<cffileupload> and Database Insert of File Name - coldfusion

I am having a problem with the cffileupload tag and then inserting the names of the files uploaded into the database. It seems like there are no hooks back from the CF Action page that would say if it was successful, if the file was renamed, what the new filename is, and
Basically, I want a user to be able to upload mulitple files (up to 10) without a timeout and storing the name of the files in the database.
Any suggestions would be welcome! I've dug around on the interweb, and there doesn't seem to be any elegant solutions.

After the file is processed by <cffile action="upload">, there's a huge amount of information available via the variable specified in "result". This includes the original filename, the file size, and an indicator of success. Adobe's docs on cffile has the details. Your best bet is to create a temporary file, push the upload to there via cffile, evaluate success or failure, then push it into the database. Something like:
<cfset TemporaryFile = GetTempFile(GetTempDirectory(), "myAppTemp") />
<cffile action="upload" destination="#TemporaryFile#"
fileField="filefield" result="FileResults" />
Then you can access your file via the TemporaryFile variable, and the filename via FileResults.clientFile. FileResults.fileWasSaved should indicate success or failure of the upload and subsequent save to disk.

Related

ColdFusion CFFILE to limit text file upload

I'm want to use CFFILE upload to detect only .txt file. I've tried to use file.clientfileext to detect the extension. When TXT is detected, I'm showing a pop up error message to users and delete the file. But I was told I should not even allow user's file to reach our server.
Then I use CFFILE accept attribute to only accept text/plain. This should do it but unfortunately on my test when I tried uploading non text file I got ColdFusion error:
The MIME type of the uploaded file application/pdf was not accepted by
the server. Only files of type text/plain can be uploaded. Verify
that you are uploading a file of the appropriate type.
I tried to use cftry and cfcatch but I still get the same error, this mainly due to the MIME Type that I don't know when the file is being uploaded by the browser.
I also found the same question in this forum and tried the suggested answer, it did not work, still got the same error message (see below)
I also found another posting in this forum that do not suggest the use of CF "accept" attribute. This link is provided for a further detail explanation: http://www.petefreitag.com/item/701.cfm
So my question is, since I'm still using CF8, I actually don't have many options to prevent my users from uploading other than .txt file securely?
If I can't use the accept attribute of the CFFILE, can I at least secure my file upload functionality by doing the following? but is doing it this way safe enough?
Upload the file to a temp folder that is not under the root dir
verify the file extension
change the file name even if the extension is detected to be a .txt
move the file to the destination file under the root dir
Even if I do these steps, I have to allowed the file to reach our server, the order is to NOT allow the file to reach our server.
Below is the answer/suggestion from previous question. But it doesn't work when I tested it:
<CFTRY>
<cflock name="write_lock" type="Exclusive" timeout="120">
<cffile action="upload" filefield="filepath" destination="#DestDir#"
nameconflict="Overwrite" attributes="Archive">
</cflock>
<CFCATCH>
<cfif FindNoCase("not accepted", cfcatch.Message)>
<script>
$(function(){
alert("Only the following file types are allowed: .jpg, .gif, .bmp,
.png.");
});
</script>
<cfabort />
<cfelse>
<!--- looks like non-MIME error, handle separately --->
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#" abort />
</cfif>
</CFCATCH>
</CFTRY>
I think your steps are reasonable if you don't like using the Accept attribute for validation. FYI you can set accept to .txt instead of the MIME types. The MIME type was determined by the client so it's safer to check the extension anyway.
The exception thrown by cffile failing attribute validation may not have a type, so the code you posted tried to detect it with FindNoCase() by looking at the exception's message. You can dump the exception out and find out why the FindNoCase() failed to catch the exception.
Make sure you treat whatever uploaded as something potentially malicious and do not process them (e.g. cfinclude them). Forcing the file extension to be .txt should be safe enough, but I'll let other security experts charm in.
You can use the below code:
<cffile action="upload" filefield="BidDoc"
destination="C:\upload\"
nameconflict="makeunique"
accept="text/plain">
The other mime types which you may use are:
application/pdf
application/msword
application/vnd.ms-excel
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
As discussed in this answer, there really is no 100% fool-proof way.
If you don't want to trust the "accept" attribute, I would suggest allowing the user to upload the file and then checking the mime type of the uploaded file using the cffile.contentType property. Check against whatever mime types you wish to allow/restrict and reject with the appropriate message. You may also choose to employ a check of the file extension as an added layer of error checking.
It must be noted that like file extensions, mime types can not be 100% trusted to be accurate as they can be edited by the user. But using a combination of checks you can be reasonably that most files uploaded are of the correct type.
Coldfusion will not prevent a file from being uploaded to a server. You can set a maximum file size but this is processed during the upload. The cffile tag kicks in after the file is uploaded. Furthermore it is rather difficult to really determine if a file is a text file or a jpg, exe, rar etc file. The following q & a may help:
Determining binary/text file type in Java?
In my opinion it is best to follow the tips given by pete freitag and use a java class to determine the file type. Then you can delete all non text files.

