I have an iOS app and I'm using Firebase as my database.
I know a little about Firebase rules for saving data but i don't have users in my app so i just want to know -
Does Firebase encrypt or hash or secure the transaction between my app and the database?
I don't want some hacker to just easily intercept my call to Firebase and change something and my database will be updated with the wrong information.
Anybody knows the answer to that or how to do that if Firebase doesn't do it automatically?
Thank you
Traffic between your app and the Firebase database always goes over HTTPS, so in general is quite well secured.
But if you don't use authentication and security rules in your app, all a malicious user has to know is the URL of your database (https://yourapp.firebaseio.com) to be able to wreak havoc. This is the nature of a cloud-hosted service: since every client needs to have access to the service, you have to assume malicious users will also have access to the service.
For more on this, see:
How to prevent other access to my firebase
How to make firebase storage only available to users of the app
Swift: Firebase: How to ensure no one can access my db except my app
Related
I have a chat app with firebase backend. I want to use firebase cloud functions to see if there is new write in messages so that I can then generate push notification to that device but I am confused about tokens.
Do I have to save tokens every time new user signs up or the token automatically goes to firebase once we use registerForRemoteNotifications.
Also suggest me if you have a better and clear way doing this.
You have to save it yourself.
The tokens are automatically generated, but saving them to a specific location, such as the server is the developer's responsibility.
If you are using Firebase database, then you could just save it to a pushTokens node, making sure that it can only be accessed by the corresponding users, through Firebase Rules.
My goal is to prevent users of multiple login in. I do not want this to be client-side, with like the onDisconnect and onConnect values, but with a server check. I came across this answer:
How to prevent simultaneous logins of the same user with Firebase?
Which tells me to create a custom auth system. When I am following the docs (https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/ios/custom-auth) I need to "Copy this file to your authentication server" (3c). How would I do this? I am just using Firebase and my little iOS app. I would like to manage everything on these 2 things, no server in between, is this possible? Or can this file only be uploaded through another server?
If above things are not possible, how can I server check if the user really signed in? I am using Cloud Functions, but I did not came across a trigger for a user signing in. Please no answers with onDisconnect/onConnect, I want it server side. A user may NOT login if he is already logged in. Thanks :)
Implementing custom authentication requires that you have a secure place to mint the custom token that identifies each of your users. You cannot do this securely with only client-side code, because that would mean everyone could claim to be whoever they want.
While you can use Cloud Functions for Firebase to implement a secure back-end without spinning up your own server, I highly recommend against doing that just for the purpose of preventing a user to sign in from multiple locations.
It's important when talking about security to split these two steps:
Authentication - a user proving to be who they are
Authorization - the authenticated user being able to use your app
There very seldom is a reason to keep a user from proving who they are. Your concern seems to fall onto keeping them from using the app from multiple locations. To do that, it's probably easier to track for each user where they are using the app from already using Firebase Database's presence system.
Also see:
How to handle multiple connections of the same user on Firebase?
Android - How to detect same user from multiple devices?
How to prevent same user logging in from different devices ? My app is paid , so I dont want credentials to be shared
I have an iOS app using Swift that uses Core Data to store user data on thousands of objects. I also have FB Auth working. My question is, how do I make it so that the user data would persist even when they switch phones and log in using FB on a separate phone? It doesn't seem that FB will offer me such data persistence. I'm looking at making a server on Heroku with Vapor. Then I could use the user's e-mail as a way to identify the user... but it doesn't seem secure?
Any suggestions on easiest solution?
Checkout Firebase... Instead of using e-mail to authenticate users, you should deal with tokens. Firebase will provide you a great data flow in easiest manner.
TLDR: All I want to do is secure my cloud function in Parse so that it only accepts requests from my iOS app. How can I do that?
Longer version:
I recently got started with using Parse for a client side app I'm building using a Google API.
Before using Parse, my issue was that the Google API calls from my app were not secure. I tried a Man in the middle attack on my app, and I was able to successfully get the bundle id and app id (Google claims some form of security is achieved by ensuring that the call is from the correct bundle id that you can specify on their console). So despite using SSL, seems like it was easy to get this information. Now this Google API is paid, so someone could easily abuse my key when I release my app and raise my bills.
I was anyways also thinking of doing some lightweight work in the backend, so I figured to use Parse. Now the call to the Google API is done in Cloud Code. But a new problem I'm facing is how to secure calls to the Cloud function I've defined in Parse? The Parse App ID and Client Key aren't secure at all.
All of Parse's blogs keep talking about creating users and defining ACLs etc. But in my case, there is no data in my Parse app and there is no user per se. It simply calls the Google API and returns the result. All I want to do is secure my cloud function so that it only accepts requests from my iOS app. How can I do that?
The inherent security risk here is that any key you store in your app is vulnerable, for that reason encryption is also vulnerable. My recommendation is to use the automatic user in Parse on your iOS app, you could even throttle excessive requests/abuse by a single user. By creating and using a user you are able to gain the benefits of ACL which appears the best security option available in Parse currently. At that point you send the automatic user in your cloud code request and verify it's a valid iOS user.
I'm building an iOS (Swift) app that needs realtime chat as part of the functionality. While Parse works well for push, data storage, etc..., it doesn't support realtime. I would like to use Firebase for the realtime support, but need help authenticating to Firebase using a Parse user. I really don't know where to start with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The question is pretty vague so a definitive answer is not possible: here's a thought.
Firebase and Parse are two different companies and therefore require separate authentications.
If your users have a username/password type authentication in Parse, you could use the same data in Firebase and authenticate through code. i.e. User creates a new account in Parse, and an account is created in Firebase via code. When the user authenticates to Parse, it also authenticates to Firebase via code.
There are a LOT of design elements to consider in going this route: how do you create a firebase user (in code) without your app authenticating itself as a 'super' user? Hard code credentials? That may be a security issue.
Are you going to keep two sets of user data? One in Parse and one in Firebase? What if a user needs to reset their password or account. As you can see, it can get out of control rather quickly.
You may want to consider sticking with one platform to simplify the entire process. By the sound of at least one of the requirements, Firebase can do much of what Parse can do but also give the real-time updates you need.