Validating input text in web forms with esapi

https://stackoverflow.com//questions/11659287

11-12-2019
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Question

how could I use ESAPI to check for unsafe input texts in web forms ? My application is built using struts 1.X, so I assume the validations should be added to Actions classes. Any samples / tutorials you recommend ? Thanks.

Solution

For something as specific as that there is not usually going to be great tutorials out.

Hopefully I am wrong about this, but I would have to suggest their wiki due to lack of good resources.

I was looking to find input validation for you... seems they don't even have that up themselves. I coudn't find any information on it either. The videos below might have it or I would email them if it provides no real good answer. They should be able to put you in the right direction... and if you do that do us all a favor and demand they update their wiki!

Email: jeff.williams%owasp.org@gtempaccount.com (Leader, owner)

Since that email doesn't look right though I would also check this one.

Email: kevin.w.wall@gmail.com (Owner, coder of crypto libs)

Their are these youtube video's that might help. They even mention that their are not a lot of good resources to teach you how to use ESAPI, but said they hope to fix that in these four videos.

Hope it helped!

OTHER TIPS

Validation of form fields normally is done in the ActionForm class. There are all input values available and all validations can be done there. A tutorial (one of many available) cna be found here Struts form validation and error handling. More can be found using google (struts validation).

I have been working with the ESAPI library for a few months now. The library cannot do too much to validate your input, since it cannot know what the input could be or should be. That is especially true when you factor in all the international characters that could be in legitimate user input.

We use the ESAPI library mostly for encoding server output. The purpose is to send user (or possible attacker) input back to the browser in such a way that it cannot be executed. Instead HTML or JavaScript interprets it as text only.

That is why both my validation and ESAPI's encoding of user input are important for security.

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