Form not sending

Member 8761667

Hello I have been trying for some time to log-in to a site who register.aspx page works (new user's details are inserted in the database). However, when I use those same details of a user (email and password) to log-in, I am not able to. I get no debug errors in Visual Studio 2013 for Web or server errors. The form just stands still when I click the logon button. Are there are glaring errors, please, in my log-on code? In my aspx file, the two form fields are ID = strEmail and ID = password:

Protected Sub LogonBtn_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles LogonBtn.Click

    Try

        Using conn As OleDbConnection = New OleDbConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("students").ConnectionString)

            conn.Open()

            Dim strEmailValue As String = strEmail.Text
            Dim passwordValue As String = password.Text
            Dim MSAccess As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OleDb.4.0; Data Source=|DataDirectory|students.mdb;"
            Dim ConnectionString As String = "SELECT \* FROM university WHERE strEmail = '" & strEmailValue & "' AND \[password\] = '" & passwordValue & "'"

            Dim cmd As New OleDbCommand

            Dim reader As OleDbDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader

            Dim strEmailFound As Boolean = False

            Dim passwordFound As Boolean = False

            'if in database:

            While reader.Read

                strEmailFound = True

                strEmailValue = reader("strEmail")

                passwordFound = True

                passwordValue = reader("password")

            End While

            conn.Close()

            'check result

            If strEmailFound = True And passwordFound = True Then

                Dim target = String.Format("~/userpage.aspx?strEmail={0}", strEmailValue)

                Response.Redirect(target, True)

            End If

        End Using

    Catch ex As Exception

        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)

        Dim MessageBox As String

        MessageBox = "Sorry, email or password not found"

    End Try

End Sub

Protected Sub Page\_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

    'Dim strEmailValue As String = ""

    'Dim strEmailValue As String = strEmail.Text

    If Not IsPostBack Then

Lost User

Apart from the potential for SQL injection problems with your database, do you really want to store passwords in clear text? [edit] Also look at the following sequence:

            While reader.Read

                strEmailFound = True

                strEmailValue = reader("strEmail")

                passwordFound = True

                passwordValue = reader("password")

            End While

You are setting both variables to True without actually checking whether you have found the specific entries in the database. You need to read through your code carefully and check your logic. [/edit]

Member 8761667

Hello Richard Many thanks for your reply. Yes, there are a couple of flaws - plain text passwords as opposed to salting/hashing, and empty form fields - but for the moment I just wanted to get the engine started and then, when I can log in, I will explore those other important features of a log-in form. Thanks for pointing out the While reader.Read/End While You mean it's not actually doing anything?! Thanks again for your reply.

Richard Deeming

Your login credentials are:

Email: Robert@foo.com
Password: Hey, where did my data go?!' OR 1 = 1; DELETE university; --

Everything you wanted to know about SQL injection (but were afraid to ask) | Troy Hunt[^] How can I explain SQL injection without technical jargon? | Information Security Stack Exchange[^] Query Parameterization Cheat Sheet | OWASP[^] Secure Password Authentication Explained Simply[^] Salted Password Hashing - Doing it Right[^]

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

Member 8761667

Thanks for the links, Richard. I have just taken a look at this page: Secure Password Authentication Explained Simply[^] which looks up-to-date (referring to SHA512 and RNGCrypto), and I have put your post into my favourites but, as I say, I will investigate the While/End While first.

Lost User

Look again at my previous reply and the (il)logic of that loop. As soon as you come out of the loop you assume that there has been a match with the email and password entered by the user, but the two variables will contain the last found items.

Member 8761667

I am trying to tidy it up a little. I didn't have these namespaces in, for example, beforehand:

Imports System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand
Imports System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader

and the 'order' is OleDbConnection, an OleDbCommand, and an OleDbDataReader. The While/End While code should then read through the data, before closing OleDbDataReader, and then OleDbConnection. That structure is now reflected in my own code. The examples I have see around look a lot like this:

dr = myCommand.ExecuteReader()
While dr.Read()
'reading from the datareader
MessageBox.Show("colname1" & dr(0).ToString())
'displaying the data from the table
End While
dr.Close()

I probably need to use something like this

("colname1" &
dr(0).ToString())

from the example above, but I don't want the code to display anything - only to log me on. As I said earlier, the code I initially posted doesn't actually 'read' the rows, does it?

Lost User

Member 8761667 wrote:

the code I initially posted doesn't actually 'read' the rows, does it?

No idea, you need to do some debugging to check it. I have tried to explain where the logic is wrong in your loop, but you seem to be looking elsewhere.

Member 8761667

As I understand it, the logic should be to read the database using While and End While. In the database, where there are two columns called 'password' and 'strEmail' (the exact same IDs as for the two form fields), the code should check that the email variable (strEmailValue) entered in the email form field is the same as the entry in the database column whose name is strEmail. (strEmail is the name of the database column AND the email text field in the form, whereas strEmailValue is the variable entered by the user in the form text field.) If the entry in the database column is the same as the variable entered by the user, then it is true that strEmailValue has been found - hence strEmailFound = True. Likewise, for password. The code should check that the password variable (passwordValue) entered in the password form field is the same as the entry in the database column whose name is password. (password is the name of the database column AND the password text field in the form, whereas passwordValue is the variable entered by the user in the form text field.) If the entry in the database column is the same as the variable entered by the user, then it is true that passwordValue has been found - hence passwordFound = True. So, I now have:

While reader.Read

If strEmailValue = reader("strEmail") Then

strEmailFound = True

End If

If passwordValue = reader("password") Then

passwordFound = True

End While

Does the above make sense? Thanks again.

Lost User

Yes, that makes some sense. However, you only need a single variable to indicate that you have found the correct user record. Also, you should check the password inside the email test, to ensure you capture the two settings for a single user entry, something like:

' before While statement
bool userFound = false

While reader.Read
If strEmailValue = reader("strEmail") Then
If passwordValue = reader("password") Then
userFound = True
Exit While ' no need to check any more records
End If
End If
End While

Member 8761667

Hello Richard Many thanks. I will debug all the code again and give it a trial run. Before my previous While/End While, I had:

Dim strEmailFound As Boolean = False
Dim passwordFound As Boolean = False

but if I use your

Dim userFound As Boolean = False

I can delete my two declarations because, as you say, 'you only need a single variable to indicate that you have found the correct user record'. Does it matter which variable finds the record? Thank again for all your help.

Lost User

Member 8761667 wrote:

Does it matter which variable finds the record?

No, but as I said before, you only need one variable, to tell when you have found the record that matches both userid and password.