forms authentication and deny access to all files - asp.net

I have created a "restricted" page with the forms authentication and it's working well.
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="login.aspx" defaultUrl="documents.aspx" />
</authentication>
<location path="documents.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
I would like to deny access to a folder and all the files that it contains depending on this authentication. Basically, documents.apsx has a document list that you can download. If I try to access to www.mywebsite.com/documents I'm automatically redirect to the login.aspx. I added the following Web.config in my Documents folder:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</configuration>
However, if I know the path of a document, for example www.mywebsite.com/documents/test.pdf I can access to this file.
My question is: How can I deny access to all the files in the Document folder if you are not authenticated?

Put all your doucments PDF in a folder and set restriction on that folder like this:
<location path="FolderName">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>

Related

How to allow access to a web folder only to authenticated users

My web application uses forms authentication mode.
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="Logon.aspx" protection="All" path="/" timeout="60" slidingExpiration="false" />
</authentication>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
There is a folder in my web application, named "Documentos", that has a lot of PDF files.
My program allow the user to load a PDF file using its URL address:
http://MyHost/MyWebApp/Documentos/1.pdf
However, I need to restrict that functionality only to authenticated users.
For that, I put in my web.config:
<location path="Documentos">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
But it doesn't make any difference. Any one can still load any PDF file in folder Documentos doing:
http://MyHost/MyWebApp/Documentos/1.pdf
Can I accomplish what I'm looking for or should I approach it in a different way?
EDIT
Win's solution and Richard's solution are correct. This is the way to put those settings in web.config:
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
</system.webServer>
<location path="Documentos">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Yo have two options -
Option 1
Use ~/ if your web application is not root level.
<location path="~/Documentos">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Option 2
Create a web.config with following content, and place it inside Documentos folder.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</configuration>
The problem is that by default, the auth section only applies to requests that go through the pipeline, not to static files. To do what you want, add the following attribute to your modules section:
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
...

Unauthenticated user access to a URL with location element is not working

I am using ASP.NET forms authentication for my web app. I have a folder to which I would like to grant access to unauthenticated users. I am using IIS 7 and the app pool is in the integrated mode. As a test, I created hello.txt inside ScriptsHandlers folder. When I try to browse it using IIS, I get redirected to the login page despite the location element. Also, when I am running my application, I get 401 Unauthorized errors when querying asmx web services stored in the folder.
Here is a snippet of my web.config:
<location path="ScriptsHandlers">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
<location allowOverride="true">
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="Views/Login.aspx" name=".ASPXFORMSAUTH" cookieless="UseUri" slidingExpiration="true" />
</authentication>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Allow access to everything inside ScriptsHandlers folder
ScriptsHandlers Or /ScriptsHandler depending on where you keep this web.config
<location path="ScriptsHandlers">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>

How to specify root (/) location in web.config?

