We are getting hit with a scenario where a user logs off and previous good session cookie ( including sliding time window) is replayed and our code jumps right to the requested page as the user. We are not maintaining session state in the server. This Asp.Net forms authentication.
I was thinking that the only solution to this is to add columns to the server to track a users log status. Not real hard but requires code, db, and deployment to accomplish.
Is this the best way to handle this? Since we will have to crack into code anyway, we could add client request ip's and other stuff to the cookie. But the current spoof is to reuse the clients machine as well as the session.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
bille
Javascript code that checks for inactivity -> logout
$j(document).ready(function () {
/******************************************************************
Auto-logout after the user's session times out
******************************************************************/
var timeOut = (_TIMEOUT - 5) * 60;
var setTimeout = function () {
$j(".session-timeout").stopTime().oneTime(timeOut + "s", function () {
$j(this).show();
$j(this).oneTime("300s", function () {
window.location = $j(this).find("a.logout").attr("href");
});
});
};
$j(".session-timeout a.refresh-session").click(function () {
NextGen.CHS.UtilitiesWebService.RefreshSession(
function () {
$j(".session-timeout").fadeOut();
setTimeout();
},
function () {
}
);
});
setTimeout();
});
I ended up fixing this by tracking users log in/out state and activity timestamps. When a replayed session is received, we still decrypt the forms ticket and find valid "session" information. This identifies the user, we then check if logged out and if so redirect to log in page.
For cases where the user kills the browser without logging out, the activity time stamp is used in a sql job that sweeps the user table logging out inactive users.
weidson
Related
Precondition
$npm install --save firebase#4.11.0
issue
I'm using firebase authentication on my web application.
In my app, I implemented onAuthStateChanged for client side js like below.
firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged((user) => {
if(user) {
//logged in
} else {
//do sth
}
});
After login, I confirmed this method will return actual user obj, but if I refresh the page, then user might be null.
Curiously, sometimes user won't be null.
I'm afraid there are some limitation of calling onAuthStateChanged, but currently I have no idea.
How should I deal with this issue?
update
Let me share my minimal example.
My app is working with express.js.
There are two URLs like below.
/login
/main
In the login page, I implemented authentication method.
If the login is successfully finished, then user will be redirected to '/main'.
//login.js
import firebase from 'firebase';
var config = {...};
firebase.initializeApp(config);
var provider = new firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider();
firebase.auth().signInWithPopup(provider)
.then((result) => {
return result.user.getIdToken(true);
}).then((idToken) => {
if(idToken) {
location.href = '/main';
}
});
In the main page, there is no login method.
main.js is only checking whether user is logged in.
//main.js
import firebase from 'firebase';
var config = {...};
firebase.initializeApp(config);
firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged((user) => {
if (user) {
//initialize main page.
} else {
location.href = '/login';
}
}
I think login status is stored on LocalStorage of web browser.
This means that, after finishing loading of main.js, onAuthStateChanged will be automatically fired with user information, but not working as I expected.
I'm sure that persistence of login information is correct because official document says the default setting is LOCAL for web client.
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/web/auth-state-persistence
my question
Should I implement onAuthStateChanged with another way?
How can I ensure user is logged in after reload?
e.g.
import $ from 'jquery';
$(document).on('ready', () => {
onAuthStateChanged((user) => {...});
});
Or could you show me the correct way?
Workaround
I decided to remove session and set redirection to login page if null is returned. This is not a solution, but a workaround currently...
You're not calling onAuthStateChanged. Instead you're telling Firebase to call you when the authentication state changes, which may happen a few times when the page is being re-loaded
When a page is getting loaded and there was previously a user signed in, the auth state may change a few times, while the client is figuring out if the user's authentication state it still valid. For that reason, you may see a call with no user before seeing the final call with the actual signed in user.
