Dynamic PayPal button generation - isn't it very insecure?

Question

I am just wondering here.. Aren\'t the PayPal buttons that are dynamically created, very unsecure, and easily \"hackable\"?

Like so:

Answer 1

You are correct. <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="24.99"> can be easily manipulated on the client side. In the example you gave, this might be a form where the client is actually supposed to be able to set the amount, eg. a PayPal donate button. Otherwise there would need to be server side checks after this form submission to ensure that there is no funny business going on.

Answer 2

I think you can use a hashed approach as well where all the important values are hashed so they can't be modified.

The current approach is indeed hack-able but once you're on the PayPal site you can still see the amount you're going to pay. It's up to the user to double check the amount really.

Answer 3

I think I have a solution for this issue:
First, submit to PayPal from a secure page - Public SSL.

Second, you can use Ajax in order to prevent users to brows your HTML code via "Right Click - View Source" or browsers Tools like Fire-Bug.

Here is an example in jQuery:
I usually program with C#.NET so this is why I communicate with a .ashx Generic Handler (but it can work with PHP as well)

$(function () {

$.ajax({  
           type: "POST",  
           url: "myPage.ashx",  
           data: {  
               theProductsIdAndAmountsString: yourValue  
           },
           success: function (allHtmlCode) {
               $("body").append(allHtmlCode);
               $("form").submit();
           }
       });
   });

In the server side you can generate all the HTML form by pooling the data from your Data Base, Then send it back to the page.
After, append it to the body and submit the form to PayPal.

Now no one can use browser tools like Fire-Bug to change your HTML values.

Answer 4

You can créate encrypted buttons on the fly, for more info you can check Dynamic Paypal button encryption

Answer 5

You're right - dynamic PayPal buttons are easily "hackable" if you pass, for example, the price of the product in clear text.

However, PayPal supports public-key button encryption, so that the relevant details can not be easily altered. This is the way it works:

• You generate a public/private key pair with an appropriate program such as OpenSSL.
• You log in to your PayPal account and submit the public key to PayPal, then store the private key securely on your Web server. You will also need to download PayPal's certificate and store it on your server as well. It is also highly recommended to tell PayPal not to accept unsigned/unencrypted transactions (see link at bottom for details).
• Each time you need to generate a PayPal button, you encrypt the data using PayPal's public key and sign it with your private key, then you display the result on your Web page. When the user clicks the button, PayPal will decrypt the details and check they have not been tampered with since their generation on your server.

This way, as long as your private key is uncompromised, no one will be able to alter the transaction's details.

More information and detailed instructions are available at https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_html_encryptedwebpayments#id08A3I0P017Q. (Although PayPal provides its software to generate encrypted buttons, I think it's possible to create them "on the fly" using appropriate functions, such as openssl_*() in PHP; I haven't tested them personally).

An alternative would be implementing Instant Payment Notification (https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_admin_IPNIntro); you could check that the amount of the transaction performed by the user equals the total order amount.

Answer 6

You should use the PayPal Button API such as below:

$sendPayData = array(
    "METHOD" => "BMCreateButton",
    "VERSION" => "65.2",
    "USER" => "username",
    "PWD" => "password",
    "SIGNATURE" => "abcdefg",
    "BUTTONCODE" => "ENCRYPTED",
    "BUTTONTYPE" => "BUYNOW",
    "BUTTONSUBTYPE" => "SERVICES",
    "BUTTONCOUNTRY" => "GB",
    "BUTTONIMAGE" => "reg",
    "BUYNOWTEXT" => "BUYNOW",
    "L_BUTTONVAR1" => "item_number=$invoiceNumber",
    "L_BUTTONVAR2" => "item_name=$invoiceType",
    "L_BUTTONVAR3" => "amount=$invoiceTotal",
    "L_BUTTONVAR4" => "currency_code=GBP",
    "L_BUTTONVAR5" => "no_shipping=1",
    "L_BUTTONVAR6" => "no_note=1",
    "L_BUTTONVAR7" => "notify_url=http://www.abc.co.uk/paypal/ipn.php",
    "L_BUTTONVAR8" => "cancel_return=http://www.abc.co.uk/paypal/thanks",
    "L_BUTTONVAR9" => "return=http://www.abc.co.uk/paypal/return.php"
);

You can then send that with cURL to their API

$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp?'.http_build_query($sendPayData));
$nvpPayReturn = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);

To then generate a encrypted HTML button that cannot be edited

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> 
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> 
<input type="hidden" name="encrypted" value="-----BEGIN PKCS7-----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-----END PKCS7-----
">
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_paynow_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online."> 
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_GB/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"> 

These links should help you with the button options:

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_api_nvp_BMCreateButton

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_api_ButtonMgrAPIIntro