[aerogear-dev] HTTP_Basic: SimplePush (Channel) Registration

[Bruno Oliveira]

Don't feel safe because you're doing something with Base64 or using 
basic authentication. It doesn't guarantee safety, the HTTP Basic 
Authentication scheme is not considered a secure method without TLS/SSL, 
because username and password are passed over the network in cleartext.

For this reason we will replace it with Digest or Hawk into the near future.

Matthias Wessendorf wrote:
> Hi,
>
> with the use of this helper
> <https://github.com/davidchambers/Base64.js>, it is "safe" (I think) to
> use the |window.btoa| function(see details
> <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/window.btoa>), to
> perform a (simple) Base64 encoding.
>
> Base64 encoding is required, since the "Device Registration" HTTP REST
> endpoint now uses HTTP_Basic (for details see the matching thread
> <http://lists.jboss.org/pipermail/aerogear-dev/2013-June/003233.html>).
>
> Currently we perform this code for "channel registration":
>
> |$.ajax({
>    contentType:"application/json",
>    dataType:"json",
>    type:"POST",
>    url: url,
>    headers: {
>      "ag-mobile-variant": variantID
>    },
>    data: JSON.stringify({
>      category: messageType,
>      deviceToken: endpoint.channelID,
>      clientIdentifier: alias
>    })
> });
> |
>
> As mentioned on the "Security thread", the |variantID| is no longer a
> header, it is part of the HTTP_Basic auth process.
>
> This is a (local) JavaScript change that I did. It works fine so far:
>
> |$.ajax({
>    contentType:"application/json",
>    dataType:"json",
>    type:"POST",
>    crossDomain: true,
>    url: url,
>    headers: {
>      "Authorization":"Basic"  + window.btoa(variantID +":"  + secret)
>    },
>    data: JSON.stringify({
>      category: messageType,
>      deviceToken: endpoint.channelID,
>      alias: alias     ///// NOTE:: the key has changed..........
>    })
> });
> |
>
> The important thing: we add the |"Authorization": "Basic "| header and
> using the mentioned|window.btoa()| function for the actual encoding.
>
> The same applies for the |DELETE| (unregistration).
>
> Any thoughts? Otherwise, I'd send a PR.
>
> Ah.... the dependency agains the |Base64.js| polyfill library
> would/should be included in our "grunt" build for "distribution", or
> would it be "just" declared (yeah, that's details but asking for curiousity)
>
>
> --
> Matthias Wessendorf
>
> blog: http://matthiaswessendorf.wordpress.com/
> sessions: http://www.slideshare.net/mwessendorf
> twitter: http://twitter.com/mwessendorf
>
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