PGP FormMail

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), originally developed by Phil Zimmerman, is a high security cryptographic software application for MSDOS, UNIX, VAX/VMS, and other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience.

Installing PGP FormMail

1. Install PGP 5.0

2. Untar the PGP FormMail tar file located in the /usr/local/contrib area.

   % cd    (this will put you in your home directory)
   % tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/pgp5formmail.tar
   

   This will install the two files, pgp5formmail.pl and pgp5formmail.README.txt, into your ~/www/cgi-bin directory.

Using PGP FormMail

1. Create a form that you would like the contents mailed to some address. The form should include the following fields (at the very least):
   • recipient = specifies who mail is sent to
     
   • pgpuserid = specifies your PGP user ID
     

   Other optional fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail for you site, for example:

   • subject = specify the subject included in e-mail sent back to you
     
   • email = allow the user to specify a return e-mail address
     
   • realname = allow the user to input their real name
     
   • redirect = URL of page to redirect to instead of echoing form input
     
   • required = list of field names that are required input (comma delimited)
     

   Several other fields are supported, please see the README document for a complete presentation of the supported fields.

   For example, the HTML source for your form may look like this:

   <form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/pgp5formmail.pl">
   <input type="hidden" name="recipient" 
          value="order@yourdomain.com">
   <input type="hidden" name="pgpuserid" 
          value="your_userid">
   <input type="hidden" name="subject" 
          value="Order Request">
   <input type="hidden" name="required" 
          value="realname,username,phone">
   Please Enter Your Name:<br>
   <input name="realname" size="40">
   <p>
   Please Enter Your Email Address:<br>
   <input name="username" size="40">
   <p>
   Please Enter Your Phone Number:<br>
   <input name="phone" size="40">
   <p>
   .
   .
   .
   <input type="submit" value="Submit">
   <input type="reset" value="Reset">
   </form>
   

   your_userid is the user ID for your public key. If your user ID contains characters that could be misinterpreted by a web browser, such as '<' and '>', you will want to replace these characters with the proper escape sequences. For example if your user ID were:

   John Q. Smith <12345.6789@compuserve.com>

   represent the user ID with the following string (note the &lt; and &gt; escape sequences):

   John Q. Smith &lt;12345.6789@compuserve.com&gt;

   
    
   NOTE: In order to use the pgp5formmail.pl script, you will have to install the PGP 5.0 executable onto your virtual server, and either generate a public/secret key pair or have added an existing key file's contents to your public key ring.

2. Set the referer information such that only your server will have privileges to use the pgp5formmail.pl script. Near the top of the pgp5formmail.pl script you will find the following line:

   @referers = ('YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME','YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS');
   

   Substitute your domain name and Virtual Server IP address for the values YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME and YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS respectively.

   Tip

   One way to modify the pgp5formmail.pl script is have it "autorespond" to the client filling out the form. You can do this by simply uncommenting out the call to "autorespond" located near the top of the script. The autorespond function is placed at the end of the file and can be modified to suit your needs.