The fact it's sometimes null and sometimes not null likely points to an async problem. Are you making the check in the if statement above? All references to the user should be within the callback. If that all checks out, maybe check that authentication is being properly initiated.
onAuthStateChanged is an observer as stated in firebase docs, which gets triggered when the auth state is changed like user signed in, signed out, pwd change. To check if user is logged in or not you should use firebase.auth().currentUser which will give you the current logged in user. As you said your state is local firebase.auth().currentUser will always give you user unless user is signed out.
I'm using SignalR 2.2.2 to send users messages from my backend. When a user is logged in, and if other conditions are met, their connection is added to a group with the user's userId on my message hub.
It works great, as long as they have ~10 or fewer tabs/windows open. Any beyond that, they're stuck in "Loading..." indefinitely.
It seems to just be getting stuck on $.connection.hub.start();
I don't necessarily need to allow each user an infinite amount of signalr connections, but breaking the entire site for them on 10 open tabs is a problem.
OKAY BUT HERE'S THE THING. When I change my project's server setting from Local IIS to IIS Express, this problem vanishes! BUT! When we build the solution & put it on the test server, it's still broken.
What is going on???
I've tried catching or handling an error, but it still just hangs there.
$(function () {
if (loggedInUser != null)
{
var user = loggedInUser.UserId;
var messaging = $.connection.messageHub;
if (conditions) {
$.connection.hub.start().done(function () {
messaging.server.joinGroup(user);
});
}
}
});
I can get this to work with IIS Express. Now I need it to work like that on my test (and then later production) Server.
What else can I even try?
Question says it all. In Firebase, how do I confirm email when a user creates an account, or, for that matter, do password reset via email.
I could ask more broadly: is there any way to send emails out from Firebase? E.g. notifications, etc. This isn't the kind of thing you would usually do client-side.
Update
Note that this was never a very secure way of handling email verification, and since Firebase now supports email verification, it should probably be used instead.
Original answer
I solved the email verification using the password reset feature.
On account creation I give the user a temporary (randomly generated) password. I then trigger a password reset which will send an email to the user with a link. The link will allow the user to set a new password.
To generate a random password you can use code similar to this:
function () {
var possibleChars = ['abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789!?_-'];
var password = '';
for(var i = 0; i < 16; i += 1) {
password += possibleChars[Math.floor(Math.random() * possibleChars.length)];
}
return password;
}
Note that this is happening on the client, so a malicious user could tamper with your logic.
This would need to be done outside of firebase. I store users at /users/ and keep a status on them (PENDING, ACTIVE, DELETED). I have a small service that monitors users of a PENDING status and sends out a confirmation email. Which has a link to a webservice I've created to update the user status to ACTIVE.
[Engineer at Firebase - Update 2014-01-27]
Firebase Simple Login now supports password resets for email / password authentication.
Each of the Simple Login client libraries has been given a new method for generating password reset emails for the specified email address - sendPasswordResetEmail() on the Web and Android, and sendPasswordResetForEmail() on iOS.
This e-mail will contain a temporary token that the user may use to log into their account and update their credentials. This token will expire after 24 hours or when the user changes their password, whichever occurs first.
Also note that Firebase Simple Login enables full configuration of the email template as well as the sending address (including whitelabel email from your domain for paid accounts).
To get access to this feature, you'll need to update your client library to a version of v1.2.0 or greater. To grab the latest version, check out https://www.firebase.com/docs/downloads.html.
Also, check out https://www.firebase.com/docs/security/simple-login-email-password.html for the latest Firebase Simple Login - Web Client docs.
As at 2016 July, you might not have to use the reset link etc. Just use the sendEmailVerification() and applyActionCode functions:
In short, below is basically how you'll approach this, in AngularJS:
// thecontroller.js
$scope.sendVerifyEmail = function() {
console.log('Email sent, whaaaaam!');
currentAuth.sendEmailVerification();
}
// where currentAuth came from something like this:
// routerconfig
....
templateUrl: 'bla.html',
resolve: {
currentAuth:['Auth', function(Auth) {
return Auth.$requireSignIn() // this throws an AUTH_REQUIRED broadcast
}]
}
...