How does one specify root location in web.config to allow unauthenticated users access it?
The root location is served by default.aspx, but users normally don't see default.aspx, they just see http://mysite.com/.
So I've added
<location path="~/default.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Which works if user hits mysite.com/default.aspx, but if user hits mysite.com/ - he is still redirected to login page.
I've tried <location path="~"> (does not help) and also <location path="~/">, <location path=""> (site fails completely) and could not make it work.
Any ideas?
Try this one:
<system.web>
<urlMappings enabled="true">
<add url="~/" mappedUrl="~/default.aspx" />
</urlMappings>
<authorization>
<allow roles="admin"/>
<deny users="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
<location path="Default.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
only use
<location path=".">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
or don't write path,because the default path is root(.)
You can achieve by 2 method
Method 1:
You can set redirect path to http://mysite.com/default.aspx in IIS if any user directly comes to your site.in IIS7 you can do that by clicking on Default Document. Here i attached image for your reference
Method 2
You can go through this URL ASp.NET Membership to set your web config settings.
Let me know if you need more detail on this.
The way we done it in the past was to create a folder for all functionality that requires login and set require auth for that folder. All aspx go to that folder. The root of the site stays open.
You probably use a forms authentification no?
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="~/Default.aspx" />
</authentication>
This will solve your problem. An alternative is:
<location path="~/Default.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
If you only want to let unauthenticated users to access default.aspx you can use
<location path="Default.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
before <system.web> and set that page as default in your web server.
In Visual Studio you can select the page and "Set As Start Page".
If you want to allow access to all the files in the root you have to create folders where you put your pages which need to be accessed by authenticated users.
You can create a Secure folder where you can put all your protected pages and change your web.config this way:
<location path="Secure">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
removing
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
To specify root directory you have to set it outside the location block.
<configuration>
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users=“*“/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</configuration>
and then secure your other folder using location block
<location path=“AccessDenied.aspx“>
<system.web>
<authorization>
<deny users=“?“/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Use this :
<location path="Default.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
<location path="~">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
It works for me.
Merk was right!
I used
<location path="">
<system.webServer>
<httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://www.newpathdestination.com" exactDestination="true" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
</system.webServer>
</location>
on Windows netserver (don't ask), making sure to put nothing in between the quotes for location path. Redirects a request for the old home page to the new home page.
If you want to specify the root of the directory, use <location path="" >

Allow access for unathenticated users to specific page using ASP.Net Forms Authentication

I am using ASP.Net Forms Authentication. My Web.config looks like this.
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="login.aspx"/>
</authentication>
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
So currently every aspx page requires authentication.
I want to allow access to even unauthenticated users to a specific page named special.aspx.
How can I do this?
Take a look at the example on MS Support
<configuration>
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Forms" >
<forms loginUrl="login.aspx" name=".ASPNETAUTH" protection="None" path="/" timeout="20" >
</forms>
</authentication>
<!-- This section denies access to all files in this
application except for those that you have not explicitly
specified by using another setting. -->
<authorization>
<deny users="?" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
<!-- This section gives the unauthenticated
user access to the ThePageThatUnauthenticatedUsersCanVisit.aspx
page only. It is located in the same folder
as this configuration file. -->
<location path="ThePageThatUnauthenticatedUsersCanVisit.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users ="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
<!-- This section gives the unauthenticated
user access to all of the files that are stored
in the TheDirectoryThatUnauthenticatedUsersCanVisit folder. -->
<location path="TheDirectoryThatUnauthenticatedUsersCanVisit">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users ="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
</configuration>
Put the following in your web.config:
<location path="special.aspx">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/>
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
<location path="register.aspx"> //path here is path to your register.aspx page
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/> // this will allow access to everyone to register.aspx
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
For more detail follow the below link
http://weblogs.asp.net/gurusarkar/setting-authorization-rules-for-a-particular-page-or-folder-in-web-config
Allow everyone to access a particular page
Sometimes you want to allow public access to some page and want to restrict access to rest of the site only to logged / authenticated users .i.e. do not allow anonymous access. Say your special.aspx is in your site's root folder. In the web.config of your website's root folder you need to have following setup.
<configuration>
<system.web>
<authentication mode="Forms"/>
<authorization> <deny users="?"/> //this will restrict anonymous user access
</authorization>
</system.web>
<location path="special.aspx"> //path here is path to your special.aspx page
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*"/> // this will allow access to everyone to special.aspx
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
</configuration>

View images in the login page

All the users have to do the login before access to my site.
So i insert this code in web.config file:
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms name="login" loginUrl="~/Login.aspx" defaultUrl="~/index.aspx"/>
</authentication>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
It works but the login page is rendered without images..
How can i do?
thanks
You need to modify the security on your image directory to allow unauthenticated users access. You can do that one of two ways:
1) You can add another Web.Config to the image directory that contains:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</configuration>
2) Update the Web.Config in your root directory with a location-specific rule:
<location path="images/">
<system.web>
<authorization>
<allow users="*" />
</authorization>
</system.web>
</location>
Either change should fix the problem.

Resources