Brad Fitzpatrick (brad) wrote,
Brad Fitzpatrick
brad

Stupid URLs

Whenever I see a stupid URL like:

http://mozillanews.org/index.php3?article=3510378b76e3226808236c55509c2156

I wonder: Are they actually using a huge VARCHAR to store that digest string as their primary key? And everywhere they need that primary key? What is that a digest of? The article text? A unique integer?

If anything, I hope they map that digest to an integer, and use the integer everywhere internally. But why use such an ugly URL, then? To prevent enumeration? Just add some random junk chars that are tied to the integer, then:

http://...../index.php3?article=3453&antienum=f832x

At least it'd be shorter.

Anybody familiar with any of the code for the different content management systems which use MD5 URLs?

(I tried to sleep and failed.)
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  • Ukraine

    Nobody reads my LiveJournal anymore, but thank you to everybody in Russia protesting Putin's insane war against Ukraine. (I know it's risky…

  • Happy Birthday!

    Happy 20th Birthday, LiveJournal! 🐐🎂🎉

  • hi

    Posting from the iPhone app. Maybe I'm unblocked now.