converting a perl script

[Andy T]

Hi

forgive me if I seem a bit dumb but at my age its allowed.

I havea script called bignosebird which I adapted to send me some info
about people booking in for a race meeting. (radio controlled cars)

I have just been told I am using form mail so I need to change it so I
am using nms formmail instead of PHP3 but none of it makes sense?
(they said its a spam engine)

Has any one got a few mins to check out what I need to do so I can
get it clear in my mind please??

If you mail me I will send you the URL of my booking form to see if
you can understand what I am trying to achive and how I can integrate
this nms formmail.

Thanks in advance!
Regards Andy T

 

[usenet]

I havea script called bignosebird which I adapted to send me some info
about people booking in for a race meeting. (radio controlled cars)

Hmmm. The name of your script suggest it originally came from
http://bignosebird.com (a somewhat outdated script site).

I have just been told I am using form mail so I need to change it so I
am using nms formmail instead of PHP3 but none of it makes sense?

"form mail" is a script on Matt's Script Archive (MSA,
http://www.scriptarchive.com/). This site has no association with
bignosebird, so the justaposition of the two names is somewhat
confusing. And neither bignosebird nor MSA (to my knowledge) ever
published programs for the PHP3 language, which adds to the confusion.

Matt Wright (the MSA guy) wrote and published some scripts back in the
mid-90's. They weren't very good scripts (as even Matt himself now
admits). Some PerlMongers established a project (nms) to completely
rewrite the MSA scripts, but make them drop-in replacements for MSA.

If you did get your mail script from MSA then you really should replace
it with the nms counterpart:
http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml

Because nms is a drop-in replacement, the only thing you need to do is
overwrite your MSA-version of formmail.pl (or whatever you called it)
with the nms version that you can download from the website above. You
don't need to edit any code. It's a two-minute fix which will close
the holes in MSA formmail.pl.

If, however, you really ARE using a bignosebird script, the above
probably will not apply.

 

[Andy T]

Hmmm. The name of your script suggest it originally came from
http://bignosebird.com (a somewhat outdated script site).

Yes this is fact where it came from!

"form mail" is a script on Matt's Script Archive (MSA,
http://www.scriptarchive.com/). This site has no association with
bignosebird, so the justaposition of the two names is somewhat
confusing. And neither bignosebird nor MSA (to my knowledge) ever
published programs for the PHP3 language, which adds to the confusion.

The fact my ISP mentioned PHP3 did confuse me somewhat!

Matt Wright (the MSA guy) wrote and published some scripts back in the
mid-90's. They weren't very good scripts (as even Matt himself now
admits). Some PerlMongers established a project (nms) to completely
rewrite the MSA scripts, but make them drop-in replacements for MSA.

If you did get your mail script from MSA then you really should replace
it with the nms counterpart:
http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml

Had a look there and can understand what you say IF I had a MSA script
I would find it quite simple I guess.

Because nms is a drop-in replacement, the only thing you need to do is
overwrite your MSA-version of formmail.pl (or whatever you called it)
with the nms version that you can download from the website above. You
don't need to edit any code. It's a two-minute fix which will close
the holes in MSA formmail.pl.

Which would be nice LOL

If, however, you really ARE using a bignosebird script, the above
probably will not apply.

Yes that is the case so what next!.

Am I allowed to post the script to see what people suggest please??
Regards Andy T

 

[Andy T]

If, however, you really ARE using a bignosebird script, the above
probably will not apply.

sorry I forgot the URL of the form!

http://www.bnrc.co.uk/bnb/winter1211.html

My problem is am very happy to learn but I dont have much time as
these forms are being used daily and I need to try and solve my dilema
ASAP.

Any help appreciated!
Regards Andy T

 

[usenet]

Yes that is the case so what next!.

Am I allowed to post the script to see what people suggest please??

No (it would violate the BNB copyright/republication notice at the end
of the script). However, it's not necessary; it was easy to find the
script that you're using:

http://bignosebird.com/carchive/bnbform/bnbform.txt

According to the comments at the top of the script, it was written in
1998 and updated in 2000 for "security reasons" (and the context
suggests some of these reasons concerned e-mail functionality). You
should insure you are using this updated version.

But the updated version does not enable taint checks, which is standard
for good CGI progamming. You should enable taint checking by adding -T
to your shebang line, ie:

#!/usr/bin/perl -T

This might cause something to break (which, in this case, is a good
thing). See "perldoc perlsec" for information about tainted
parameters.

I briefly skimmed the script. I'm not a big fan of it - it disregards
many practices considered manditatory in good modern Perl programming
(notably the lack of "use strict" and, to a lesser extent, "use
warnings"). However, I didn't see any obvious huge problems. But one
thing is for sure: you are NOT using MSA form mail, as you have been
accused of.