Is it safe to validate a URL with a regexp?

Question

In my web app I've got a form field where the user can enter an URL. I'm already doing some preliminary client-side validation and I was wondering if I could use a regexp to validate if the entered string is a valid URL. So, two questions:

1. Is it safe to do this with a regexp? A URL is a complex beast, and just like you shouldn't use a regexp for parsing HTML, I'm worried that it might be unsuitable for a URL as well.
2. If it can be done, what would be a good regexp for the task? (I know that Google turns up countless regexps, but I'm worried about their quality).

My goal is to prevent a situation where the URL appears in the web page and is unusable by the browser.

Answer 1

Regex's are safe for lexical validity, but it doesn't mean the site is going to be there. You will actually have to test the connection to see if it's a valid URL by checking the response returned. In all, it depends on your user requirements to say what is valid and what is not - how safe/secure it is depends on you. If you have something like http://foo.com/?referral=http://bar.com/, it'll break some scripts because users don't expect another protocol/path combo as a parameter. Also, some other special characters and null byte hacks have been known to do fishy things with parameters, but I don't think there have been any successful Regex hacks - perhaps memory overflows?

If this is something that needs to be secure, it should probably be handled server side. Although you can perform server side Javascript, I would probably recommend Perl, since it was designed/developed as a text-based parser.

The Regex is only as advanced, or as limited, as you make it. Humans are logical, therefore the problems they solve can be solved by a logic engine (computers), provided that accurate instructions (in this case the regular expression pattern) are given to follow.

@Kerry:

In Javascript you don't "have to" put '/'s around the regular expression. There are also conditions where you can put it in quotes: var re = new Regexp("\w+");

Web Examples:

I think Kerry's was pretty nice, though I only gave it a glance w/o checking it, but here are some simpler examples found from the web

http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/acheck.shtml:

// Email Check
var filter=/^([\w-]+(?:\.[\w-]+)*)@((?:[\w-]+\.)*\w[\w-]{0,66})\.([a-z]{2,6}(?:\.[a-z]{2})?)$/i
if (filter.test("email address or variable here")){...}

http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/452:

// URL Validation
function isUrl(s) {
   var regexp = /(ftp|http|https):\/\/(\w+:{0,1}\w*@)?(\S+)(:[0-9]+)?(\/|\/([\w#!:.?+=&%@!\-\/]))?/
   return regexp.test(s);
}

Finally, this looks promising.
http://www.weberdev.com/get_example-4569.html:

// URL Validation
function isValidURL(url){
   var RegExp = /^(([\w]+:)?\/\/)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,4}(:[\d]+)?(\/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?$/;
   if(RegExp.test(url)){
      return true;
   }else{
      return false;
   }
}

// Email Validation
function isValidEmail(email){
   var RegExp = /^((([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+(\.([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+)*)@((((([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.))*([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.)[\w]{2,4}|(((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3}))|(\[((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3})\])))$/
   if(RegExp.test(email)){
      return true;
   }else{
      return false;
   }
} 

Answer 2

i think that its safe

here is one sample

http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/452

Answer 3

I do believe it is safe, and on #1, that isn't a steadfast rule but more a guideline, speaking from personal experience.

This is the one I use to validate a URL:

(([\w]+:)?\/\/)(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,4}(:[\d]+)?(\/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?

Realize that in javascript you have to put '/'s around the regular expression.

Answer 4

Well... maybe. People often ask a similar question about email addresses, and with those you would need a horrendously complicated regular expression (i.e. a couple pages long, at least) to correctly validate them. I don't think URLs are quite as complicated (the W3C has a document describing their format) but still, any reasonably short regexp you come up with will probably block some valid URLs.

I would suggest thinking about what kinds of URLs you need to be accepting. Maybe for your purposes, blocking the occasional valid-but-weird submission is fine, and in that case you can use a simple regex that matches most URLs, like the one in Dobiatowski's answer. Or you could use a regex that accepts all valid URLs and a few invalid ones, if that works for you. But I'd be wary of trying to find a regular expression that accepts exactly all valid URLs and no invalid ones. If you want to have 100% foolproof verification in that way, I'd suggest using a client-side validation of the second type I mentioned (that accepts a few invalid URLs) and doing a more comprehensive check on the server side, using some library in whatever language you are using to process the form data.

Answer 5

As stated by Crescent Fresh, in the comments, there are similar questions to this one which I didn't find. One of them also supplies the full standards-compliant regex for validating an URL:

