php / php/php-src

filenames in multipart/form-data are not percent decoded

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#8,206 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Bug Category: Engine Status: Needs Triage
Dominant language
C
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Description

Description

For the following form:

<pre>
<?php
var_dump(PHP_VERSION);
var_dump($_FILES);
?>
</pre>

<form method="post" action="test.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="file" name="some_file">

<button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

Uploading a file called ".txt in Firefox and Chrome

Resulted in this output:

string(5) "8.1.3"
array(1) {
  ["some_file"]=>
  array(6) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(7) "%22.txt"
    ["full_path"]=>
    string(7) "%22.txt"
    ["type"]=>
    string(10) "text/plain"
    ["tmp_name"]=>
    string(14) "/tmp/phpWl5h5S"
    ["error"]=>
    int(0)
    ["size"]=>
    int(0)
  }
}

But I expected this output instead:

string(5) "8.1.3"
array(1) {
  ["some_file"]=>
  array(6) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(5) "".txt"
    ["full_path"]=>
    string(5) "".txt"
    ["type"]=>
    string(10) "text/plain"
    ["tmp_name"]=>
    string(14) "/tmp/phpWl5h5S"
    ["error"]=>
    int(0)
    ["size"]=>
    int(0)
  }
}

Because I wasn't sure about the correct behavior myself I've checked with #curl on irc.libera.chat. In the replies I got the following references:

RFC 7578#2 specifies percent-encoding for use in HTTP

So nowadays special characters, specifically the double quote (") are percent-encoded instead of backslash-encoded and PHP should properly decode those, like it already does for backslash encoding.

PHP Version

8.1.3

Operating System

Docker on Ubuntu 20.04

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the multipart/form-data upload described with PHP 8.1.3, using a filename containing a double quote, and inspect the resulting $_FILES name and full_path values. Compare percent-encoded handling with the existing backslash-encoded behavior; done means both fields contain the decoded filename.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, php
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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