I deleted this and reposted, because I forgot to address one of your questions, which I did in this edit:
I'm going to vastly over simplify this, but it holds up if you have any HTTP/Node.js experience. I have closely examined 2 authentication schemes: Cloudstack, Amazon AWS, and both implementations are WAY simpler than you think, and are as good as implementing two-legged OAUTH which both are very similar to. You'll WANT to do this yourself as (my opinion) you REALLY need to understand how your app is authenticating, and besides it's easy. http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-without-oauth-authentication/ This link you posted is 95% of how AWS and Cloudstack do it. The main difference is that they use a stored API Key and API Secret that are associated with your user ID. That's fine, but then you have to store stuff on the phone, or pass the secret over the wire (NEVER NEVER NEVER). Why not use The user ID and Password (with complexity rules) as the API key and Secret? This way, they are only stored in the app's memory, and when the app goes away, the "session" dies, like it should. The phone also has a screen lock, right? So the user is partially responsible for the security of his data as he should be. Also, MFA is 100% required IMO if you are going to actually secure from man-in-the-middle. Authy<https://www.authy.com/> is cheap, and easy, brain-dead-easy to implement. OK, on to some code: https://gist.github.com/nikmartin/5499838 That's it. Do that on both client and server for EVERY REST call, and you've done it, with very high security. Now, to go even further, taking the MFA concept of a very short lived token, AFTER signing the request, add a UNIX UTC timestamp to your payload, and on the server, check it to ensure it's within x seconds of the server time. This prevents replay attacks. One more add-on, I think from that buzzmedia article, is to also add the URI and HTTP verb into he signature, again to prevent hijacking a signed request to replay against another URI/VERB, like hijacking "getUserAccount" to "deleteUser", etc. Password storage: this can be pretty simple as well, as simple as concatting the password with the username, then salting the password with that. So when the user authenticates, he can salt the password on the client before sending, and you can store it salted. Salts don't have to be secret, they just guard against rainbow attacks, and the client knows the salt, because it's his username+password If you or anyone else can punch a hole in that, be my guest, as I'm implementing this my self at this very moment with Node, Android, mongoose+mongoDB, and Authy, and haven't found a simpler scheme yet. Nik On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 12:20:24 PM UTC-5, Alan Fay wrote: > > Hello! > > I'm trying to develop a REST API using node.js, to support an Android app. > I've been able to find several resources on the web, however, most of the > examples I come across fall into two camps: > 1) Basic authentication over HTTPS > 2) OAuth > > I don't want to do basic authentication over HTTPS with a username and > password, because in the Android app, I have it setup to store a username > and token via the AccountManager (they seem to have taken down reference to > the code on Android's site; my implementation is very similar the sample > code that ships with the SDK: * > android-sdk-linux/samples/android-17/SampleSyncAdapter* except I'm not > using any of the Sync features). > > I don't want to use OAuth because I am not sure we can count on users to > have accounts with Google or some other third-party OAuth provider. > > This is my first round at implementing web authentication; from what I'm > reading, the steps go something like this: > - [Service] Administrator creates an account with a username and a > generated strong code is stored temporarily in the user record; emailed to > user > - [App] User selects account and enters username and code, plus password > of their choice, into the form > - [App] Basic authentication over HTTPS sends over username, code, and > password (just this once) > - [Service] Stores random salt and password hash in the user record, and > the generated token (a) > - [Service] Replies back to App with the token > - [App] Username and token is stored via AccountManager > > Then, > - [App] User sends username and token to service (b) > - [Service] *authenticates* the user if the token matches and is not > expired (c) > - [App] User can access the various REST API calls (d) > > In this way, the password is never stored on the Android device or in the > database. When the token expires, then User re-enters password. The User > can request a password reset, which generates a strong code again and the > process starts from the top. > > My questions (referenced above) are: > (a) Should the generated token be stored on the user record, or in a > separate table? My thinking for a separate table/collection would be to > have a background process that could remove expired tokens; keeping this > information separate from the user record; or perhaps a user could have a > valid reason to have multiple different tokens (one on the phone, another > on the tablet). > (b) Is this simply done through basic authentication over HTTPS, sending > the username and token (in place of password)? > (c) I've seen examples of node.js code setting values on request.session; > effectively, marking the session as authenticated. Is this specific to > browsers/cookies and/or does it work when communicating to Android? > (d) Kind of an extension of (c), does the username/token have to be sent > every time, or can I reference something like the > request.session.authorized value? > > Also: > - Does anyone know of a good working example of a node.js REST API > implementation for an Android app? Sometimes it's easier to just learn > from code. > - Is there working example code of the node dependencies I see referenced > everywhere (everyauth, connect-auth, passport) being used with an Android > app? Most seem to implement OAuth solutions. > - Any security/implementation pitfalls with this approach? > > References: > * [The Definitive Guide to Forms-based Website Authentication]( > http://stackoverflow.com/a/477578/172217) > * [Designing a Secure REST (Web) API without OAuth]( > http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-without-oauth-authentication/ > ) > * [How to Implement a Secure REST API with node.js]( > http://stackoverflow.com/a/15500784/172217) > * [RESTful Authentication](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7158864/172217) > * [Securing my node.js App REST API]( > http://stackoverflow.com/a/9126126/172217) > * [Connect Session Middleware]( > http://www.senchalabs.org/connect/session.html) > * [Secure Salted Password Hashing]( > http://crackstation.net/hashing-security.htm) > -- -- 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. 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