Does the upload file INPUT HTML element give any personal information away?

Posted by Senseful on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Senseful
Published on 2010-05-06T23:10:55Z Indexed on 2010/05/06 23:18 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 261

Filed under:

privacy

|

html

|

upload

I'm wondering what personal information the file input (<input type="file">) element gives the website.

I noticed that it does show the file name and the website does seem to have access to it. What about the file's path? If the file is located in My Documents, they could find out the user name via the path (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\My Documents) which many times is the actual user's name that is using the website.

What information do most modern browsers allow the website to access when a user uses the file input element?

Could JavaScript somehow be used to gain more information?

What about when plugins (such as Flash or Java) implement file uploading?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about privacy

Orion Launches Privacy App for BlackBerry

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Allows users to report telemarketing violations, block unwanted calls, and indentify unknown numbers. >>> More
Cyber Threats Pit Privacy Versus Security

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Security experts are torn between just how far the government and the private sector should go to protect critical data from cyber criminals without violating individual rights. >>> More
Internet Privacy in 2010: What&#146;s In Store

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
2010 could be a big year in Internet privacy legislation, which may affect how marketers(and small businesses)collect customer information. Heres a look at the issues facing the FTC. >>> More
Help Protect Your Children with the CEOP Enhanced Internet Explorer 8

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Do you want to make Internet Explorer safer and more helpful for you and family? Then join us as we look at the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) enhanced version of Internet Explorer 8. Setting CEOP Up We chose to install the whole CEOP pack in order to have access to complete… >>> More
The Best Ways to Lock Down Your Multi-User Computer

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Whether you’re sharing a computer with other family members or friends at home, or securing computers in a corporate environment, there may be many reasons why you need to protect the programs, data, and settings on the computers. This article presents multiple ways of locking down a Windows 7 computer… >>> More

Related posts about html

Install usblib package - Ubuntu

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I need the package libusb for another package I am installing. I tried the following which seemed to install the package, sudo apt-get install libusb-dev but when I try to install the other package I get, configure: error: Package requirements (libusb-1.0 >= 0.9.1) were not met: No package… >>> More
Prevent malicious vulnerability scan increasing load on a server

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi all, this week we have been suffering some malicious vulnerability scans to our servers, increasing the load on them, making them nearly unusable. The attack is easy to defend, just blocking the offending ip, but only after discovering it. Is there any form of prevent it? Is it normal that… >>> More
can't install psycopg2 in my env on mac os x lion

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I tried install psycopg2 via pip in my virtual env, but got this error: ld: library not found for -lpq (full log here: http://pastebin.com/XdmGyJ4u ) I tried install postgres 9.1 from .dmg and via port, (gksks)iMac-Alexander:~ lorddaedra$ locate libpq /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/usr/include/libpq /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10… >>> More
Bitnami redmine error SVN

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm installing the Bitnami Redmine stack (redmine + subversion). Firstly I install configure and test it locally (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS). And everything is OK. I install Bitnami stack on server (Red Hat 4.4.7-4) and configure SVN. I commit files into SVN and connect project into Redmine with SVN repository… >>> More
Can the .htaccess file slow down a website to a crawl? If so, are there better ways to solve these problems with different rewrite rules and such?

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
here is my htaccess file...... RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/patients/billing/FAQ_billing\.html$ [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/patients/billing/getintouch\.html$ RewriteRule ^patients/billing/(.*)\.html$ $1.php [L,NC] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/patients/findadoctor/a\.html$ [OR] RewriteCond… >>> More