[Info-vax] URL encoding

[Paul Sture]

In article <kd02gh$940$1 at dont-email.me>,
 David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:

> I've been looking at this, and I've found a complete table of codes for 
> all kinds of characters.  However, it also seems that only a few 
> characters, such as space, normally get URL encoded.

Usually space, but also other components of a URL such as slash and 
period.  For example:

'some.example.com/' gives 'dangerous%2eexample%2ecom%2f'

I've just come across an option where space is encoded as '+', e.g:

'example.com/some thing.pdf' gives 'example%2ecom%2fsome+thing%2epdf'

> Just asking what others might have seen.  Have instances of all 
> characters being URL encoded been experienced?

I have certainly come across cases where the whole string was URL 
encoded, possibly but not necessarily as a deliberate means of 
obfuscation.  I don't know whether anti-spam tools look for this type of 
stuff, but may well do.

Fully encoded, 

dangerous.example.com/

gives 

%64%61%6e%67%65%72%6f%75%73%2e%65%78%61%6d%70%6c%65%2e%63%6f%6d%2f

(examples generated using the online tool at 
http://www.dorf-rauxel.de/picard/tools/urlcode.php - sorry that's in 
German but the first online tool I found didn't work and this one does 
work)

-- 
Paul Sture