@Edward: that's a hybrid of my original idea (hashes in paths) and what I'm
doing now...sending a file from a private directory via a route middleware
authentication.  Since I no longer rely on hashes for
(in)security-by-obscurity, I can actually use any unique id in the url,
like an on the fly integer enumeration.
On Feb 18, 2012 8:48 AM, "Edward Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I would put them in a directory not accessible by clients, and have node
> route urls with specific hashes, for each file for each user.  The route
> could be something like /$user/download/$hash (anything with a $ in front
> of it will vary based off of user).  The combination of $user and $hash
> should be stored in a database so you can find out if it is valid and what
> file it should be.  Then send the file.
>
> I have never implemented something like this, but this is how I would
> probably do it.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 5:45 PM, C. Mundi <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> This is obviously a solved problem.  I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
>>
>> Imagine a digital music store.  I have a set of static files which I need
>> to serve only to authenticated users.  So the set of accessible files
>> depends on the user.  How do I let each user get the files she is entitled
>> to and no other files?
>>
>> Bad Idea 1: security by obscurity: hide the files behind query strings
>> generated on the fly for session.user in the form of nasty looking hard to
>> guess hashes.  Ugly hack and vulnerable to brute force hash collision.
>> Yuck!
>>
>> Bad Idea 2: set up an instance of node-static.Server() for each
>> authenticated session, specifically serving a directory created on the fly
>> for that session and containing symlinks to all (and only) files for which
>> session.user has privileges.  The main server would redirect requests for
>> files to the ad hoc static server.  Kludgus maximus!
>>
>> Good Idea: what you tell me.  :)
>>
>> --
>> Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/
>> Posting guidelines:
>> https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>> Groups "nodejs" group.
>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>> [email protected]
>> For more options, visit this group at
>> http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en
>>
>
>  --
> Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/
> Posting guidelines:
> https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "nodejs" group.
> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> [email protected]
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en
>

-- 
Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/
Posting guidelines: 
https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "nodejs" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en

Reply via email to