Security Notes

By Richard Li

- OpenACS docs are written by the named authors, and may be edited - by OpenACS documentation staff. -

+Security Notes

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Security Notes

+ + + +<authorblurb> +

By Richard Li

+</authorblurb> + +

The security system was designed for security. Thus, decisions requiring trade-offs between ease-of-use and security tend to result in a system that may not be as easy to use but is more secure. -

HTTPS and the sessions system

+ + +

HTTPS and the sessions system

+ +

+ If a user switches to HTTPS after logging into the system via HTTP, the user must obtain a secure token. To insure security, the only way to obtain a secure token in the security system is to authenticate yourself via password over an HTTPS connection. Thus, users may need to log on again to a system when switching from HTTP to HTTPS. Note that logging on to a system via HTTPS gives the user both insecure and secure authentication tokens, so switching from HTTPS to HTTP does not require reauthentication. -

This method of authentication is important in order to establish, in as +

+ +

This method of authentication is important in order to establish, in as strong a manner as possible, the identity of the owner of the secure token. In order for the security system to offer stronger guarantees of someone who issues a secure token, the method of authentication must be as strong as the -method of transmission.

If a developer truly does not want such a level of protection, this system +method of transmission.

+ +

If a developer truly does not want such a level of protection, this system can be disabled via source code modification only. This can be accomplished by commenting out the following lines in the sec_handler -procedure defined in security-procs.tcl:

+procedure defined in security-procs.tcl:
 
+ 
+
++
     if { [ad_secure_conn_p] && ![ad_login_page] } {
         set s_token_cookie [ns_urldecode [ad_get_cookie "ad_secure_token"]]
         
@@ -33,10 +52,17 @@
         }
     }
 
-
The source code must also be edited if the user login pages have been
+

+ + +

The source code must also be edited if the user login pages have been moved out of an OpenACS system. This information is contained by the -ad_login_page procedure in security-procs.tcl:

+ad_login_page procedure in security-procs.tcl:
 
+ 
+
++
 ad_proc -private ad_login_page {} {
     
     Returns 1 if the page is used for logging in, 0 otherwise. 
@@ -51,8 +77,16 @@
     return 0
 }
 
-

+

+ +

The set of string match expressions in the procedure above should be extended appropriately for other registration pages. This procedure does not use ad_parameter or regular expressions for performance reasons, as -it is called by the request processor.

($Id$)

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+it is called by the request processor.

+ + + +

($Id$)