Cfdocument being served by server despite being in cfsavecontent

It seems that when I use the <cfsavecontent> tag, the output of that is being served by the server (without the variable being outputted), which, to me, kind of defeats the purpose of <cfsavecontent>.
If this is important: my application uses ColdSpring, ModelGlue and Transfer ORM.
Here's my example code in a function:
<cfsavecontent variable="testvar">
<cfinclude template="test.cfm" />
</cfsavecontent>
<cfreturn testvar>
And the template:
<cfdocument format="PDF" pagetype="A4" orientation="portrait" unit="cm">
<cfoutput>
<!--- PDF content here --->
</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>
The PDF content is being parsed by my browser (Google Chrome), while the view hasn't even been loaded in. How can I best prevent this from happening?
Just to clarify: I am not outputting the #testvar# variable yet in this code, though it seems it loads the template in the browser anyways.
To achieve what you're trying to do, should you not simply be using the name attribute of <cfdocument> to put the PDF data into a variable, instead of trying to <cfsavecontent> it?
Disclosure: I've never used <cfdocument> for anything other than proof-of-concept code and testing, but that's what I'm inferring from the docs.
As I also needed to make multiple PDF documents merge, I ended up doing the following. Many thanks to Adam Cameron for providing the solution to my initial issue.
In the template file, I use the <cfdocument> tag with the name attribute to save the PDF in a variable (thanks to Adam Cameron for this)
Then, I store all the PDF documents in an array in their binary format
In my view, I merge the PDF documents together by using <cfpdf>'s merge action, and using a cfloop, to loop over the array, inside it.
Finally, I display the content by using <cfcontent> and using the variable attribute with toBinary(myPdf)
This got me to where I am.
cfinclude will process the test.cfm page, and the way you configured cfdocument will cause "opening" of pdf document in your browser.
You can prevent openning of this file by saving file on the disc:
<cfdocument format="PDF" pagetype="A4" orientation="portrait" unit="cm" filename ="test.pdf" overwrite ="yes">
But this will not prevent execution of cfinclude in the cfcontent tag, it will just prevent opening in the browser.
You can observe cfinclude as request to the server, it will always be executed.
The solution would be to invoke request on test.cfm file which contains cfdocument in the moment that you actually want to generate pdf.
Example: Use javascript on client to invoke report service which will generate and pop out the screen with pdf report.
Hope this helps.

How can I confirm a cffile write is successful?

I am using cffile to create a new file or update an existing file, depending on what the user requested. The request comes through a form from the previous procedure, so the code involving cffile looks like this:
<cfset thefile = "#form.dyn#">
<cfoutput>
<cfsavecontent variable = "testvar">
#form.editor1#
</cfsavecontent>
<cffile action = "write"
file = "/var/www/reports/#thefile#.cfm"
output = "#testvar#">
</cfoutput>
When I am done writing to the file, I want to confirm to the user that this happened. For a new file I could use IsDefined to check that it is there. But I can't think of a way to check for an existing file that was updated. I considered a try/catch on the cffile, but the catch operates only if nothing seems to go wrong. If I don't get an error on the catch, can I assume everything is all right? I would prefer a direct check if possible. Does anyone have an idea?
If <cffile> doesn't work, it'll tell you by throwing an exception. If it doesn't do that, you can safely assume it has worked. Don't over-engineer your app.
You could use cfdirectory with the action="list" and filter="your-filename" to get the following information about the uploaded file:
If action = "list", cfdirectory returns the following result columns, which you can reference in a cfoutput tag:
name: Directory entry name. The entries "." and ".." are not returned.
directory: Directory that contains the entry.
size: Directory entry size.
type: File type: file, for a file; dir, for a directory.
dateLastModified: The date that an entry was last modified.
attributes: File attributes, if applicable.
mode: Empty column; retained for backward compatibility with ColdFusion 5 applications on UNIX.
Of interest to you is the dateLastModified column.
So you should be able to do something like:
<cfdirectory action="list" name="dirQuery" directory="C:/var/www/reports/" filter="#thefile#.cfm">
Then you can dump that result to see what information is available to you:
<cfdump var="#dirQuery#">
The dateLastModified column can be accessed like:
<cfoutput>#dirQuery.dateLastModified#</cfoutput>
Use CFDirectory to get the file's dateLastModified before you update the file and then again afterwards. If they are not the same, then it was updated.

Does <cffile> "write" allow a file to execute before renaming/writing the file?

