Security in moonlight

Introdution#

All requests sent to the server over https get encrypted and decrypted on the web server level. This ensures that attacks like man-in-the-middle are mitigated. This applies for all requests sent to the server whether via GET, POST, PUT, DELETE or any other method. On the server level, every request is logged. These logs omit the request body and only log domain, path, query params and headers. This ensures that the data is secure and not exposed in the URL.

We need this logging for debugging purposes, therefore, we might not choose to turn it off.

Example below shows how the logs are stored in the server:

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{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "path": "/api/v1/user",
  "query": {
    "id": "1"
  },
  "headers": {
    "content-type": "application/json"
  }
}

This is where we have our first problem that we need to address. The query params are logged in the web server level. This is a security risk.

However much this is is a rare case, imagine logging in via a GET request as below:

  https://example.com/api/v1/login?username=example&password=example

The parameters username and password are logged in the web server level in the raw format. This implies that, however much the passwords are encrypted in the database, they are exposed in the logs. Any malicious user with access to the logs can easily get the password and username.

As a result, the architecture encourages to perform all requests over POST. This is because POST requests’ body is not logged in the web server level. This ensures that the data is secure.

This is a supplement to the single endpoit approach of MoonLight architecture.

HTTP level security - POST Requests only#

With the above in mind, the architecture encourages to perform all requests over POST. This is because POST requests’ body is not logged in the web server level. This ensures that the data is secure.

Sample moonlight request:

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "path": "/api/v1/",
  "method": "POST",
  "body": {
    "username": "example",
    "password": "example",
    "action": "login",
    "service": "auth",
  }
}

The above request is secure as the body is not logged in the web server level. This removes the only security risk that ssl encryption does not cover.

Action Level Security#

Unlike most architectures, in moonlight, securing actions happens at the action level. This means that requests are let through whether authenticated or not. The action itself determines whether the request is authenticated or not.

If an action say, addCart requires a certain permission, the action itself mentions it. Therefore, actions are not protected globally but rather internally(on the method level).

Example below shows how an action can be protected in pionia:

class TodoService extends BaseRestService
{
    // your other actions here

    public function getTodo()
    {
      $this->can('view-todo'); // user must have the permission to view todo
        // your action here
    }
}

In the above example, the action getTodo requires the user to have the permission view-todo. If the user does not have the permission, the action will not be executed. As observed, the action itself determines whether the request is authenticated or not.