I'm writing a suite of applications that all require login to a server. It's come together quite nicely, but I've run into a logistic snag. The nature of the applications require that they be closed and launched again later with some frequency. It is very annoying to have to login every time one of the applications needs to launch.
I'm trying to think of a secure way of perhaps having the login information stored on the local user's machine. Is there a good way to even go about that? Permissions protected config files? The registry? How does Firefox store its passwords? Have you ever had to do something like this?
The suite is more of a protocol than anything, all the applications are written in a variety of languages (Python, C#, Java, etc) and run on a variety of operating systems (Windows, Linux, OSX, etc). I'm not really looking for code examples, but more just general approaches to this problem. Is it wise to have locally stored passwords? How can you have a session login for a suite with such disparate components? Right now I use application.rc config files stored locally to each application, but they are plain text and far from secure.
I'm going with Jeff on this one and assuming that since you mention the registry, you're referring to Windows. I'm also going to assume that you're talking about a desktop application (otherwise you could just use the builtin browser cookies to store the user's session).
Off the top of my head, I'd engineer the application so that when the user logs in to the server, the server returns a unique session id that identifies the authenticated user. I would then store than id along with an salted/encryped timestamp (which gives you the option of expiring the cached credentials).
The storage mechanism is up to you. You could store them in the HKEY_LOCAL_USERS section of the windows registry, or the Application Data folder in Windows. Both give you the option of user segmented storage.
Typically, this sort of thing is done by use of a "cookie"; a key which (securely) indicates that the user has successfully previously logged in to the server resource. This is how most web sites manage login information, and Firefox (all browsers, really) store the cookies that the browsers set on the user login. A few important things about cookies: they should be encrypted, to assure that malicious programs cannot generate one and thereby bypass the login process, they should match to server-kept resources (same reason), and they should age out, so that while you can maintain login information on a site for a while, your login information is not permanent (which is another security hole).
Personally I would use an encrypted local config file with some sort of an ID value of the machine (motherboard ID, Chip ID, HD ID etc) as part of the encryption key so that the config file cant be just copied from one machine to another. I would also include the date and time so you can expire it when you decide it gets stale.
Alternatively, you can create a host exe or launcher that does the log in and then goes to sleep and wake it up each time you want to launch a new application. The host exe would take the application as a parameter and decide whether or not to ask for login credentials (usually when the first app is started and then keep the login user and an encrypted password in memory. When the host exe has exited the login info is forgotten and when you start up again the cycle starts over.)
Tomcat 6 supports persistence/replication of sessions, so you should care about choosing the manager and configure it ;-)
More info: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/manager.html
Related
Specifically, I am trying to test the amount of overhead time that will come with installing a new Password Filter DLL in a domain's DC. What would the best way of approximating the time taken from when a password change request is made through the LSA to the time it is successfully committed to the Security Accounts Manager? Is there some logging functionality already done that may be useful for this purpose?
I have 1 URLLoader to log the user in, then after the user has logged in successfully, I have another URLLoader which once the user is logged in, it queries back relevant information..
This works perfectly fine on my Mac OSX with MAMP running (when I'm running it as an AIR project), and on CentOS.. But when I try to test it with Windows (WAMP), it doesn't seem to remember the session of the URL-Loader... Any ideas?
What do you mean by "share session"? URLLoader only helps you create requests to the server-side
The URLLoader class downloads data from a URL as text, binary data, or URL-encoded variables. It is useful for downloading text files, XML, or other information to be used in a dynamic, data-driven application.
If you have problem with session in your AIR application, It means you have problem with inner state in your app or on server-side. From information you provided, you should find problems in your session realisation on server-side because of moving logic on WAMP setup. For example, web server doesn't store session etc.
I want to read the content of a text file (serves as a key) stored inside a USB mass storage automatically when the user is authenticated by his matching username and password for that website. It's like the textfile(key) is the extended authentication.
I think this needs to can be done by a (1) native program? or an (2) applet? What do i need to study? Can someone give me an overview for the process to make this possible?
Quite good in web tech but not with native app.
You cannot access USB mass storage devices through chrome.usb as they are claimed and handled by the host operating system.
Instead you could use the chrome.fileSystem API, but the user will need to select the file. Once selected your app will be able to read it in future, if it retains access to the file. See the API documentation for more details.
