[thelist] Checksum web pages ???

[Joshua Olson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Carter
> Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 10:03 AM
>
> Is there any technology out there that'll put a checksum on a web page at
> edit time so we can know if it's been hacked?

Sam,

Short answer: no.  Long answer: Yes, if you wanted to do it yourself.
Here's a couple things you could do (simplest to most complex):

1.  Write your pages in a predictable and consistent manner.  If the
formatting, capitalization, or coding techniques ever change then you know
someone else has been in the code.

2.  Keep a log of file access dates and check the last-updated timestamp on
the source files.

3.  Keep an external database of checksums for each source file of the site.
Every time you edit a file update the database with the new checksum.  Every
time you edit a file compare it against the recorded checksum.  If you
filtered all file access through a proxy application then this process
should be fairly transparent.  I haven't played with many CVS's, but I'd
guess this would be a common approach to code verification.

<><><><><><><><><><>
Joshua Olson
Web Application Engineer
WAE Tech Inc.
http://www.waetech.com/service_areas/
706.210.0168