[mythtv] [PATCH] Mythweb -- generalized SQL queries, HD search, page of canned searches

Brad Templeton brad+mydev at templetons.com
Mon Feb 28 07:24:00 UTC 2005


On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 03:17:46PM -0800, Chris Petersen wrote:
> >a) One can preface "hd:" to a search and find only programs broadcast in
> >HDTV.
> 
> Good enough, but I think I'm going to make this a checkbox option like 
> "exact match" -- you'll see the commit go in soon.

Yeah, I put that in before I decided I wanted canned queries more.
> 
> >b) One can provide a parameter "sql" which is a generalized SQL query for
> >the "program" table to search.php.    This is mostly used below, but
> >allows users to build complex queries, if they know their SQL, and bookmark
> >them for future searching.
> 
> I can't allow this -- it's too blatant of a security risk.

I was thinking about this, and in fact in the update of the patch I sent
you this morning I had put in some basics like refusing any query with
a semicolon in it.   I was looking around for analysis of what security
risks there were in an open SQL query (aside from semicolon) and I didn't
see as many as I thought.    I mean anybody with mythweb access can already
pretty much muck up your system, deleting all shows, schedules, scheduling
new shows etc.   Most people, as you know, keep their mythtv database with
the default password, ie. no security from people on the local net who
also have mythweb access.

Or, since I'm not a PHP programmer, is there a risk of breaking out into
PHP code itself with such an arbitrary string I'm not aware of?

But I agree you don't want to take risks you don't need to.  One thing
I like a lot about the generalized SQL query is that users can use
them and bookmark them for all their favourite searches.   Or people
on the myth-users list could easily help newbies by giving them query
links the users can bookmark to solve their problems.

Canned hash links can solve the security question of course but less
so the bookmark one. 

Patch in this style coming shortly.



More information about the mythtv-dev mailing list