// intercept the broadcast like so if you want:
....
$rootScope.$on("$stateChangeError", function(event, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams, error) {
if (error === "AUTH_REQUIRED") {
$state.go('login', { toWhere: toState });
}
});
....
// So user receives the email. How do you process the `oobCode` that returns?
// You may do something like this:
// catch the url with its mode and oobCode
.state('emailVerify', {
url: '/verify-email?mode&oobCode',
templateUrl: 'auth/verify-email.html',
controller: 'emailVerifyController',
resolve: {
currentAuth:['Auth', function(Auth) {
return Auth.$requireSignIn()
}]
}
})
// Then digest like so where each term is what they sound like:
.controller('emailVerifyController', ['$scope', '$stateParams', 'currentAuth', 'DatabaseRef',
function($scope, $stateParams, currentAuth, DatabaseRef) {
console.log(currentAuth);
$scope.doVerify = function() {
firebase.auth()
.applyActionCode($stateParams.oobCode)
.then(function(data) {
// change emailVerified for logged in User
console.log('Verification happened');
})
.catch(function(error) {
$scope.error = error.message;
console.log(error.message, error.reason)
})
};
}
])
And ooh, with the above approach, I do not think there's any need keeping the verification of your user's email in your user data area. The applyActionCode changes the emailVerified to true from false.
Email verification is important when users sign in with the local account. However, for many social authentications, the incoming emailVerified will be true already.
Explained more in the article Email Verification with Firebase 3.0 SDK
What I did to work around this was use Zapier which has a built in API for firebase. It checks a location for added child elements. Then it takes the mail address and a verification url from the data of new nodes and sends them forwards. The url points back to my angular app, which sets the user email as verified.
As I host my app files in firebase, I don't need have to take care of any servers or processes doing polling in the background.
There is a delay, but as I don't block users before verifying mails it's ok. Zapier has a free tier and since I don't have much traffic it's a decent workaround for time being.
The new Firebase SDK v3 appears to support email address verification, see here (put your own project id in the link) but it doesn't appear to be documented yet.
I have asked the question on SO here
See #SamQuayle's answer there with this link to the official docs.
As noted by various others Firebase does now support account related emails but even better, as of 10 days ago or so it also supports sending any kind of email via Firebase Functions. Lots of details in the docs and example code here.
I used following code to check the email verification after creating new account.
let firAuth = FIRAuth.auth()
firAuth?.addAuthStateDidChangeListener { auth, user in
if let loggedUser = user {
if loggedUser.emailVerified == false {
loggedUser.sendEmailVerificationWithCompletion({ (error) in
print("error:\(error)")
})
}
else {
print(loggedUser.email)
}
} else {
// No user is signed in.
print("No user is signed in.")
}
}
I used MandrillApp. You can create an API key that only allows sending of a template. This way even thought your key is exposed it can't really be abused unless someone wants to fire off tonnes of welcome emails for you.
That was a hack to get myself off the ground. I'm now enabling CORS from a EC2 that uses the token to verify that the user exists before extending them a welcome via SES.
I'm trying to update my angularjs app to support Firebase 1.1 (I was stick with Firebase 1.0.x).
It deprecates firebasesimplelogin, including authentication inside Firebase core.
I have been able to successfully implement authentication using
authWithOAuthPopup("<provider>", function(error, authData) { ... });
It accepts a callback, which is passed authentication data in authData.
On the contrary, I can't undersand how to use
authWithOAuthRedirect("<provider>", function(error) { ... });
Firebase Authentication docs page is very concise... :-(. This is all what is said:
Alternatively [instead of authWithOAuthPopup], you may prompt the user to login with a full browser redirect, and Firebase will automatically restore the session when you return to the originating page
How do I get authData, when Firebase - after redirection - returns to my page?
The authData is available by registering a listener directly on the ref (so before calling authWithOAuthRedirect).
ref.onAuth(function(authData) {
...