I've created a file upload for my client and I'm trying to make things as secure as possible. I'm using the following code to handle the file upload. The idea is to rename the file and write it to a folder outside the web root.
The question is, during the 'write' process is there any chance that ColdFusion will allow a malicious file to execute before the file is written to the folder and renamed with the following code?
This is at the top of my component...
<cfset destdir = "/folder/upload/">
This is part of the code that handles the file...
<cfset var local = structNew()>
<cfset local.response = structNew()>
<cfset local.response['catcher'] = ''>
<cfset local.filename = listGetAt(#arguments.file#, 1, ".")>
<cfset local.fileext = ListLast(#arguments.file#, ".")>
<cfset local.nfile = #CreateUUID()# & "." & #local.fileext#>
<cftry>
<cffile action="write" file="#destdir##local.nfile#" output="#arguments.content#">
<cfset local.response['newfilename'] = local.nfile>
<cfcatch type="any">
<cfset local.response['catcher'] = "Write Exception " & #cfcatch.Detail# & " | " & #cfcatch.Message#>
<cfset local.response['success'] = true>
<cfreturn local.response>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
I should mention that the file upload procedure is being handled by a CFC and Valums' AjaxUpload Plugin...
Your sample code looks like you're doing something different from a normal file upload. You don't have a cffile action="upload", and it looks like you're already retrieved the content of the file. You should be limiting the local.fileext to file types that you consider safe and the Arguments.content should be checked to make sure it's not malicious. As soon as you've written the file to the webroot it can be probed through the url, so you must verify that everything is safe before writing it.
With a normal form post file upload the process should be something like:
Use cffile action="upload" to write the file upload into a temp folder outside the webroot
Verify the integrity of the file to make sure it's not malicious (delete if bad file)
Move the verified file into its final location with cffile action="move"
To answer the question you asked - your "write" opertation is a single operation. You are not moving and renaming the original file (at least not in the code above). Instead you are creating a file handle, outputting a buffer and closing the handle. The code cannot be executed prior to the release of the handle. If you were moving and renaming or copying the file itself then there could be a gap as you fear - enough to allow an execution. You should also know that file I/O might create problems if you intend to write then execute the file in a single request thread (could get an error trying to get access to the file as Java might hit slightly ahead of the OS on getting notice of the handle release if you see what I'm saying).
Here's a post on cffile hacking that might shed light around the edges of your issue.
http://www.coldfusionmuse.com/index.cfm/2009/9/18/script.insertion.attack.vector
Note - this is my understanding... pretty solid, but there some pretty smart folks on this list including the ones who have responded already. Not trying to steal anyone's thunder here.
Renaming the file at upload and placing in outside the web root is a good idea, but there are still some basic points how you can improve security at fileupload in coldfusion.
For starters cffile with action upload has an attribute "accept" where you can specify which mime-types (comma delimited list) your fileupload will allow.
cffile also has a "mode" attribute (for linux only) to set permissions for the file.
source: http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_f_02.html
I don't think that an uploaded malicious file can be executed automaticly when it's uploaded that easy, but it's a good practice to take precautions.

Coldfusion, using GetHttpRequestData, to Store and Handle Files

I have a JQUERY file upload plug-in which allows users to upload files to the Coldfusion server. The plugin submits the files to the server in a way that requires me to use GetHttpRequestData() for the files contents. Here's what I have so far in terms of handling the file data:
<cfparam name="URL.qqfile" type="string">
<cfset x = GetHttpRequestData()>
<cffile action="write" output="#x.content#" file="c:\temp\#URL.qqfile#">
This works, which is nice, but I can't seem to take this to the next step.
What I want to happen next is:
A. Determine the file's extension.
B. If it is an accepted ext defined by my app, (JPG,PNG,PDF, DOC, DOCX, etc...) upload it to the correct directory on the server. Then delete the temp file above
C. Use CFIMAGE to make a thumbnail if the file uploaded was an Image
How can I take the above through steps A-C with the GetHttpRequestData problem?
Thanks
A few tips:
Have a look at the result structure of GetHttpRequestData() via <cfdump>.
Pull out the necessary headers by accessing this struct. The Content-Type header usually contains the stuff you want to know. You can use the List functions (i.e. ListLen(), ListFirst(), ListLast(), ListRest() with appropriate delimiter chars) to easily parse the string.
Always use StructKeyExists() to safeguard against missing struct parts. Never take for granted anything that "typically" seems to be in this struct.
Don't blindly trust file extensions or the Content-Type header. Also look into the first few bytes of the uploaded file and compare them against a white list to confirm the file type.
Have a look at <cffile action="upload">.
Optionally, perfom a drive space test to assess if the uploaded data does not clog the server, or enforce limits in another way that suits you.
Read through the documentation of <cfimage>. It can't be that hard to use it to make thumbnails.