Thanks all. I think I getting the gist. But let me summarize what I've read on this thread (knowing there's lots more elsewhere):

0. It's not necessarily what the user enters, but what I do with it

1. Don't trust user input, so use -T

2. RegExp data from user form to untaint, but RegExps can vary depending on what I want to allow them to enter

3. In all cases, RegExp/escape any HTML from users so the code would never render in a browser

4. Stay away from shells and evals (this should be no problem, 'cause I don't know enough to even know why I'd want to use one), but also file ops that use user input

5. Use placeholders in MySQL inserts

6. Use modules where I can find them to help

Sorry if I was flogging the proverbial dead horse, but you can see what a little paranoia can do!

Thanks again.

P.S. Just read Gunther Birzniek's excellent article CGI/Perl Taint Mode FAQ

In reply to Re: Back to acceptable untainted characters by bradcathey
in thread Back to acceptable untainted characters by bradcathey

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.