}
ref.authWithOAuthRedirect("google", function(error) { ... });
See https://www.firebase.com/docs/web/guide/user-auth.html#section-monitoring-authentication
I think I'm running into the same issue as you. I'm trying to do Facebook authentication.
First, I'd like to clarify the reproduction steps for my issue.
My app is loaded on the client.
User clicks login with Facebook.
ref.authWithOAuthRedirect('facebook', ...) is called.
Client is redirected to Facebook and Facebook redirects client back to Firebase app
Despite successful authentication with Facebook, the callback passed to onAuth() is invoked (only once) with authData === null.
The callback passed to onAuth() is not invoked a second time with correct authData.
However, reloading the app causes the callback passed to onAuth to be invoked with correct authData. The reasons for this are not known to me but I suspect race condition.
Here's my workaround.
Before calling ref.authWithOAuthRedirect('facebook', ...) set yourself a flag in sessionStorage.
sessionStorage.reload = true;
ref.authWithOAuthRedirect('facebook', ...)
When the client is redirected to your app back from Facebook, you should be able to check for this flag and reload the page if necessary.
if (sessionStorage.reload) {
delete sessionStorage.reload;
setTimeout(function() {
location.reload();
}, 1000)
}
setTimeout(function() { ... }, 1000) helps fight the assumed race condition. I found 500 ms is insufficient time for the race condition to be resolved.
And one small gotcha: if you reload the page too soon, then authData remains null no matter how many times you reload the page.
How can check, on server side route, if user is logged?
I would add check on 'before', but Metor.user() don't work here.
thanks in advance.
p.s. I have found How to get Meteor.user() to return on the server side?, but not work on iron-router
I'm afraid that this is not possible. I guess that the problem comes from the fact that you're trying to connect to the server with two different protocols - both literally and in logically - so there is no obvious way to relate this two actions.
There is, however, a pretty simple solution that may suit your needs. You'll need to develop a simple system of privileges tokens, or secret keys, or whatever you call them. First, create a server method
var Secrets = new Meteor.Collection("secrets"); // only on server!!!
Meteor.methods({
getSecretKey: function () {
if (!this.userId)
// check if the user has privileges
throw Meteor.Error(403);
return Secrets.insert({_id: Random.id(), user: this.userId});
},
});
Then, you can now use it on the client to get the secretKey which attach to your AJAX request (or something), either within the HTTP header or in the URL itself. Fear not!
They will all be encrypted if you're using HTTPS.
On the server side you can now retrieve the secretKey from the incoming request and check if it is present in the Secrets collection. You'll know then if the user is granted certain privileges or not.
Also you may want to remove your secret keys from the collection after some time for safety reasons.
If what you're looking to do is to authenticate the Meteor.user making the request, I'm currently doing this within the context of IronRouter.route(). The request must be made with a valid user ID and auth token in the header. I call this function from within Router.route(), which then gives me access to this.user:
###
Verify the request is being made by an actively logged in user
#context: IronRouter.Router.route()
###
authenticate = ->
# Get the auth info from header
userId = this.request.headers['x-user-id']
loginToken = this.request.headers['x-auth-token']
# Get the user from the database
if userId and loginToken
user = Meteor.users.findOne {'_id': userId, 'services.resume.loginTokens.token': loginToken}
# Return an error if the login token does not match any belonging to the user
if not user
respond.call this, {success: false, message: "You must be logged in to do this."}, 401
# Attach the user to the context so they can be accessed at this.user within route
this.user = user
###
Respond to an HTTP request
#context: IronRouter.Router.route()
###
respond = (body, statusCode=200, headers={'Content-Type':'text/json'}) ->
this.response.writeHead statusCode, headers
this.response.write(JSON.stringify(body))
this.response.end()
This code was heavily inspired by RestStop and RestStop2. It's part of a meteor package for writing REST APIs in Meteor 0.9.0+ (built on top of Iron Router). You can check out the complete source code here:
https://github.com/krose72205/meteor-restivus