[Laszlo-dev] serverless operation

[Adam Wolff]

I've never understand the "danger" in loading data from a different 
domain. Don't write your app to do that if it's a security risk.

A

P T Withington wrote:
> On 18 Jan 2005, at 17:33, Sarah Allen wrote:
> 
>> Tucker,
>>
>> This approach sounds appealing, but I'm afraid it would be confusing.  
>> Its true that the proxied/serverful operation is there to make up for 
>> limits in the runtime; however, that same limited runtime makes for a 
>> confusing experience.  For example, to use a "serverless" connection 
>> to get data from another site, you need to make sure there is a 
>> cross-domain xml file.  Depending on whether you control that other 
>> site, you may or may not want to use a proxied connection in this 
>> case.
> 
> I don't follow that.  Whether you are proxied or not, you will want to 
> vet data that you get from 3rd party sites.  If you are proxied, you 
> can do that in the server.  If you are not, you have to do it in the 
> client.  In either case, you will have to write the code to vet the 
> data; just having a proxy doesn't magically make 3rd-party data safe.
> 
> Different runtimes are likely to have different rules about whether an 
> app can access 3rd-party sites.  A proxy can be used to subvert that 
> policy.  For this reason, I think it is actually dangerous to have 
> proxied be the default.
> 
>> I think it would be easier to understand if the normal case is for the 
>> whole app to be proxied or not.
> 
>  From a security point of view, I think it is more dangerous to turn 
> proxying on for all accesses, unless you replicate the security policy 
> of the runtime in the proxy.  The security principle of least privilege 
> suggests that only accesses that require proxying should be proxied -- 
> then you only have to think about the security implications of those 
> accesses, rather than of all accesses.
> 
>> Sarah
>>
>> At 01:14 PM 1/18/2005, P T Withington wrote:
>>> Can we step back a minute?
>>>
>>> Isn't it the case that the purpose of proxied/serverful operation is 
>>> to make up for limitations in the current runtime -- operations that 
>>> the current runtime does not support (rendering png's) or permit 
>>> (access to other than the originating site) are handled on the server 
>>> instead?
>>>
>>> Is there some advantage to making all your operations be proxied if 
>>> you just need one?
>>>
>>> It seems we already have a switch implemented:  If you are compiling 
>>> an LZX form that the target runtime does not support, the compiler 
>>> should compile it to a proxied version (perhaps with a warning) if 
>>> available, otherwise signal an error.  It seems that the only need 
>>> for a proxied/unproxied switch is to silence the warning that you 
>>> used a form that requires a proxy for the target runtime.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Laszlo-dev mailing list
>>> Laszlo-dev at openlaszlo.org
>>> http://www.openlaszlo.org/mailman/listinfo/laszlo-dev
>>
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