CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpemail
user782104
user782104

Reputation: 13555

Using encryption email address, user name as a unsubscribe link

I am doing some kind of unsubscribe page.

My idea is using the get method with encryption. for example:

unsubscribe.php?mail=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&uid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It can automatically unsubscibe the receiver once he click the link.

I am going to encrypt the data using sha1 so the problem is

1) is it secure? 2) Whether i have to make a extra 2 field for the encrypted uid and mail address?

Thank you

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1589

Answers (2)

ircmaxell
ircmaxell

Reputation: 165271

Absolultely not!

Do not encrypt the user's data like that. You're doing nothing but needlessly exposing user data to the public.

Besides hashing is not encryption...

Instead, create a long random string (at least 40 characters), and store it in the database for that user. Then add that to the mail unsubscribe link. That way, there's no chance of data leakage...

To generate the random string, you can use a function similar to this:

function makeRandomString($bytes) {
    $seed = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    $len = strlen($seed) - 1;
    $return = '';
    for ($i = 0; $i < $bytes; $i++) {
        $return .= $seed[mt_rand(0, $len)];
    }
    return $return;
}

$random = makeRandomString(40); // 40 character random string...

Upvotes: 4

Pekka
Pekka

Reputation: 449733

Don't encrypt - create a random key instead, which you store in your database and retrieve when the user arrives at the unsubscribe link! Much easier and safer.

email            |   random_key
-------------------------------
[email protected]     | dsadfdsfsaf2
[email protected]| dfssf32e34fa

the unsubscribe link:

unsubscribe.php?key=dfssf32e34fa  <---- [email protected]

Upvotes: 5

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