[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Kenneth Downs wrote:
That can only be done if the password is stored on the browser
between requests. No thanks!
At any rate, in principle I believe that sessions are a bad way to do
things, they just have that bag-on-the-side feel. The only permanent
use of a session in Andromeda is to store user information, notably
user_id and password.
Why do you need to store the password?
Once the user has authenticated, their authenticated. You don't need
to keep a password lying around past that point unless you want to
make them re-authenticate each time they access some data. And since
your storing that information on the server, it's somewhat irrelevant
to store it since your already trusting whatever other mechanisms you
have between the user and the server.
Database access. Each trip to the server requires that you make a
connection to the server.
In the PHP+MySQL world it is taken as an article of faith that you
connect to the database as a super-user or admin, and your application
code handles security. But not everybody thinks this way.
That approach has many problems in a large-table-count system, including
but not limited to documentation of security policies, effectiveness,
efficiency, and scalability. Probably the the most significant problem
is that you cannot provide your customer's IT departments with true
access to the database, which is a requirement to get some jobs.
As part of an overall more secure architecture, we connect the user to
the database with a real database account, the database server is in
charge of security and the program code has nothing to do with it. In
fact, the program by itself has no ability to connect to the database
unless given credentials by a user. This solves many problems, but it
does require us to keep track of the user's password once they've given
it to us, so that we can connect to the database on each of their
requests.
Hence my only use of a session.
Though I would point out that with browsers these days, that password
is gonna be stored on the browser no matter what you do short of
embedding a flash or java applet to process the logon. They save so
much information, the user might have to explicitly confirm saving the
address, but it will be saved.
True, you cannot stop the various "wallet" mechanisms from storing it
<Sigh>. But at least I did not add yet another :/
--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
www.secdat.com www.andromeda-project.org
631-689-7200 Fax: 631-689-0527
cell: 631-379-0010
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