I am currently using Cloud Firestore for my iOS app, which allows users to store their expenses to the database, but in order to secure privacy, is there any way I can make sure that I can't read the data that they are inputing into the database. While the queries and all still work, I or any admin isn't able to see what users have put into their database?
No such feature exists. Admin access through the console and the Admin SDK is able to read all collections and documents all the time.
As #Frank van Puffelen suggested:
Obfuscating the data through encryption, will prevent any unwanted eyes from viewing any information. This will add to your workload since you will need to perform the encryption and decryption at either end of the app (client and server).
I believe, you could take advantage of firebase's cloud code, to minimise the amount of code execution performed on the device, but I have never tried this, so am unable to confirm.
As far as an encryption key, you have a few options:
The user's password: This is one way of ensuring the encryption without revealing the key to any admin, since passwords in firebase are already obfuscated from any viewer. The only issue would be that a user would be locked into a password, as changing it would prevent decryption.
Store locally: You could store the key locally on the device, which would mean that the user could enter a key, or have one auto-generate, upon launching the app for the first time. You would then store this in the app's default key storage, and retrieve when required. Whilst, I believe this to be the safest, it means that your app could not be used across iCloud devices, since the key would be stored locally.
Finally, is CloudKit, which allows you to store data in the cloud. This is private, and only accessible to the user's cloud devices.
I realise that there is no code in this example, I am not currently at my desk, for which I am sorry for, if anyone else would like to edit with some code examples, I would be grateful.
I hope this helps.
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In my app users can read and write data on Firestore.
In the Firestore Database there Is also a "Credit" document for each user where the balance of coins Is stored.
How can I be sure that no One could modify an APK of the app in order to change the balance?
In the app there are some functions that remove some coins from the balance, my fear Is that someone could change the code and add coins instead.
assuming that your app implements firebase authentication to authenticate operations on firestore it's safe to say that your app is compiled with a key and it has an hash.. it's not possible to someone to decompile the app, change the code and recompile it with your key.. so the new "hacked" app will have a different key and hash and firebase authentication will not work and your db will be safe
I think you need to secure the data itself. In your scenario I don't think you can have code in the app that simply writes a value to the balance. You need to create a separate API or firebase function to secure what you are trying to do.
If you want to ensure that only your application code can call Firestore, consider enabling Firebase App Check.
Just keep in mind that:
Using App Check does not guarantee the elimination of all abuse
So you'll want to combine it with other security measures, for example through the server-side security rules that Firebase also offers for Firestore.
Also see:
Locking down Firebase DB access to specific apps
How to allow only my app to access firebase without a login?
I found a previous question very similar to mine, however the other developper needed to write to Firebase and I don’t, hence this near duplicate question:
I have a very simple database with about 150 documents and the users don’t need to authenticate to use my app. Authentication just don’t make sense for what the app does and users only read the database, they don’t write.
My current rules are read allow only which of course triggers the Firebase rule warning daily.
1) Is there a way to set rules similar to “only requests coming from my app can access it”. Given that the app is linked to firebase one would think it’s possible?
2) If I must use authentification, is there a way that I can do this behind the scenes so that the user is unaware of that? Maybe by using a UUID to identify a user and no password or something like that. I want to avoid showing a log in screen at all cost. Think of it as asking to log in to check gas prices...
** This is an iOS app
No, it's not possible.
You can use anonymous authentication to create a user account without requiring a sign-in.
I am developing an app on unity3d and using firebase realtime database for user info and stats. The users need to authorize (via google) to read/write data to database inside the app. Since, users do not know the database address, which is embedded inside the app, do I still have security problem? If yes, what should I do? I do not want any user to change their own stats :)
Yes you still might have a security problem. Security by obscurity is not true security. It is still possible for people to snoop network traffic away from your app to get the address of the database. The firebase way of solving this is via Database Rules configured in the console/CLI. Making it so users cannot change their own stats will depend on how your app is structured and who IS allowed to change them. In any case, this can be expressed in Rules as well.
Just you have accessibility to database and its rules. Users just can read and write and change their data and they can't change another one's data.
I use the Dropbox Datastore in an app that uses both the iOS and JavaScript SDKs. Aside from the 10MB datastore limit, it works pretty well.
But nearly every support request I get makes me wish I could have access to the user's data for debugging. Being able to see exactly what the user sees helps me to find and fix bugs very quickly.
Is there any way for me to access a user's data without logging into their account? Can I maybe store their access token and gain access to just their Dropbox Datastore data?
This is one of the attractive things about Parse: you can see all user data. While there is a lot of wisdom in sharding user data across Dropbox user accounts, it makes app debugging crazy-hard.
Any ideas? What do you do to get around this?
Dropbox datastores, like files, are considered the user's private data, and as such there isn't a way for an arbitrary party to gain access to said data without some sort of authorization (e.g., access to the account, having the data explicitly shared with them, etc.) Likewise, even the developer of an API app that a user happens to be using doesn't automatically get access to the data.
That said, if, as the developer of the app, you want to troubleshoot using your user's data, the most straightforward method would probably be to get an access token for that app/user pair from the user. That would replicate their setup most accurately. (Unfortunately, the Sync/Datastore SDK doesn't make it easy to extract/insert arbitrary access tokens like that though. So, in that case, this would be a bit of work to build some flow to get an access token, e.g., a small web app, and then some work to read data directly from the API.)
Alternatively, you may want to make it possible for the user to share the datastore with your own account.
In any case, it's very important that the user not be misled or confused as to what is happening or what the developer is requesting. That means being clear with user with regards to what the developer is requesting and what will be done with the data. In addition, apps should provide privacy policies in general.
I have an iPhone application that requires the user to login(username, password).
I currently store the credentials of the last succesful login and fill the textfields the next time the user launches the app.
Alot of the times though the user may have more than one account and I now need to implement something to store login credentials for more accounts.
How would you suggest that I do that? I looked around but I couldn't find anything related to this.
NSUserDefaults or Storing into sqllite or Storing into a plist are on of the ways of storing persistent data. But they are not secure. I will recommend Key Chain Access for storing secure data.
This link provides a apple sample code which uses key chain Access
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/GenericKeychain/Introduction/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40007797-Intro-DontLinkElementID_2
But one disadvantage is you cant test this in simulator it works only on device i think.
You can also add multiple items to the keychain.
Look NSUserDefaults at the documentation.
Maybe this tuto can help you : http://icodeblog.com/2008/10/03/iphone-programming-tutorial-savingretrieving-data-using-nsuserdefaults/
Try with CoreData...