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If the link is sitting in their email then surely that's just as unsafe as having the password there?
by AndrewDucker 5y ago
If the link is sitting in their email then surely that's just as unsafe as having the password there?
- stophecom 5y agoNot exactly. Sure, if your email is compromised someone could access the secret link, and ultimately your password. But now, you will know that someone else had access to your password, since the link won't work for you anymore. This is crucial information. Btw. You can encrypt your secret with an optional password (which may be shared via a different channel).
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoNo, it expires after they view it.
- jgalt212 5y agoYes, this is a nice solution, but email security services do click on links before delivering to the client's email inbox. As such, you may need to set the link expiry click number to greater than 1. And then you lose the security due to being ephemeral. Of course, you can log the IP addresses of the clickers, but still you have the leak.
- stophecom 5y ago> email security services do click on links before delivering to the client's email inbox True. This may be a problem. Like mentioned, common bots are being blocked currently, plus, I will be testing POST instead of GET requests (Since bots apparently don't do POST). An another obvious solution is to include some kind of user interaction before the secret is fetched. Although I don't like that solution so much. C.
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoIn practice this has not been a problem. It's like saying you can't put unsubscribe links in emails because a bot will click on it... You just simply design the software so that doesn't happen. Like I said, I've used a similar service that only allows you to view the secret once and I've used it dozens of times with no problems.
- jgalt212 5y ago> you just simply design the software so that doesn't happen. How do you go about doing that? disregard security service clicks based on IP address blacklists, user agent sniffing, etc?
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoNope you just use a POST request...
- jgalt212 5y agoHow does a legitimate user clicking on a link inside an email generate a POST request?
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoIt loads a page which then makes a POST request to an API via JS.
- stophecom 5y agoThanks again for all the feedback. Short update: I'm using DELETE now, since it feels a bit more accurate. As a side effect, the page is way more responsive. :) Have fun sharing secrets. C.