Question

I have this form by which a user sends me an email. I don’t know if it is secured, or if issues with security appear only if sql is involved…

html:

<form id="form4" action="send_mic.php"  name="form4" method="post" >

           <textarea name="message4" cols="4" rows="4"  id="message4" ></textarea><br />

           <input type="text"  id="name4" name="name4" value="" /><br />

           <input type="text"  id="email4" name="email4" value=""  /><br />

          <input type="submit" value="" id="submit" />

</form>

jquery:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
    $('#form4').ajaxForm({
        beforeSubmit: validate
    });

    function validate(formData, jqForm, options) {
        var name = $('input[name=name4]').fieldValue();
        var email = $('input[name=email4]').fieldValue();
        var message = $('textarea[name=message4]').fieldValue();

        if (!name[0]) {
            alert('Please enter a value for name');
            return false;
        }
        if (!email[0]) {
            alert('Please enter a value for email');
            return false;
        }
        if (!message[0]) {
            alert('Please enter a value for message');
            return false;
        }

        else {

        $("#content").fadeOut(1000, function () {
            $(this).html("<img src='images/postauto3.png'/>").fadeIn(2000);
        });

        var message = $('textarea[name=message4]').val('');
        var name = $('input[name=name4]').val('');
        var email = $('input[name=email4]').val('');

            } 
    }

});



    </script> 

php:

<?php
        if($_POST){
                $email = $_POST['email4'];
                $name = $_POST ['name4'];
                $message = $_POST ['message4'];
                // response hash
                $ajaxresponse = array('type'=>'', 'message4'=>'');

                try {
                        // do some sort of data validations, very simple example below
                        $all_fields = array('name4', 'email4', 'message4');

                        foreach($all_fields as $field){
                                if(empty($_POST[$field])){
                                        throw new Exception('Required field "'.ucfirst($field).'" missing input.');
                                }
                        }

                        // ok, if field validations are ok
                        // now Send Email, ect.

                        // let's assume everything is ok, setup successful response
                        $subject = "New Contact";
                        //get todays date
                        $todayis = date("l, F j, Y, g:i a") ;

                        $message = " $todayis \n
                        Attention: \n\n
                        Please see the message below: \n\n
                        Email Address: $email \n\n
                        Message: $message \n\n

                        ";

                        $from = "From: $email\r\n";


                        //put your email address here
                        mail("contact@....ro", $subject, $message, $from);

                        //prep json response
                        $ajaxresponse['type'] = 'success';
                        $ajaxresponse['message'] = 'Thank You! Will be in touch soon';  
                } catch(Exception $e){
                        $ajaxresponse['type'] = 'error';
                        $ajaxresponse['message'] = $e->getMessage();
                }
                // now we are ready to turn this hash into JSON
                print json_encode($ajaxresponse);
                exit;
        }
?>

So, are there any security problems when using forms to send emails? Is this ok?
Thanks!

Answer 1

1. You could add a captcha to prevent spam.

2. You could protect against email injections by using:

   filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)