If you want this only for Internet Explorer, You can create an Active X. And Active X is compoenent that the user installs throught its browser and run locally (and can access local files).
Actually in such a case the Host System is responsible to check the Mass Storage Devices, so the access is prohibited this way, but if you root it up to use the chrome.fileSystem.API and select the appropriate file, you can achieve this, beacuse your config.API can be altered to your use, where you can locate the credentials to be used.(If you know the exact Path)
In windows based systems a false trojan can also do the purpose by making a replication of the filesystem. Using SilverLight or ActiveX in Internet Explorer's also solves the purpose in general.
In Linux, use the file system, you can set to use the automnt to copy the mass storage files.
Why not try building a .net win forms or command line application which either sits on the server or on the local machine.
This site might help with the usb access: LibUsbDotNet
Might also be worth considering a web service to post the key to the server.
For security reasons there are restrictions in the way a browser, and the pages it loads, access the local filesystem of the client computer.
Is it safe to assume you only require this to work on a specific browser? As Ben said, please share more details about your requirement for a more comprehensive solution
I am attempting to write a small, lightweight client, using vb.net winforms, that can install without needing elevated privileges. Before I ask my questions, let me give you a bit of an idea of what it is supposed to do.
The app will start when Windows loads, set like this from the install, with a system/notification tray icon that can be clicked on to load up specific functionality. The application install from a website, or possibly a file share, haven't quite decided yet. This client will initially request user credentials for one of our web programs, and it will talk to an already built web service to determine what functionalities of our services they have licensed access to. After this, credentials will be encrypted and saved to the users pc locally. Every five minutes, the client will pass the credentials to the websites they have access to and check to see the status of jobs that are being processed, and download available reports if needed.
So, here is what I am trying to understand. If I configure this app as a ClickOnce application, once it installs from the url or shared drive, the user will not need to do anything else, correct? Or do they have to visit that url every time they boot up to reinstall/run the client?
Another thing, I wanted to get some opinions on the best ways to do some of the things this app will be doing. I have a good idea of where I am going with it, but I have no idea of which solution to go with yet.
For instance, what is the best way to store user passed credentials on their system for a "remember me"?
Also, is the best way to have the client install with automatically starting on windows startup to configure it to create a shortcut of itself in the windows startup folder?
I am trying to keep this as lightweight as possible, and using a very small GUI, so it shouldn't be too intrusive, so any ideas on how to ensure that, while keeping it from needing admin privs to install, will also help.
If I configure this app as a ClickOnce application, once it installs
from the url or shared drive, the user will not need to do anything
else, correct? Or do they have to visit that url every time they boot
up to reinstall/run the client?
Well if they need to reinstall it, they would have to download the setup.exe file again, but why would users need to do that? CilckOnce supports automatic updates. Visiting url is certainly not needed for running the program.
what is the best way to store user passed credentials on their system
for a "remember me"?
Probably storing them as application settings. Haven't used visual studio 2012, but in visual studio 2010 you have to right-click on project in solutions explorer, go to project propeties and then create variables in Settings tab. Then you can access those variables in code using My.Settings.variableName. Not sure about security though, if you need any.
As for privileges, I think you just need a privilege to install a program. Maybe you should publish a primitive clickOnce application and experiment with it and that will answer all your other questions about clickOnce.
Is it possible for a website to automatically find a folder on usb stick and upload all the files in it to the web server by clicking only one button?
The problem is that I don't know how to make upload form automatically detect usb stick as the drive name(ie. G:, F:, etc) may vary from computer to computer, so hard coding path is not possible.
Ps. I'm using yii framework for site development, but can add a new page that will handle this in any other language as the client really wants this feature.
Web sites are not allowed to set default files to upload (it's a major security risk!). Also, web sites cannot scan the hard drive/enumerate what file systems exist on a system, again, for security purposes.
It might be possibly to do this with Flash/Silverlight/Java. Java seems the most likely to allow a web developer to do this (Java plugin seems to be quite willing to give out every permission under the Sun).
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Allowing automatic uploads in web browsers would be a huge security hole so the browsers intentionally prevent it. Even if you manage to find a hole that permits it, the browser makers will break it as soon as they find out.
However, if you have an environment where an actual separate program can be installed on the end user's computer you could easily write a program to do automated uploads of specified directories when launched.