I'm having some trouble understanding the Instagram API and can't seem to find a clear answer online. What is the difference between Server-side flow and Implicit flow in terms of security? I understand there is an additional step for exchanging a code for a token when using Server-side.
I am in the middle of developing an IOS app that uses the server-side flow. I am storing the client-secret within the IOS app itself and am not using an actual web server for any part of my requests. Does this method pose any security issues as the API states: "You should never ship your client secret onto devices you don’t control". Do all IOS apps using the server-side flow have a matching server side component or am I missing something here?
The method above is working for me and I am able to access the instagram API. However, I am now running into the 30 like per hour limit and want to figure out how to lift this. I understand that I need to send a signed request to the API using X-Insta-Forwarded-For header. Can this be done within Swift/Objective-C? I am having a hard time find a method for sending this information. The closest I have come to an answer is in the following post: Instagram Signed API Call from iOS
Can this be done? Thanks for the help!
Related
I'm writing an open-source stand-alone desktop app in Java that handles photos, and I'm adding a feature to let users upload pictures to their Google Photos account, but I'm faced with an authentication/security question.
I've registered my project to use the Google Photo API and have downloaded my credentials JSON file. I've been able to use it successfully with the samples from the java-photoslibrary Github project, so all is good.
However, the credentials file contains a "client_secret" key which, if I'm not mistaken, should not be disclosed (am I correct here ?). But those credentials have to somehow be distributed with the app and, as it is open-source, will be basically public. So my question is: How can I authenticate my app's user to his/her Google Photo account without disclosing my app's secret key ?
Note: I've integrated Dropbox upload, and their procedure for desktop apps clearly explains how to authenticate without embedding the secret key in the Desktop app using OAuth's token flow. Is there an equivalent for Google Photos ?
Thanks.
Edit: made some progress (see my own answer below), but after I finally got time to implement it, I realized that after user has authorized the app and a valid code has been returned (Yay!), step 5 (Exchanging the code for a token) again requires the client_secret ! :-(
I tried the call without it but I'm receiving a "client_secret is missing" error, so that's not a typo.
After more search (with the [google-oauth] keyword instead of [oauth-2.0], which says it all), it seems "secret" does not mean it is actually "secret" in Google world. In other terms, it's OK to embed it in your apps because, well, it's secret but it cannot be used in a malicious way (hopefully)...
See answers to these related questions:
Safely distribute OAuth 2.0 client_secret in desktop applications in Python
Why does Google provide a client secret for a Native application?
Integrate oauth2 with native (iOS/Android) mobile application
One Google page even mentions that "In this context, the client secret is obviously not treated as a secret."
Come on Google, explain me how security works :-)
OK I think I found the answer.
Similar to Dropbox, Google can use OAuth 2 with PKCE, they just use the full spelling "Proof Key for Code Exchange", that's probably why I didn't find it at first :-). The details are here:
https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/oauth2/native-app#obtainingaccesstokens
I didn't find the equivalent process in the Google APIs, but those API are megabytes of classes so I may have missed it. Basically, all it takes is just sending a few requests and listening to the response, so I think I'll implement it from scratch (and will probably also get rid of Dropbox's client libs as the process is so similar).
Hope it helps...
Edit: that doesn't address the point because after the clean PKCE procedure, the app still has to send its private key to exchange the authorization code for a token. See edit in my question
How do you make a request to Google to get a user's profile information with the returned tokens from Azure Mobile Apps? Specifically I am using the iOS Microsoft SDK in Objective-C.
I found this article but it looks to be referencing old information based on the date and the response that was returned.
I also tried calling /.auth/me as a GET request, but that returned Cannot GET /api/.auth/me
You need to make an HTTP request to /.auth/me, but without using the custom API support that's in the iOS SDK. In other words, use NSURLRequest directly, and not MSClient.invokeAPI. Your call needs to be authenticated, so put the token from client.currentUser.mobileServiceAuthenticationToken in the X-ZUMO-AUTH header.
