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I just developed a URL shortener.

index.php:

<?
    $sql_host = "...";
    $sql_db = "...";
    $sql_user = "...";
    $sql_pass = "...";

    $conn_error = "Could not connect to database";

    $con = mysqli_connect($sql_host, $sql_user, $sql_pass, $sql_db) or die($conn_error);

    $hash = htmlspecialchars($_GET["l"]);
    $hash = mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $hash);

    if (!(empty($hash))) {
        $query = "SELECT * FROM `links` WHERE hash = '$hash'";
        $row = mysqli_query($con, $query) or die($conn_error);
        if (mysqli_num_rows($row)) {
            $_ROW = mysqli_fetch_assoc($row);
            $url = $_ROW["link"];
            header("Location: $url");
            exit;
        } else {
            die("link not available");
        }
    }
?>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>gus URL Shortener</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        Type the link to be shortened:<br>
        <form action="short.php" method="post">
        <input type="text" name="url"><input type="submit" value="Shorten">
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

The form redirects to short.php where the link is generated:

<html>
    <?
        $sql_host = "...";
        $sql_db = "...";
        $sql_user = "...";
        $sql_pass = "...";

        $conn_error = "Could not connect to database";

        $con = mysqli_connect($sql_host, $sql_user, $sql_pass, $sql_db) or die($conn_error);

        $url = $_POST["url"];
        $url = mysqli_real_escape_string($con, $url);
        $hash = hash("crc32", "$url");

        if (!(empty($url))) {
            if ((substr($url, 0, 7) == "http://") or (substr($url, 0, 8) == "https://")) {
                $query = "INSERT INTO `links` (hash, link)
                          VALUES ('$hash', '$url')";
                mysqli_query($con, $query) or die($conn_error);
            } else {
                die("Your link needs to start with http:// or https://");
            }
        }
    ?>
    <head>
        <title>gus URL Shortener</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        Your Link:
        <? echo "<a href='http://gus.netii.net/?l=$hash'>gus.netii.net/?l=$hash</a>";?>
    </body>
</html>

Sorry it's not commented but I think it's pretty straightforward. I've been thinking how could I do it so the link doesn't have the "?l=..." like other shorteners have.

UPDATE

Now gus.netii.net is up and running safely, like @CodeX suggested, also without the "?l=" thing after the url to GET with php ! Thanks to all and share it please.

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8
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ url rewrite might work with.htaccess \$\endgroup\$
    – CodeX
    Jul 21, 2014 at 15:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ BTW is your hash meant to be a random hash? \$\endgroup\$
    – CodeX
    Jul 21, 2014 at 16:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ yep, random but unique \$\endgroup\$
    – matheussilvapb
    Jul 21, 2014 at 16:47
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ google.com for example will always be db85f073 using crc32 \$\endgroup\$
    – CodeX
    Jul 21, 2014 at 16:49
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ This is also good reading - blog.codinghorror.com/url-shortening-hashes-in-practice \$\endgroup\$
    – CodeX
    Jul 21, 2014 at 16:56

2 Answers 2

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Ok, so the main problem with your code is that it is vulnerable to SQL injection you can fix that by using prepared statements - http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.quickstart.prepared-statements.php

If you want to remove the ?l= you can look into Mod Rewrite - http://www.sitepoint.com/guide-url-rewriting/ and have the URL generate as gus.netii.net/$hash

I took the MySQLi Code straight from PHP.net to use in this example

index.php

$sql_host = "";
$sql_db = "";
$sql_user = "";
$sql_pass = "";

$mysqli = new mysqli($sql_host, $sql_user, $sql_pass, $sql_db);
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
    echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
}

if(isset($_GET['l'])) {
    $hash = htmlspecialchars($_GET["l"]);
}

if (!empty($hash)) {
    if (!($stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT link FROM links WHERE hash = ?"))) {
            echo "Prepare failed: (" . $mysqli->errno . ") " . $mysqli->error;
    }

    if (!$stmt->bind_param("s", $hash)) {
        echo "Binding parameters failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
    }

    if (!$stmt->execute()) {
        echo "Execute failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
    }

    if ($stmt->execute()) {
        $stmt->bind_result($url);
        $stmt->fetch();
        header("Location: $url");
    } else {
        echo "link not available";
    }
}

short.php

$sql_host = "";
$sql_db = "";
$sql_user = "";
$sql_pass = "";

$mysqli = new mysqli($sql_host, $sql_user, $sql_pass, $sql_db);
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
    echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
}

$url = $_POST["url"];
$hash = hash("crc32", "$url");

if (!empty($url)) {
    if ((substr($url, 0, 7) == "http://") or (substr($url, 0, 8) == "https://")) {
        if (!($stmt = $mysqli->prepare("INSERT INTO links(hash, link) VALUES (?,?)"))) {
            echo "Prepare failed: (" . $mysqli->errno . ") " . $mysqli->error;
        }
        if (!$stmt->bind_param("ss", $hash, $url)) {
            echo "Binding parameters failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
        }
        if (!$stmt->execute()) {
            echo "Execute failed: (" . $stmt->errno . ") " . $stmt->error;
        }
        echo "<a href='http://gus.netii.net/?l=".$hash."'>gus.netii.net/?l=".$hash."</a>";
    } 
    else {
        echo "Your link needs to start with http:// or https://";
    }
}
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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ what $stmt stands for ? \$\endgroup\$
    – matheussilvapb
    Jul 21, 2014 at 22:55
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ @matheussilvapb $stmt usually is a shorthand term for "statement", which is meant to represent a prepared statement. \$\endgroup\$
    – Alex L
    Jul 21, 2014 at 23:21
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Apart from fixing the SQL injection with prepared statements as shown by CodeX you should/could do

  • Move your SQL data and possibly also the connecting to the database into a config.php
  • You didn't specify the table layout so make sure to properly set the unique property for fields
  • Consider using a different database more suited for the task. SQL databases are for relational data. You don't really have that so you could use a NoSQL system such as Redis for speed improvements.
  • Do an more through checking whether it is a valid url. E.g. only a limited character set and no succeeding periods in the hostname, ... You can use filter_var() for this
  • Not use a hash but an incrementally rising ID to save URL space. Easily doable in redis (INCR), and to shorten the length of the ID it could be represented in baseX.
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