I do not want my users to authenticate. But I do not anyone to steal my data. So my goal is to only serve the people who make a req from the front end of the app. How can I do this ?
Is there a built in function that I'm missing ? I know that there are session id generated, but not sure how to incorporate the session id to this situation.
Thanks
By using the term "front end" I would assume that you have a client requesting data in the form of JSON/XML or HTML templates. My first suggestion to get your answer is to be much more descriptive in your question. It is very hard to answer without knowing how your client is designed.
Assuming your client is written in html/js and run in a browser then I would suggest that you serve a static file (in the form of a .js file or a <script></script> tag inside an html file) that generates a token. You can pass this token back to your server for validation on every request for data. This means that only your app (front-end) can be the only thing that requests data from your api (back-end).
Related
Amazon has an administration page for content sent to your Kindle. This page uses an undocumented HTTP API that sends requests like this:
{
"csrfToken":"gEABCzVR2QsRk3F2QVkLcdKuQzYCPcpGkFNte0SAAAAAJAAAAAFkUgW5yYXcAAAAA",
"data":{"param":{"DeleteContent":{"asinDetails":{"3RSCWFGCUIZ3LD2EEROJUI6M5X63RAE2":{"category":"KindlePDoc"},"375SVWE22FINQY3FZNGIIDRBZISBGJTD":{"category":"KindlePDoc"},"4KMPV2CIWUACT4QHQPETLHCVTWEJIM4N":{"category":"KindlePDoc"}}}}}
}
I made a wrapper library for the previous API they used, but this time they have added CSRF tokens, making each session unique. That is a bit of a show stopper, and I was wondering how I can get hold of these tokens. I did not find it in the cookies. This is for use in a Chrome Extension, so issues like CORS is not an issue.
Actually, after manually going searching the Response tab of each request in the "XHR" and "Doc" tab, I was able to find out that this token is set in an inline script in the myx.html (main page):
var csrfToken = "gPNABCIemSqEWBeXae3l1CqMPESRa4bXBq0W7rCIAAAAJAAAAAFkUlo1yYXcAAAAA";
This means it is set on the window object, making it available for all there. I guess this means a Chrome extension would need to fetch this page and manually parse the html to retrieve this token. Sad, but doable, although highly fragile :-(
I have coded a web application that runs on IIS Express. I want to send large data set to server(over 4MB) and get response. (I have implemented this as a REST service).
When i tried ,i realize that I can only have 311bytes long URL.
So how can i change that?
as i know IE allows 2083 length URL as default. and there should be a way to configure IIS express via web.config or applicationhost.config right?
can anybody help me?
You need to use an http post verb to send the data, instead of trying to send it encoded in the URL as a GET. In straight HTML, this would involve having a form tag with a submit button. What framework are you coding this in? (asp.net, mvc, php, etc?)
Is there a way to go to a url without redirecting to it? Basically I want to call a url from within my application in the background so it can logout a reliant party.
Appreciate the help.
What you are trying to do does not compete us to answer as it's directly related to your own Authentication implementation.
A normal ASP.NET Authentication based in Forms Authentication you will need always to lunch the url from a browser as it is there that relies the Authentication given.
You can give yourself a try by opening your website and log in into it, after that, open other browser brand (not browser window) into your application url... you will see that you also need to login again as the Authentication is hook up into the first browser.
It's Up to you as Application Architect to make this by implementing another way of authentication, normally in this kind'a cases, this happend when consuming web services where you need a authentication code first (given by calling a Login method) and that code is always needed to be appended to the body or header of any call to the system.
This way you can easily remove the authentication code and all procedure calls will fail.
As said, this is not up to us, it's up to you to create the correct Authentication Layer.
from your comment
it's as simple as using WebClient object
WebClient client = new WebClient ();
string reply = client.DownloadString (address);
If you wish to transfer to a new url request you can still use
Server.TransferRequest()
The problem with this is that by not using a redirect the browsers address bar will not reflect the fact that you have moved their request to another URL.
To have the client visit a given URL in the background you should either make an AJAX call to it or possibly have an image with an src of your logout url (though you'd have to make sure that you return a FileResult of your image too). This is how most analytics packages call to their relevant urls in the background.
The problem here though is that neither is 100% reliable, turn off javascript or images on your browser and these results fail.
