How can I limit the access to the Google Translation API to only a specific IP, the IP of my server? Because someone else is using my API and I hit the limit of requests frequently
The authentication to Translation API can be done with two main methods:
Using a service account: the service account key can be downloaded as a JSON file, and only the people who own that file will be able to authorize their requests against your API.
Using an API key: it is a simple encrypted string that can be used for authentication when calling certain Google Cloud APIs. When using this method, you should follow the best practices, which include the method you ask for in your question, restricting API key usage by IP address. You can do that following the guide in this documentation page, which consists in:
Go to the Credentials page inside the APIs & Services tab in your Console.
Select the Create credentials drop-down menu and then on API key.
In the pop up menu that will appear, click on Restrict key.
Choose the IP addresses option and type the IP address you want to allow. Then save.
Then you will be able to use that API key as a secure method for accepting requests only from your server.
Related
Let me clarify my use case:
I have a next.js application which is a plattform for listing real estate objects. I have several api routes which im using inside my next.js app. for example:
/api/createpost ->
Takes informations from my form on my next.js app and creates a database entry to perform a new post
/api/getposts ->
fetching all the real estate posts from my database and displays it
/api/login ->
logs in a user by checking the credentials in the database and sends a jwt
/api/register ->
registers a user by taking the credentials from a form from my next.js app, registering a user and creating an entry in my database
Now in order to secure my apis I want to make sure to check if there is a valid user session if anybody is calling one of the apis (except the register/login api) to get the expected result. Im doing this by calling the /api/login route and getting a valid user session. Until here everything just works fine. Apis like the /api/createpost can only be called if we have a valid user session.
Now I want to create a mobile app and I want to use my api routes from above to provide full functionality in my mobile app too. It should work the same, if i want to call the /api/createpost on my mobileapp for example, i need a valid user session.
But I want to restrict my api by asking for a key in my database which is pointing to my app and saying okay if you call the /api/createpost api, first of all i need to verify that its the mobile app asking. The mobile app will provide the key in the request then.
I didnt try this yet, but it should work i think. Now the big mess: If we call the /api/createpost and the api wants a valid token to check in the database, which will work for the mobile app, because we are giving it a valid token to check in the database, how can we provide a token if we are calling the api from inside our next.js application? Since I have to do the api call clientside, there is no way for me to provide a secret key or something to validate that the call is coming from my next.js application.
If your application is private
(to be used only by you or a few select people)
You can send a private API key over SSL with each request from your application to the server and verify it. Or you can limit your API to only accept requests from certain IPs.
If your application is public
Unfortunately there's no way to determine where the request is coming from, since anything your app can send, an attacker can send it manually.
Think about it, if your app is trying to make a request to your API, any user can intercept this request before its sent out of his/her machine, and send the exact same request from a different app on the same machine.
You might say, well I can encrypt the requests and responses so that they are of no use to the attacker. But such an encryption will require either a key that's already agreed upon, or some way to provide a new key at the beginning of each session.
If the key is already agreed upon, the app must contain it, as you've already guessed in the question, the attacker can retrieve this key no matter how well you try to hide it.
If the encryption key is a new key provided at the beginning of each session, that's almost how SSL works, your browser handles this transaction. Your server sends a public key to your browser to encrypt the requests which the server can then decrypt with a private key. In this case you've circled back to the same problem, how can you verify to whom you give out an encryption key? What would stop an attacker from requesting the encryption key?
There has to be some way you'd be able to design apps that don't require this restriction. I think the question you should be asking isn't how to restrict your api to a certain app, but how to design apps that don't require this restriction.
We might be able to help you out if you could tell us why you need this restriction.
Update
There is actually a way to verify that requests are coming from your app, but not with an api key.
For Webapps
You can use Google's reCAPTCHA to verify a user on your /register and '/login` routes, and provide an access token or start a valid user session on successful captcha response. With reCAPTCHA v3, you could even verify every user action without interrupting the user. This eliminates both the problems I mentioned in my answer above -
You don't have to store an api key into the app/web app.
The request can't be spoofed as it requires human user interaction within your app. The captcha verification success will arrive to your API from Google's reCAPTCHA server, not from your client app. This communication will be authenticated with a pre-mediated private API key shared by Google to you, which works in the same way as to how you authenticate your external domains.
For Android apps
A similar way to achieve the same thing would be via Android SafetyNet Attestation API. This checks the runtime environment and signs the response with a dynamically generated nonce that your app provides the SafetyNet API.
Please read its docs carefully to understand how you could create potential security loopholes and how to avoid them while using this API.
For iOS apps
DeviceCheck works in a similar way, except the device validity is provided to you by Apple server.
Important edit: "secured" is not the right word here! You cannot tell that a request comes from your app just because the domain is yours. The domain name is not a safe information, as it can be altered easily. See #Mythos comments below.
Initial answer:
Web applications access is secured not based on an API key, but based on a whitelist of domains. That's how we achieve security, because only you have access to the domain where you host your own application: so the request has to be coming from an app you own.
If you try some 3rd party services that provides API for web apps, that's often how they'll work: they will let you configure a set of whitelisted domains that can access your data.
If they provide you an API key, this API key is always meant to be used by a server, not a client-only app.
So if I understand you question correctly, you would do like this for each request:
Check the domain. If it's in the whitelist, perfect, you can keep going. This is meant for web apps (look for "CORS").
