Java URL encoding

Question

From my web application I am doing a redirect to an external URL which has some credentials as a part of the URL string. I would like to encode the credential part alone before redirection. I have the following URL:

String url1 = "http://servername:7778/reports/rwservlet?server=server1&ORACLE_SHUTDOWN=YES&PARAMFORM=no&report=test.rdf&desformat=pdf&desname=test.pdf&destype=cache&param1=56738&faces-redirect=true&";

I am encoding it as:

String URL = "userid=username/passwd@DBname";
encodedURL = URLEncoder.encode(URL, "UTF-8");
String redirectURL = url1 + encodedURL1;

The URL generated by this code is

http://servername:7778/reports/rwservlet?server=server1&ORACLE_SHUTDOWN=YES&PARAMFORM=no&report=test.rdf&desformat=pdf&desname=test.pdf&destype=cache&param1=56738&faces-redirect=true&userid=%3Dusername%2Fpasswd%40DBname

As we can see towards the end of the encoded URL, only the special characters like / have been encoded. i.e. userid=username/passwd@DBname has become userid=%3Dusername%2Fpasswd%40DBname

I want to generate a URL which will have the the entire string "username/passwd@DBname" encoded . Something like :

userid=%61%62

How can I achieve this?

This makes no sense. Are you aware that this is still decodable without any effort by a wishful enduser? Are you sure that you aren't confusing encoding with encrypting? — BalusC
– BalusC, Commented Jul 17, 2013 at 23:39
I just wanted to not display the URL directly. I know that this can have a potential security vulnerability but my application requires this. I am ok with the fact that it can be decodable. Thanks for the help. — user1722908
– user1722908, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 14:31

Joop Eggen · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-17 21:09:27Z

1

So in fact you want the url to become somewhat unreadable, without the need for decoding, Decoding would be needed for a Base64 encoding (with replacing / and -).

Yes you may abuse the URL encoding.

String encodeURL(String s) {
    byte[] bytes = s.getBytes("UTF-8");
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (byte b : bytes) {
        String hex = String.format("%%%02X", ((int)b) & 0xFF);
        sb.append(hex);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

%% being the percentage sign itself, and %02X hex, 2 digits, zero-filled, capitals.

Mind that some browsers will display such links decoded, on mouse-over. But you are just redirecting.

answered Jul 17, 2013 at 21:09

Joop Eggen

110k8 gold badges89 silver badges142 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Java URL encoding

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related