I'm planning on doing a uniform JSON REST API for both my javascript based web app and as an API for other developers to use.
What I would like to do, is have my js app authenticate users using a username/password and allow them to access their own private resources. When the API is going to be accessed by other dev's, I'd like to allow them to access public resources (while still being able to track their API usage) and also let them access user's private data with the users permission (authorization ?).
Now, how would I go building such an API? What libraries/protocols/... would be the best at this?
Thanks.
You should really check out Oauth. Take a look at http://oauth.net
Related
We have a user who gave consent for our Cloud Project to read their Fit data through the Android app. We now want user's coach to access their Fit data through a web UI associated with our Cloud Project. Is this possible, and if so, what is the right way to do it?
Can cross-client identity be used? https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/CrossClientAuth
I was trying to replace "me" with "user#gmail.com" in the REST endpoint but it doesn't work:
https://www.googleapis.com/fitness/v1/users/me/... ->
https://www.googleapis.com/fitness/v1/users/user#gmail.com/...
Thanks!
There is a mechanism for Android apps to obtain offline access for web back-ends highlighted in the CrossClientAuth guide from your question. With offline access, you can theoretically serve or store that data in any way that the user has consented to. Any access controls of that data to another person is something that you'd have to handle on your own.
I am building a basic app using node.js and mysql and just getting a hang of it, I would like to secure the api,like only allow certain people to access the data, maybe by passing a certain token each time a user requests for some information, I tried searching for certain tutorials which used node.js and mysql database and security, I am confused as to which security measure to use, I even read about Json Web Tokens but din't find a proper tutorial for that.Please point me in the right direction.
EDIT
What I meant to say was, only authenticated users are allowed to get access to data in the api, when a random visitor tries to access a URL he shouldnt be alowed to without proper authentication,what I am mostly looking for now is when a user is authenticated the user should be a sent a token of some sort so then gets access to private data,I don't exactly know how to go about this whole thing.Would be glad if you could clear it up for me.
I would look at implementing Oauth2 server in your app. I found this article useful:
http://blog.papersapp.com/oauth-server-in-node-js/
No sure what your exact question is about, but I think the below will help:
Node.js security tips: http://blog.risingstack.com/node-js-security-tips/
Secure Express apps with various HTTP headers: https://github.com/helmetjs/helmet
Go on an educational Web security adventure: https://github.com/toolness/security-adventure
Node.js Security presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/d0cent/nodejs-security?qid=c450507b-e491-4e9a-9b05-89d0c82ea10b&v=default&b=&from_search=6
Take a look at http://passportjs.org/ . Passport has support for alot of authentication methods, however, for your API, you will probably want to use OAuth (http://passportjs.org/docs/oauth2-api). OAuth is what most popular APIs use to authenticate consumers.
For simple projects, You can also use basic authentication, which is what you see when you see the browser prompt asking for username and password. This authentication information can be sent in the header when API consumers makes requests.
how to make a login call using the Box API methods in my webservice?
I can only see a URL, that redirects to a Box login Page, where user needs to endter username and password, but this I need this as a webservice call.
Does anyone have done it usig API ?
Regards Sathish
You can find the full details here, but in short, you can set a callback URL for your app at http://www.box.com/developers/services that Box will send the authentication token to. You can set up your web service to receive the token there.
The way Box's authentication flow is designed is to prevent the need for users to provide 3rd parties (you in this case) with their credentials. The fact that there is no mechanism to authenticate a user by passing their credentials through a web service call is deliberate, and there is no straightforward work around I'm aware of (especially no such workaround that would be consistent with the terms of use of their API).
http://developers.box.com/get-started/#authenticating
There is a new authentication mechanism they have in the pipeline which will allow you to authenticate to a sandboxed folder for your application using a much simpler process. This is currently in private beta. This might fit the needs of what you are looking for once it is available.
http://developers.box.com/docs/#tokens
I'm currently working in HTTP JSON API for a touristic webapp. The webapp will be developed by a third-party company and it'll consume the API within the browser.
So I need for the API some sort of authentication to the third-party webapp can consume it. I've been researching a little bit about OAuth, but with this, I have a solution for a user-wide but not for application-wide authorization.
Because the webapp will consume the API within the browser(with Ajax), I'm concerned they will have to put the credentials to consume the API in the user browser.
Another solution would be place the credentials for the API in the server-side, but this don't depend on me.
You could always use something similar to google's method, with a client ID and then a private key used to generate a signature.
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/business/webservices#generating_valid_signatures
That page has some code samples as well.
I've wrote a tiny script that retrieves publicly available data from some APIs, in JSON format. I'm now trying to get some protected data out from bit.ly (click stats from a given user) and so I obviously need to authenticate via OAuth.
I don't seem to understand the role of client id and secret, as well as the user API key. I also don't get how to grab an access token (maybe generated during OAuth authentication?) to authenticate my HTTP requests of protected data. Do you guys know any good (e)book, article or any other resources I should read to understand in detail these architectural nuances of authenticated data retrievals and HTTP requests?
It is exactly as you suspect. The access token is granted during the OAuth process, which is basically a three step rocket of getting
Temporary credentials for your application
An end user needs to authenticate those temporary credentials, which grants you a verifier token
And finally you exchange your temporary credentials and the user verification for an access token.
Depending on which language/framework you are using, there are often good libaries available to help you implement an OAuth client. Check out: http://oauth.net/code/
But you will be well served by a clear understanding of how the whole thing works. Twitter has a great tutorial about OAuth 1: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/auth/oauth.
Regarding OAuth 2. Check out http://hueniverse.com/2010/05/introducing-oauth-2-0/. Hueniverse is a good resource for all things OAuth by the way.