(?:http://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.
)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)
){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?)(?:/(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F
\d]{2}))|[;:@&=])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{
2}))|[;:@&=])*))*)(?:\?(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{
2}))|[;:@&=])*))?)?)|(?:ftp://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?
:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?&=])*)(?::(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-
fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?&=])*))?@)?(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-
)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?
:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?))(?:/(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!
*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'()
,]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*))*)(?:;type=[AIDaid])?)?)|(?:news:(?:
(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;/?:&=])+@(?:(?:(
?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[
a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3})))|(?:[a-zA-Z](
?:[a-zA-Z\d]|[_.+-])*)|\*))|(?:nntp://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[
a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d
])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?)/(?:[a-zA-Z](?:[a-zA-Z
\d]|[_.+-])*)(?:/(?:\d+))?)|(?:telnet://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+
!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?&=])*)(?::(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'()
,]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?&=])*))?@)?(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a
-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d]
)?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?))/?)|(?:gopher://(?:(?:
(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:
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))?)(?:/(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),;/?:@&=]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))(?:(?:(?:[
a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),;/?:@&=]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*)(?:%09(?:(?:(?:[a-zA
-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;:@&=])*)(?:%09(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$
\-_.+!*'(),;/?:@&=]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*))?)?)?)?)|(?:wais://(?:(?:(?:
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)/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*)(?:(?:/(?:(?:[a-zA
-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*)/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(
?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*))|\?(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]
{2}))|[;:@&=])*))?)|(?:mailto:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),;/?:@&=]|(?:%
[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+))|(?:file://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]
|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:
(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))|localhost)?/(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'()
,]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(
?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*))*))|(?:prospero://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z
\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)
*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?)/(?:(?:(?:(?
:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-
zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[?:@&=])*))*)(?:(?:;(?:(?:(?:[
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0)*)=(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*))?(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F
\d]{2}))*))(?:(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)\+(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)(?:(?:(?
:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|%(?:3\d|[46][a-fA-F\d]|[57][Aa\d]))|(?:%20))+|(?:OID
|oid)\.(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+))*))(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)=(?:(?:%0[Aa])
?(?:%20)*))?(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*)))*)(?:(
?:(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)(?:[;,])(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*))(?:(?:(?:(?:(
?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|%(?:3\d|[46][a-fA-F\d]|[57][Aa\d]))|(?:%20))+|(?:OID|o
id)\.(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+))*))(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)=(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(
?:%20)*))?(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*))(?:(?:(?:
%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)\+(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|%(
?:3\d|[46][a-fA-F\d]|[57][Aa\d]))|(?:%20))+|(?:OID|oid)\.(?:(?:\d+)(?:
\.(?:\d+))*))(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*)=(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*))?(?:(?:[a
-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))*)))*))*(?:(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%2
0)*)(?:[;,])(?:(?:%0[Aa])?(?:%20)*))?)(?:\?(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+
!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+)(?:,(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-f
A-F\d]{2}))+))*)?)(?:\?(?:base|one|sub)(?:\?(?:((?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(
),;/?:@&=]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+)))?)?)?)|(?:(?:z39\.50[rs])://(?:(?:(?
:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?
:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))
?)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+)(?:\+(?:(?:
[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+))*(?:\?(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_
.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+))?)?(?:;esn=(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),
]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+))?(?:;rs=(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA
-F\d]{2}))+)(?:\+(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))+))*)
?))|(?:cid:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?:@&=
])*))|(?:mid:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?:@
&=])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[;?:@&=]
)*))?)|(?:vemmi://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z
\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\
.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a
-fA-F\d]{2}))|[/?:@&=])*)(?:(?:;(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a
-fA-F\d]{2}))|[/?:@&])*)=(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d
]{2}))|[/?:@&])*))*))?)|(?:imap://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+
!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[&=~])+)(?:(?:;[Aa][Uu][Tt][Hh]=(?:\*|(?:(
?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[&=~])+))))?)|(?:(?:;[
Aa][Uu][Tt][Hh]=(?:\*|(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2
}))|[&=~])+)))(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[
&=~])+))?))@)?(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])
?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:\.(?:
\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?))/(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:
%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[&=~:@/])+)?;[Tt][Yy][Pp][Ee]=(?:[Ll](?:[Ii][Ss][Tt]|
[Ss][Uu][Bb])))|(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))
|[&=~:@/])+)(?:\?(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[
&=~:@/])+))?(?:(?:;[Uu][Ii][Dd][Vv][Aa][Ll][Ii][Dd][Ii][Tt][Yy]=(?:[1-
9]\d*)))?)|(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[&=~
:@/])+)(?:(?:;[Uu][Ii][Dd][Vv][Aa][Ll][Ii][Dd][Ii][Tt][Yy]=(?:[1-9]\d*
)))?(?:/;[Uu][Ii][Dd]=(?:[1-9]\d*))(?:(?:/;[Ss][Ee][Cc][Tt][Ii][Oo][Nn
]=(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d$\-_.+!*'(),]|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2}))|[&=~:@/])+)))?))
)?)|(?:nfs:(?:(?://(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-
Z\d])?)\.)*(?:[a-zA-Z](?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d]|-)*[a-zA-Z\d])?))|(?:(?:\d+)(?:
\.(?:\d+)){3}))(?::(?:\d+))?)(?:(?:/(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d\$\-_.!~*'
(),])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d\$\-_.!~*'(),
])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*))*)?)))?)|(?:/(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d
\$\-_.!~*'(),])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d\$\
-_.!~*'(),])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*))*)?))|(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-
Z\d\$\-_.!~*'(),])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*)(?:/(?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z\d
\$\-_.!~*'(),])|(?:%[a-fA-F\d]{2})|[:@&=+])*))*)?)))

Obviously this is as insane as I feared it would be, so I'll be rethinking the whole thing.

So, the answer is - yes, it can be done, but you should REALLY think twice whether you want to do it this way. Or accept that the regex will be imperfect.