underscore parameter in QUERY STRING - Possible attack?
ClubKnowledge
8:07 pm on Aug 13, 2010 (gmt 0)
I am seeing 5 or 6 of these kind of queries per day recently /?_=1281728282196 .. the number seems to increment each time.
Are they trying to set perls $_ variable?
Anyone know what they might be trying to do?
Thanks Walt
lammert
8:33 am on Aug 19, 2010 (gmt 0)
Hi Walt, welcome to the webmaster community here!
1281728282196 is a time specifier in milliseconds. Many Linux based computers and programs keep the time in terms of the number of seconds since 1-1-1970 0:00:00. Your value 1281728282.196 translates to the following date Fri Aug 13 21:38:02.196 2010.
I don't know why you see these parameters now though. I use them on one of my sites as dummy parameters where pages change rapidly and a periodical refresh is therefore mandatory to see the newest content. Adding a dummy parameter with a continuously changing parameter prevents the cached content of a page to show up again at the next refresh. Maybe people therefore add this parameter to prevent cashing in their browser or intermediate proxies.
ClubKnowledge
10:20 pm on Aug 19, 2010 (gmt 0)
Thanks for the info .. I have used the same idea on occasion so images will refresh in Capta code
