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Ask HN: Do Parse's secret URLs provide reasonable security?

10 pointsby kabellover 12 years ago
I am considering using Parse for a web/mobile app, and it appears that they use "secret urls" as the primary security measure for accessing parse files. Obviously this isn't SUPER secure, but it does seem to be a fairly common way to limit access to, say "private photos" (e.g. flickr does it). Would you consider this "commercially reasonable" attempt to protect private data?

2 comments

hnwebservicesover 12 years ago
This method seems fine for protecting data as far as I can tell.<p>I would definitely recommend using https though because only the hostname is sent in plain text, the URL should be fully encrypted in an https request.<p>On the other hand, I'm not sure how reasonable this method is from a liability perspective. If a client accidentally forwards a secure url to someone who causes them to lose money, then there might be a chance that you could be liable for not securing your product effectively.
lognover 12 years ago
There might be more attack vectors with this, but generating a long random string is the basis of a lot of security mechanisms.