double quotes truncating any text afterward - session variables in IIS

[gabeanderson]

So my code used to work great on my Linux box, but recently had to move to Windows/IIS. It's pretty much the same code it was before -- with adjustments made for setting and pulling in session variables on IIS -- but now I'm losing text after double quotes on my final page, which submits everything via email.

I have this on all pages, including the final page where the issue occurs, but I can't figure out how to fix:

if ($description != "")
{
	$description = htmlspecialchars($description, ENT_QUOTES);
	$description = stripslashes($description);
}

If you want to see what's happening live, please take a look here:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact2/index.php?confirm=yes&customer=yes
(Just use any values.)

The issue is with the description field. Everything pulls through just fine all the way to the confirmation page (submit_case.php), but you'll see that anything after double quotes disappears on the final page, which is the critical one that sends an email with the data (send_case.php).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Gabe

[bpat1434]

I can say that new lines are not kept (which could be an issue later). I'd suggest using [man]nl2br[/man] just for display purposes...

But, I can't recreate it. If I put this in the description field:

This is a "test" of some double quotes and other "characters" in the "Description" field.

`1234567890-=
~!@#$%^&*()_+
{}|[]\;':"<>?,./

We'll see if that "works"

I get this in the Description confirmation section:

This is a "test" of some double quotes and other "characters" in the "Description" field. `1234567890-= ~!@#$%^&*()_+ {}|[]\;':"<>?,./ We'll see if that "works"

Now, what I do see is this at the top:

Confirm the below details and submit your case.
<>?,./ We'll see if that "works"">
to make changes.

Not sure what that is, or why it's there.....

[EDIT]
You may want to look at your output of your hidden fields. Seems that if you put double quotes in it, it breaks your code 🙁 Here's an example:

Input:

This is a "test" of some double quotes and <?php echo "I'm a Smart Boy"; ?>

On Screen:

Confirm the below details and submit your case.
">
to make changes.
">

HTML:

<form name="goback" method="post" action="/support/contact2/index2.php"><input name="confirm" value="yes" type="hidden">
				<input name="customer" value="yes" type="hidden">
				<input name="finalcheck" value="" type="hidden">
				<input name="fullname" value="phpBuilder bpat1434" type="hidden">
				<input name="productKey" value="" type="hidden">
				<input name="email" value="[e-mail]" type="hidden">

			<input name="product" value="Articulate Presenter" type="hidden">
			<input name="company" value="Jupiter Media" type="hidden">
			<input name="phone" value="" type="hidden">
			<input name="OS" value="NONE" type="hidden">
			<input name="PPT" value="PowerPoint 2007" type="hidden">
			<input name="version" value="5.2" type="hidden">
			<input name="reason" value="Insert Flash Movie" type="hidden">
			<input name="otherTopic" value="" type="hidden">
			<input name="pmp" value="" type="hidden">

			<input name="aps" value="" type="hidden">
			<input name="description" value="This is a " test="" of="" some="" double="" quotes="" and="" type="hidden">"&gt;<div class="clear"> </div><div class="field2 click"><input name="gobacksub" class="smaller" value="Click Here" type="submit"> <span class="extra">to make changes.</span></div></form>

<!-- ">Click here</a> to make changes. -->

Notice the few "&gt; entities in there?

[NogDog]

Looked OK to me.

[gabeanderson]

Thanks for the quick reply, bpat! I appreciate it. Looks like you found more bugs than I realized I had. 🙂

Using your example, I do see what you mean on the case confirmation page. The original issue I set out to resolve occurs AFTER you submit your case - on the send_case.php page. At the top, for testing purposes, I display the submitted description, so using your example, I only see this:

description:

This is a

I guess I need to look into using nl2br... any other pointers?

Thanks!

NogDog wrote:

Looked OK to me.

Thanks for taking a look, NogDog. Did you click the yellow "Send Request" button on the submit_case.php page? It's the page after that (send_case.php) where the original issue occurs with everything after double quotes getting truncated.

Thanks again,
Gabe

[gabeanderson]

I've resolved my original issue by commenting out this line of code in my final send_case.php page:

$_SESSION['description'] 	= $_POST['description'];

Thanks, everyone, for the pointers.