From what you've said I think what you're after is for a user to continue to any of a variety of pages rather than a specific logout page. If this is indeed the case your best solution is in fact a double redirect.
Have your application redirect to your logout url but before hand put the url of the page you want them to go to into tempdata. Then in the actionresult for the logout page you can do your logging out as required and return a redirect to the url from tempdata.
I'm designing a public API to my company's data. We want application developers to sign up for an API key so that we can monitor use and overuse.
Since the API is REST, my initial thought is to put this key in a custom header. This is how I've seen Google, Amazon, and Yahoo do it. My boss, on the other hand, thinks the API is easier to use if the key becomes merely a part of the URL, etc. "http://api.domain.tld/longapikey1234/resource". I guess there is something to be said for that, but it violates the principle of the URL as a simple address of what you want, and not how or why you want it.
Would you find it logical to put the key in the URL? Or would you rather not have to manually set HTTP headers if writing a simple javascript frontend to some data?
It should be put in the HTTP Authorization header. The spec is here https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7235
If you want an argument that might appeal to a boss: Think about what a URL is. URLs are public. People copy and paste them. They share them, they put them on advertisements. Nothing prevents someone (knowingly or not) from mailing that URL around for other people to use. If your API key is in that URL, everybody has it.
It is better to use API Key in header, not in URL.
URLs are saved in browser's history if it is tried from browser. It is very rare scenario. But problem comes when the backend server logs all URLs. It might expose the API key.
In two ways, you can use API Key in header
Basic Authorization:
Example from stripe:
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/charges -u sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2:
curl uses the -u flag to pass basic auth credentials (adding a colon after your API key will prevent it from asking you for a password).
Custom Header
curl -H "X-API-KEY: 6fa741de1bdd1d91830ba" https://api.mydomain.com/v1/users
passing api key in parameters makes it difficult for clients to keep their APIkeys secret, they tend to leak keys on a regular basis.
A better approach is to pass it in header of request url.you can set user-key header in your code .
For testing your request Url you can use Postman app in google chrome by setting user-key header to your api-key.
I would not put the key in the url, as it does violate this loose 'standard' that is REST. However, if you did, I would place it in the 'user' portion of the url.
eg: http://me#example.com/myresource/myid
This way it can also be passed as headers with basic-auth.
I need to include some secure (BASIC authentication) application.
when I open the application URL in the browser, the browser asks me to enter your credentials ...
what I know is that:
The browser ask the server to get
some URL -- the url of the app
The server checks the request header
for the Authentication header and
didn't find it
The server sends 401 to the
browser back
The browser interpret this response
code into a message dialog that
shows to me asking me to enter the
username/password to send back to
the server in the Authentication
request header
So far... so good, I can write some page (in JSP) that send this required http request header to the request that is calling this page..
So I'll call this application through my page..
The problem here is, this application (in fact a GWT application) contains a reference to some Javascript and CSS files that is coming from the server that hosts this application. the application page that I import looks like:
<html>
<link href="http://application_host/cssfile.css" />
<link href="http://application_host/javascriptfile.js" />
.....
</html>
So, again I found the application asks me for the authentication crenditals for the css and js files!
I am thinking of many solutions but don't know the applicability of each
One solution is to ask the browser
(via Javascript) to send the request
header (Authentication) when he
asks the server for the js and css
files
please give me your opinions about that... and any other suggestions will be very welcomed.
Thanks.
I think you're running into some weirdness with how your server is configured. Authentication happens in context of a authentication realm. Your assets should either be in the same authentication realm as your page, or (more likely) should not require authentication at all. The browser should be caching credentials for the given realm, and not prompt for them again.
See the protocol example on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication
Judging from your story, something tells me your problem is with the authentication method itsef. Not how to implement it. Why do you want to bother with the request header so much?
As far as i know, you can configure your container (ie Tomcat) to force http authentication for certain urls. Your container will make sure that authentication has taken place. No need to set http headers yourself whatsoever.
Perhaps you can explain a bit better what you are trying to achieve, instead of telling implementation details?
Why css & js files are kept in protected area of server? You need to place files into public area of your server. If you don't have public area, so you nead to prpvide for it. how to do it depends from serverside software architecture & configuration.