Re: Re: Question regarding passwords/security

On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 12:55:41PM -0500, Al wrote: > > > On 12/22/2011 10:05 AM, Paul M Foster wrote: > >Not sure how to ask this question... I've always eschewed consulting a > >database on page loads to determine if a user is logged in, primarily > >because of latency issues. For example, you could store a nonce like the > >session ID in a table for a user when they log in. Then each time they > >arrive at a page which needs certain permissions to access, you'd check > >the table for the nonce and compare it to the actual session ID or > >whatever to determine that they're properly logged in. This seems > >reasonable but suffers from the lag on the database link's > >query-and-response lag time. So I've always preferred some solution > >where something is dragged along in a session cookie instead. Maybe > >something like the hash of user login, email and user name, which > >wouldn't be there unless you'd put it there on login. But this latter > >scheme just seems inherently less secure than consulting the table. > > > >Is there any concensus or overwhelming argument one way or the other? > > > >Paul > > > > Why not just use Sessions, that's what the function is for. > http://php.net/manual/en/features.sessions.php There is a good > example on this page. > > I'm also big on using the session buffer to maintain the current > states for visitors. e.g., one I'm working on now. Obviously, most > are binary switches. Makes condition logic simple. > > [confirmedRestrictedUser] => > [idPassed] => > [loggedIn] => > [newRegRecordMode] => > [pendingRestrictedUser] => > [recordToken] => > [regModeLoggedIn] => > [regUserEditMode] => > [restrictedMode] => 1 > [secrCodePassed] => > [securityPassed] => > [sessionStart] => Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:49:54 -0500 > [userType] => restricted I have concerns that the items in a session buffer can be copied and used to spoof legitimate logins. This is harder to do when the info is held in a database. Paul -- Paul M. Foster http://noferblatz.com http://quillandmouse.com