We have an open feature request to add a method to the client SDKs to make this easier: https://github.com/Azure/azure-mobile-apps/issues/30.
And, you're right that your article was referencing information on Azure Mobile Services, which behaves completely differently when it comes to authentication.
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.
Hello me and friends are planning on taking on a big project. My two friends are going to be building iOS and Android apps and I will be making the server back end. I recently started developing with RoR and have fallen in love with Ruby. Now here are my questions:
Little more background:
I only want a private API for the android and iPhone app. I do NOT want a full fledged OAuth authentication process. Doing some research I think I will go with basic HTTP authentication.
1. My App uses cookie based authentication meaning a cookie has to be passed with each subsequent request. So will my friends need to have to store a cookie and on each subsequent request to the server send the cookie along with it?
2. How do I go about making the API private? I know in OAuth there are consumer secret and consumer key. I know if anyone could simply figure out the URL schema they will be able to have access to the API. How do I protect my back end from request from unknown users? (Hard coding strings in the Apps themselves?, Checking headers for device type?)
3. Should I only build the API now and worry about a web app later? Or would it be too horrific of an experience to go back and build a web app (Although I really do actually want the web app to be more significant than the mobile app
Here is a great article explaining exactly what you're looking for : securing an API without setting up a full OAUTH provider :
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-without-oauth-authentication/
Works great (even if the solution is finally not so far from oauth ;)
we are developing an iOS App using Adobe Flex/Air. The app uses a web service that needs user authentication via facebook login. At the moment, we use server side authentication: There's a login URL displayed in a WebView where the facebook login is done. This way, we get an access_token that can be used on the server side.
This works perfectly but it would really be much better if we could use Single Sign-on with the facebook ios app. As far as I have read, this should work on the client side but I haven't found a way to authenticate the user on the server side.
facebook's access_tokens are valid either for use on the server-side or for the client side so an access_token from the client-side login won't work for the server side.
Thanks in advance for your ideas,
Henk
As far as I can see, you're making this far more complicated than it's really intended to be. Leverage the Facebook iOS SDK, and all of the heavy lifting involved with authenticating the user within your app is handled by the Facebook SDK. There's no need to independently provide sign-in sheets and manage access token exchange between the app's local storage and Facebook's servers without the convenience of the entire Facebook SDK.
This link shows you how to implement SSO natively within your iOS app. It's real simple.
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/mobile/ios/build/#implementsso
Then, I understand that you're keeping authentication information or central user database information on an external server. The best way to synchronize the information between the FB client and your own servers is to simply check the login information returned by the FB SDK with your server after you receive it.
Here's a simple breakdown:
Log the user in using Facebook's standard SDK (see the link above).
In the -didLogin method (or whatever the equivalent is in your Adobe AIR environment), check the access token returned by FB with your server. Not sure what server architecture you're using, but it's safe to say that this will go on outside of the FB SDK. Also, save the access token in your app's user defaults so that the user won't have to login again next time. This whole process should (and inherently will) feel much quicker than it sounds.
If the check with the server returns successfully, notify the user of a successful login. If not, display an error view explaining the reason the user was rejected/not logged in.
Why do it this way? The reason is fairly simple. It's safe to assume that the reason you're having a user login to your app via Facebook is so that you can make requests for the user's Facebook information (i.e. feeds, photos, likes, comments, etc.). The easiest (and best) way to do this is through the FB SDK its self. The SDK takes care of a lot of stuff behind the scenes like access token validation over time, extension of token life, validity of token, and so on. This way, you won't have to worry nearly as much about syncronizing the server information and real-time client information when changes take place. Just authenticate via the FB iOS SDK, and do the rest of your own processing afterward.
Comment below if there's anything I should clarify or even if I missed the point of your question entirely--I tend to get on a roll and may stray from the point. :)
Cheers!
The Kraken