If not, check for a valid API token in the headers. This is meant for any app that can store this API token securely (another server for instance, or a mobile app in your scenario though I don't know mobile enough to tell how you store such a key)
Here.com says that "APP CODE credentials will no longer be provided for new projects" (here). We need to use the API KEY instead, but with old APP CODE there was an option to "create a trusted domain for your app credentials". This feature does not exist today with API KEY. How can I protect my API KEY by dns or ip, knowing I access the API by REST from a Python script on a server and not in JS ???
Note : on new here.com accounts there is no possibility to create a JS REST key, only REST is available.
Here is my interface :
You can protect the APIKEY by assigning it to a trusted domain, just like your APP ID APP CODE.
Head over to your project page and create a JS APIKEY. You will then get an option to assign it to a trusted domain.
I'd like to use Google Identity Toolkit API to identify the user of a web site.
I made the example program without problems, but when trying to push it on a remote web server it does not work.
I made a new project (so I have new credentials for server, client and apikey).
I made all the modification to the PHP and JSON file but when I try to login I get : There is a per-IP or per-Referer restriction configured on your API key and the request does not match these restrictions. Please use the Google Developers Console to update your API key configuration if request from this IP or referer should be allowed
I don't understand where referer are specified because the aipkey is auto generated when you change the API configuration and in API configuration there are not referers or ip indication.
Where am I doing wrong?
Go to google developers console.
Select the project you previously created and then go to Credentials option in the APIs & auth menu on the left.
Under API keys, select browser key. You can configure the browser key referrer there.
Under api key there was only one key automatically created by the api configuration.
This key had no name and i can't find a way to modify or view it.
I tried to delete it several times, but every time was created without name.
I tried to add a new key by myself, but that key wasn't accepted.
I had to delete the auto generated key, create a new one, and then go modifying the api config.
Then it worked....
I am developing an asp.net web api app, and using OWIN and identity to implement oauth for my aplication security. For each registered user, I also save a client id and hash as described here. But I dont want other developers be able to use my api and create their own app using the client id (and other credentials) they have.
Is it possible ?
First thing first, you have to encrypt your network traffic between mobile device and API. Because attackers can obtain sensitive data (which is API Token in this case) via proxy . Also you need to do SSL Pinning because of you need to be sure about public key is yours, otherwise attackers manage to get sensitive data again with same method. ( Please check out : https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Certificate_and_Public_Key_Pinning )
You shouldn't authenticate users with username/password. I suggest to you use api key, therefor you can send user actions to server side like following patterns.
https://example.com/api/APIKEYOVERHERE/action
Als you can watch this talk about Secure Your API - Tips for REST + JSON Developers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeSdFhsKGG0
Background
I want to create a PHP application that eventually will be installed on a "countless" web servers.
The application is going to access the Google Drive associated with the web server's administrator Google account (it will basically write some files on user's cloud storage). So my PHP app will be authorized by the end-user to use its Google Drive storage. This is done (via the OAuth2 protocol) by connecting the Google OAuth2 service.
So basically I have to create a ClientID/Secret pair (on behalf of my Google Account) that is gonna be used to execute the authorization flow.
Google provides 3 authorization methods:
for web applications (web browsers over network)
for service account (my server to Google server)
for installed application (like Android, IPhone)
(1) is perhaps the best choice EXCEPT that I have to define a REDIRECT_URI where the authorization code will be sent. Because my APP will be installed on a "countless" different servers I don't know in advance the protocol, domain name and the path (also the URI) where the Google's response should be returned. If I would install this application only on 3 servers I could create upfront a ClientID/Secret pair for each of them. It's not the case.
(2) means to deploy my P12 private key with the PHP application and I don't feel comfortable with that!
(3) means to put the end-user to copy/paste an authorization token from a Google web page into my application web interface. I am trying to avoid doing that.
I already made it to work by using the method 1 when I know in advance the REDIRECT_URI. I also embedded the client_id/secret pair in the source code so the whole authorization process is user-friendly. But this is not going to work on a "countless" deployment scenario.
Questions
Which method and how should I use it in order to make the whole process safe for me (as developer) and for the client too (the web server administrator). Note that the authorization process should not involve the end-user to copy paste some codes. I want that step to be transparent/user-friendly for the end-user (no one likes copy-paste when it can be done automatically).
Should I embed my client_id/secret into the application or that's totally wrong? I suppose no end-user wants to go through the creation of its own ClientID in Google Developer Console, right? On the other hand why I would give my client_id/secret to an unknown end-user?
Final thoughts
I could create a proxy application on my (the developer) web server such that my PHP application (which is supposed to be deployed "everywhere") will send the authorization request to my proxy server (which has already its own client_id/secret) which in turn will redirect the call to the Google OAuth service which then REDIRECT_URI back the authorization code to my proxy and finally I will redirect back the response to the original sender (the PHP application). What do you think?
Some useful answers here and here or here.
#Edit: as I've already said earlier a proxy would be a solution. I've made it and it works. The same solutions I've received also from user pinoyyid. Thanks for your answer too.
A proxy is the only real option open to you. You can encode the originator URL in the "state" parameter, so that when the proxy receives the access token, it can call a webhook at the originator.
There are some contradictions in your question...
"The application is going to access the Google Drive associated with the web server's administrator Google account" and "So my PHP app will be authorized by the end-user to use its Google Drive storage." are mutually exclusive.
If the Drive storage belongs to the app, then the user isn't involved in any OAuth dialogue.
Could you edit your question to be clear who is the owner of the Drive storage as it greatly influences the OAuth flows.