By app-level solution you mean some sort of custom encryption / decryption scheme for the data dictionaries?
I'm still not convinced the data needs encryption -- I mean, it wouldn't hurt and in an ideal world I'd just push everything over SSL, but the worst thing that happens if someone gets hold of the data we're exchanging is a customer who has to call support because their activation key registers as already in-use, not any sort of identity theft or loss of financial credentials. Mostly with this I'm just trying to make sure that I can prevent unauthorized users from using the API to make themselves free activation keys. On May 25, 10:02 am, Alex Robbins <alexander.j.robb...@gmail.com> wrote: > It might be worth a try to see if the self-signed cert gets you into > trouble or not. Some url libraries might complain about it, but I > don't think that the behavior is universal. As I think about it, I > think it is normally browsers that whine about self-signed certs. > Maybe the other server wouldn't even mention it? Anyway, it'd be a lot > easier to setup an ssl cert than roll your own app level solution. > > Good luck! > Alex > > On May 24, 10:57 am, ringemup <ringe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Not a bad idea, actually, but the other site is on shared hosting, so > > I don't expect the host to be willing to add a self-signed cert as > > trusted. > > > On May 24, 10:07 am, Alex Robbins <alexander.j.robb...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > Just a thought, but if you are the only person using the url, you > > > could make your own self-signed security cert. It would be free and > > > protect your data. It won't show up as trusted to users, but your > > > other server can be set to accept it. (Assuming the lack of ssl is a > > > budget issue, that wouldn't fix a technical issue.) > > > > Alex > > > > On May 23, 10:10 am, ringemup <ringe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi folks -- > > > > > I'm putting together a simple API to allow a separately-hosted but > > > > trusted site to perform a very limited set of actions on my site. I'm > > > > wondering whether the design I've come up with is reasonably secure: > > > > > - Other site gets an API key, which is actually in two parts, public > > > > key and private key, each of which is a uuid generated by Python's > > > > uuid module. > > > > > - The API key object in the DB references a User object, whose > > > > permissions determine what actions the API key owner may take > > > > > - Other site submits a POST request to a special URL on my site. POST > > > > request contains 3 vars: public_key, data (as JSON), hash. > > > > > - Hash is a SHA1 of the data concatenated with the private key > > > > > - I use the public key to search the database for the API key and > > > > permissions. > > > > > - I generate the SHA1 of the data concatenated with the private key > > > > from the DB, and check it against the submitted hash; only if they > > > > match do I decode the data dict and take the actions specified within > > > > > - I then return an HTTP response containing a JSON object of the > > > > format: > > > > > { > > > > return_data: [object containing success / failure codes, messages, > > > > any other data], > > > > hash: [SHA1 of return_data concatenated with private key] > > > > > } > > > > > - All data will be transmitted in the clear (no SSL currently > > > > available -- *sigh*), but there will be no sensitive data in the > > > > incoming data dict. return_data may contain values that aren't meant > > > > to be broadcasted, but aren't really sensitive (along the lines of > > > > activation keys for a game) > > > > > Do you see any major potential flaws in this plan? > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > > Groups "Django users" group. > > > > To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > > > For more options, visit this group > > > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en. > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > > "Django users" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > > For more options, visit this group > > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en. > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Django users" group. > > To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django users" group. > To post to this group, send email to django-us...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. 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