|
by TNC 06/22/2003, 12:13am PDT |
|
 |
|
 |
|
OK, so you can inline an image into a post (make it appear in a post while hosted on some other webserver) by typing (img src="http://www.geocities.com/somefag/someimage.jpg") with parenthesis as greater-than/less-than, right?
OK, what happens when you do this:
First that information is posted to the Caltrops forum DB by John Poster, forget how as it doesn't matter.
Then John Reader types in the URL into his browser, his browser opens a connection (or a 'socket') to 206.124.137.13 port 80 and sends something along these lines:
"GET /pointy.php?action=viewPost&pid=14412 HTTP/1.1" -- Actual example of the post in question, with a space seperating the 'action', 'resource to retrieve' and 'protocol to use' portions
This is the main line, what follows are any many different headers defined in the HTTP/1.1 specification (or the far fewer defined in HTTP/1.0). One of these is required, but most browsers send FAR more. There are 46 total headers for 1.1 (I believe this includes server and browser) and 16 for 1.0. One of the nastiest is the 'referrer' header, which lets the server handling the request know where that request came from . . . it has been profusely abused for tracking how and where people surf, and has also destroyed the functioning of the Internet as was intended (as seen in the example of those broken images)
So Caltrops sees headers like this line:
"User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; MSNIA; Windows 98; Win 9x 4.90)"
as well as many others. It digs up the post from the forum DB, constructs the HTML page and sends back:
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2003 20:01:39 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 9525
(everything you see when you 'view source' goes here)
So, great, your browser now has the text of the HTML for the webpage - which tells it nothing about the images. So it goes and creates one of those little 'GET' requests for each and every image defined in the HTML, and when it comes to the (broken) ones linked in the post itself, it sends little GET requests out to Orlandomultimedia.net. Unfortunately it also tells Orlandomultimedia.net's webserver that the REFERRER was . . . Caltrops.com!
PROBLEM.
See, Orlandomultimedia.net is running, according to Netcraft here, the following (deep breath):
"Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) DAV/1.0.3 mod_bwprotect/0.2 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.0 PHP/4.3.2 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510 mod_ssl/2.8.14 OpenSSL/0.9.6b on Linux"
Now that bwprotect 0.2 mod sees the referrer header in those two image GET requests and says "HEY! That's not coming from an .html page I host! Some other webserver is trying to use my bandwidth to host an image!" and throws up a very low-bandwidth garbage image in place of the actual image.
They are preventing what is known as inlining or hotlinking or hardlinking or to people very very short on bandwidth 'stealing' - if it ever happens with Caltrops a lot I'll slap on mod_rewrite (which does the same thing as bwprotect only it's far more kid-tested/mother-approved) to put a stop to it.
AND NOW YOU KNOW!
--TNC |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
"you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by FABIO 06/19/2003, 1:47am PDT 
Re: "you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by foogla 06/19/2003, 4:27am PDT
Re: "you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by Moab 06/19/2003, 7:05am PDT
Re: "you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by foogla 06/19/2003, 7:28am PDT
Pop-up/Scratch-'n-Sniff I believe. NT by Moab 06/19/2003, 2:02pm PDT
I think Harry's the one who dies NT by Masked Man 06/19/2003, 12:39pm PDT
We can only hope NT by Choson 06/19/2003, 1:58pm PDT
Re: "you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by FABIO 06/19/2003, 11:46pm PDT
FABIO hates Harry Potter, Caltrops completely unsurprised. NT by A small child 06/20/2003, 2:33am PDT
good one! by FABIO 06/20/2003, 2:40am PDT
FABIO GETS IT, freaks out, nobody cares. NT by A small child. 06/20/2003, 12:41pm PDT
about your point? that you're an idiot? by FABIO 06/20/2003, 1:32pm PDT
OH GOOD ONE FABIO, THAT WAS AN HOUR WELL SPENT. NT by A small child 06/20/2003, 5:07pm PDT
Christ, this idiot sounds like me. Now I hate myself even more. :( NT by I need clarification 06/20/2003, 5:22pm PDT
I want to be INC when I grow up. NT by A small child 06/20/2003, 5:27pm PDT
playing C&C: Generals online? I quite agree NT by FABIO 06/21/2003, 6:33pm PDT
Re: "you are writing childrens books, you need to be a ruthless killer by Choson 06/20/2003, 7:22am PDT
The appeal by FoK 06/20/2003, 12:28pm PDT
An old log (illustrated). by Fussbett 06/20/2003, 2:02pm PDT
Re: An old log (illustrated). by Anonymous! 06/20/2003, 9:32pm PDT
Re: An old log (illustrated). by FABIO 06/21/2003, 3:55am PDT
Responding to the me-troll. by Fullofkittens 06/21/2003, 9:40am PDT
How fortunate for my post: Troy! by Monminimous! 06/21/2003, 4:01pm PDT
TO SAVE BANDWIDTH HOTLINKING IS NOT ALLOWED by Jhoh Creexul 06/21/2003, 4:18pm PDT
They won't let me HOTLINK to their HOT DUDES? by Monminimous! 06/21/2003, 6:09pm PDT
OK, just what is "hotlinking"? by Intarweb Newbie 06/21/2003, 4:18pm PDT
Also known as hardlinking or just 'inlining' by TNC 06/22/2003, 12:13am PDT
And knowing is half the battle. by E. L. Koba 06/22/2003, 12:28am PDT
It's "referer" NT by Technical Niggles & Corrections 06/22/2003, 1:31am PDT
Re: It's "referer" by foogla 06/22/2003, 4:13am PDT
Re: Responding to the me-troll. by Lizard_King 06/22/2003, 10:58pm PDT
Hi Vag NT by Binro Weeble 06/27/2003, 2:42am PDT
Radiohead agrees with you. by Fussbett 06/22/2003, 3:10am PDT
Re: The appeal by Lizard_King 06/22/2003, 11:01pm PDT
Re: The appeal by FoK, too drunk to argue, really. 06/22/2003, 11:12pm PDT
Pfft by TNC 06/22/2003, 11:57pm PDT
I tried. I really did. by Lizard_King 06/23/2003, 3:06am PDT
Re: I tried. I really did. by Senor Barborito 06/23/2003, 3:19am PDT
Re: I tried. I really did. by FoK, slept on bathroom floor. 06/23/2003, 11:59am PDT
Worst reason to do anything. EVER. by Nimnabulous! 06/23/2003, 12:34pm PDT
Sorry to hear you got fired! by Fullofkittens 06/23/2003, 12:43pm PDT
I know who Ruben is, too. Can I have your job? DUMBLEDORE! NT by Nimnabulous! 06/23/2003, 1:00pm PDT
All I know is that if I see ONE more goddamn "news" report on Potter.... by Lizard_King 06/23/2003, 10:03pm PDT
Re: I tried. I really did. by The man who sold the moog 06/23/2003, 8:01pm PDT
Nice gay italics. Good luck with that. NT by Lizard_King 06/23/2003, 10:01pm PDT
Look at my sacks of cash! NT by Dan Brown 06/20/2006, 1:31am PDT
SPOILER! DUMBELDORF DIES! by FABIO 06/30/2003, 4:06am PDT
Nope (real spoiler) by FoK 06/30/2003, 7:26pm PDT
Rowlin was bursting into tears over THAT? by FABIO 07/01/2003, 1:01am PDT
Ruthless killer my ass. NT by Lizard_King 07/01/2003, 10:40pm PDT
hey I was right after all NT by fABIblow 06/13/2006, 5:19am PDT
|
|
