Recommended Posts

Well, I have never posted data to another site through a form like that. I'm using the thing right now, and I see how it works. I'm just curious how this method handles an invalid login. What happens? Does it return a false or something? If the login is accepted do you still get to access the returned values?

Ok, sorry if I sounded a bit offending there...

As for invalid logins, it seems to just return to the neowin stylee login form displaying an error. I'd rather the request returning false to be honest - it would give 3rd party sites more control over how errors are handled.

OK I copied that code you posted into a page, and it doesn't do anything for me. Where do the returned values go? How can you access them?

I think I am just confused because I am looking at an example, and it's not complete.

Ah...your login.php has the Method="get" right? So you can access them there?

lol....it's been so long since I have done regular html form crap. I haven't had to do this in .NET for a long time.

The form's action points to and is authorised by Neowin's script... the results are then passed to another script using the specifified URL. Here is a working version:

http://blueloose.com/misc/neowin_login.html

Edit: the above does not grab your password (check the source)

Edit: results are processed by http://www.sietse.nu

Yeah see...I don't think they are going to allow this. Because you would still be able to capture the persons login credentials. When you log in through their method, the security problem is not going to be present since you will be on their server. I don't think this is going to fly.

Regardless of whether you collect their password or not... I don't think the admins are going to like this. I was doing something very similar to it, and this is why they are performing this side login script.

The login is still validated fully by Neowin's servers (action="https://www.neowin.net/login/?url=http://www.sietse.nu/neowin/"). The only thing different between the two versions is formatting... neo's has all pretty colours and the variation doesn't.

Still don't think they'd allow it however :(

/heads for the hills

If they have the login prompt on Neowin's server, there is no chance of your password being stolen. Thats the only reason I can think of that would keep us from doing this from our sites.

If they have the login prompt on Neowin's server, there is no chance of your password being stolen. Thats the only reason I can think of that would keep us from doing this from our sites.

I second that, therefore it's not allowed to use your own login form.

Sietse/Timdorr:

Does the Timezone offset that is being returned take into consideration the daylight savings? There is a daylight savings checkbox in the board settings. But for me on the US East coast, it is always -5 in the drop down, and is that what it is always going to return for the timezone offset?

Edit: Sidenote, can you tell me what neowin does when it stores dates? Does it store the UTC date and then converts it to the users timezone when it is shown to a user?

OK I don't think the timezone is taking the daylight checkbox into account. I think it is always return what is in the timezone dropdown. Could the timezone portion of this script be changed to take into account this daylight savings setting?

How about a SOAP webservice for external projects in application form? :D

Nope, we implemented it in this form for a reason. No one can have you enter your password and harvest the result for malicious purposes. How do we know that you're not also having your application send the login data to your own server for collection and future abuse? We just cannot give out automated trust.

I'm also going to change up the code so Lee's example does *not* work. That's a potential area for abuse, and we cannot allow it. However, there is still some XSS stuff that I'm sure could be abused, so this is far from a completely secure system.

Nope, we implemented it in this form for a reason. No one can have you enter your password and harvest the result for malicious purposes. How do we know that you're not also having your application send the login data to your own server for collection and future abuse? We just cannot give out automated trust.

I'm also going to change up the code so Lee's example does *not* work. That's a potential area for abuse, and we cannot allow it. However, there is still some XSS stuff that I'm sure could be abused, so this is far from a completely secure system.

Sounds good.. soon we'll have .NET Passport type system.

I guess the only thing that Lee really wanted was the login form to be dressed up a little. Maybe if you added some information to the form, such as how Neowin sponsored projects use it or such, and explain the security. I don't know, I'm talking out of my ass.

I guess the only thing that Lee really wanted was the login form to be dressed up a little. Maybe if you added some information to the form, such as how Neowin sponsored projects use it or such, and explain the security. I don't know, I'm talking out of my ass.

Yeah I could see it being a help for users to know what applications are using the Neowin Side door.

Good work Timdorr, let us know what kind of change might be done when you get an idea. Also, when you modify it could you tweak the timezone part to take into consideration the daylight savings time? :) Thanks bro!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.
    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
    • again, an article about Microsoft Edge and ridicules hater's comments
    • From this very same article: "For organizations that prefer a “more deliberate pace”, the Extended Stable channel remains an option."
    • Or every other browser, because they all behave the same, at least the mainstream ones. Firefox does exactly the same: background updates, restart to install them. Haters gotta hate, I guess.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      AndrewSteel earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • Veteran
      Taliseian went up a rank
      Veteran
    • One Month Later
      Clizby earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Timaximus earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Timaximus earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      512
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      170
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      162
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      85
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      78
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!