downloads. The browser
will be able to
show a progress meter as a file downloads. The content-lenght can be
determines by
filesize function returns the size of a file.
*/
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
header("Content-Length: ".filesize($filename));

@readfile($filename);
exit(0);
?>

(yoinked from http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php by
milin_mestry at yahoo dot com)
That way you can keep the file in its current directory, as well as
rename it on download, or whatever you please, and you never even have
to reveal the full URL to the user.
On Aug 13, 3:42 pm, henribaeyens <[e-mail]:

Hello,

So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents (generally Word documents) but they have to
pay for that. We use micropayments. Upon payment, a script looks up the
file name in a database, establishes a url, and the dl begins. I want to
protect the directory the downloadable files reside in; obviously an
htaccess directive would prevent all access and thence all downloads. So
I thought of this: store the files in an htaccess-protected directory,
and when it is requested, copy it to a public directory, give it a random
name, and feed the url to the browser. To prevent files from piling up in
the download directory, I would have to set up a task (cron job?) to
delete all files whose date of creation (or last access) is more the a
given period of time. The idea here is also to prevent anyone from, say,
jotting down the file's url and access it at a date. Granted, he/she/it
did pay for the file but he/she/it could as well pass the url on to
someone else.

What do you think about that; both on the principle and on the
methodology.

Thanks

I realize it might not be the correct group to ask such a question, but
someone here perhaps has come accross a similar issue

[sheldonlg]

henribaeyens wrote:

Hello,

So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents (generally Word documents) but they have to
pay for that. We use micropayments. Upon payment, a script looks up the
file name in a database, establishes a url, and the dl begins. I want to
protect the directory the downloadable files reside in; obviously an
htaccess directive would prevent all access and thence all downloads. So
I thought of this: store the files in an htaccess-protected directory,
and when it is requested, copy it to a public directory, give it a random
name, and feed the url to the browser. To prevent files from piling up in
the download directory, I would have to set up a task (cron job?) to
delete all files whose date of creation (or last access) is more the a
given period of time. The idea here is also to prevent anyone from, say,
jotting down the file's url and access it at a date. Granted, he/she/it
did pay for the file but he/she/it could as well pass the url on to
someone else.

What do you think about that; both on the principle and on the
methodology.

Thanks

I realize it might not be the correct group to ask such a question, but
someone here perhaps has come accross a similar issue

....and just what is to prevent someone who has purchased the file from
simply emailing that files as an attachment or putting it on a cd or
uploading it to his own website or whatever and giving it to someone else?

I did a website like this and I pointed this out at the time, but they
wanted it anyway so I did it. After all they were paying. I put a
counter in a database which I decremented (they were allowed three
downloads), and only provided the file if downloads were available
(after a login, of course).

[The Natural Philosopher]

henribaeyens wrote:

Hello,

So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents (generally Word documents) but they have to
pay for that. We use micropayments. Upon payment, a script looks up the
file name in a database, establishes a url, and the dl begins. I want to
protect the directory the downloadable files reside in; obviously an
htaccess directive would prevent all access and thence all downloads. So
I thought of this: store the files in an htaccess-protected directory,
and when it is requested, copy it to a public directory, give it a random
name, and feed the url to the browser. To prevent files from piling up in
the download directory, I would have to set up a task (cron job?) to
delete all files whose date of creation (or last access) is more the a
given period of time. The idea here is also to prevent anyone from, say,
jotting down the file's url and access it at a date. Granted, he/she/it
did pay for the file but he/she/it could as well pass the url on to
someone else.

What do you think about that; both on the principle and on the
methodology.

Thanks

I realize it might not be the correct group to ask such a question, but
someone here perhaps has come accross a similar issue

Far too complicated: use a database to store the files as BLOBS.

[David Quinton]

On 13 Aug 2008 22:42:24 GMT, henribaeyens <co*****@myname.comwrote:

>Hello,

So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents

Why reinvent the wheel?

We use IPNMonitor:
http://www.withinweb.com/phpipnmonitor/index.php
(but it uses PayPal IPN)
--
Locate your Mobile phone: <http://www.bizorg.co.uk/news.html>
Great gifts: <http://www.ThisBritain.com/ASOS_popup.html>

[Michael Fesser]

..oO(henribaeyens)

>So, I did this website for a client; one part gives users the opportunity
to download various documents (generally Word documents) but they have to
pay for that. We use micropayments. Upon payment, a script looks up the
file name in a database, establishes a url, and the dl begins. I want to
protect the directory the downloadable files reside in; obviously an
htaccess directive would prevent all access and thence all downloads.

The better way would be to store these files outside the document root,
no .htaccess needed there.

>So
I thought of this: store the files in an htaccess-protected directory,
and when it is requested, copy it to a public directory, give it a random
name, and feed the url to the browser.

Ugly and insecure (security by obscurity).

>To prevent files from piling up in
the download directory, I would have to set up a task (cron job?) to
delete all files whose date of creation (or last access) is more the a
given period of time.

Even more ugly.

>The idea here is also to prevent anyone from, say,
jotting down the file's url and access it at a date.

If it's publically available, it can be downloaded.

>Granted, he/she/it
did pay for the file but he/she/it could as well pass the url on to
someone else.

This can happen everywhere, you can't prevent that.

>What do you think about that; both on the principle and on the
methodology.

Bad idea. Store the files outside the docroot as already said, then use
a script to deliver them to the clients. The script just has to check
that the user is allowed to download the requsted file.

Micha

[Michael Fesser]

..oO(Mark)

>Doesn't sound like an elegant solution. I'm no expert in this field,
but .htaccess wouldn't prevent you from doing this, would it?

<?php
// downloading a file
$filename = $_GET['path'];

[...]

@readfile($filename);

Never(!) use any client data without proper validation! Do you know what
the above would allow an attacker to do? To download every file on the
entire server which is readable for the web server! This would include
important system configuration files, your own scripts, probably your
database credentials ...

Micha

[Mark]

On Aug 14, 10:46*am, Michael Fesser <[e-mail]:

.oO(Mark)

Doesn't sound like an elegant solution. I'm no expert in this field,
but .htaccess wouldn't prevent you from doing this, would it?

<?php
// downloading a file
$filename = $_GET['path'];

[...]

@readfile($filename);

Never(!) use any client data without proper validation! Do you know what
the above would allow an attacker to do? To download every file on the
entire server which is readable for the web server! This would include
important system configuration files, your own scripts, probably your
database credentials ...

Micha

Well... I'd like to say "that goes without saying", but I guess I
can't. That was a copy and paste job :p