Security¶
This component aids the developer in common security tasks such as password hashing and Cross-Site Request Forgery protection (CSRF).
Password Hashing¶
Storing passwords in plain text is a bad security practice. Anyone with access to the database will immediately have access to all user accounts thus being able to engage in unauthorized activities. To combat that, many applications use the familiar one way hashing methods 'md5' and 'sha1'. However, hardware evolves each day, and becomes faster, these algorithms are becoming vulnerable to brute force attacks. These attacks are also known as rainbow tables.
The security component uses bcrypt as the hashing algorithm. Thanks to the 'Eksblowfish' key setup algorithm, we can make the password encryption as slow as we want. Slow algorithms minimize the impact of bruce force attacks.
Bcrypt, is an adaptive hash function based on the Blowfish symmetric block cipher cryptographic algorithm. It also introduces a security or work factor, which determines how slow the hash function will be to generate the hash. This effectively negates the use of FPGA or GPU hashing techniques.
Should hardware becomes faster in the future, we can increase the work factor to mitigate this.
This component offers a simple interface to use the algorithm:
<?php
use Phalcon\Mvc\Controller;
class UsersController extends Controller
{
public function registerAction()
{
$user = new Users();
$login = $this->request->getPost('login');
$password = $this->request->getPost('password');
$user->login = $login;
// Store the password hashed
$user->password = $this->security->hash($password);
$user->save();
}
}
We saved the password hashed with a default work factor. A higher work factor will make the password less vulnerable as its encryption will be slow. We can check if the password is correct as follows:
<?php
use Phalcon\Mvc\Controller;
class SessionController extends Controller
{
public function loginAction()
{
$login = $this->request->getPost('login');
$password = $this->request->getPost('password');
$user = Users::findFirstByLogin($login);
if ($user) {
if ($this->security->checkHash($password, $user->password)) {
// The password is valid
}
} else {
// To protect against timing attacks. Regardless of whether a user
// exists or not, the script will take roughly the same amount as
// it will always be computing a hash.
$this->security->hash(rand());
}
// The validation has failed
}
}
The salt is generated using pseudo-random bytes with the PHP's function openssl_random_pseudo_bytes so is required to have the openssl extension loaded.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection¶
This is another common attack against web sites and applications. Forms designed to perform tasks such as user registration or adding comments are vulnerable to this attack.
The idea is to prevent the form values from being sent outside our application. To fix this, we generate a random nonce (token) in each form, add the token in the session and then validate the token once the form posts data back to our application by comparing the stored token in the session to the one submitted by the form:
<?php echo Tag::form('session/login') ?>
<!-- Login and password inputs ... -->
<input type='hidden' name='<?php echo $this->security->getTokenKey() ?>'
value='<?php echo $this->security->getToken() ?>'/>
</form>
Then in the controller's action you can check if the CSRF token is valid:
<?php
use Phalcon\Mvc\Controller;
class SessionController extends Controller
{
public function loginAction()
{
if ($this->request->isPost()) {
if ($this->security->checkToken()) {
// The token is OK
}
}
}
}
Remember to add a session adapter to your Dependency Injector, otherwise the token check won't work:
<?php
$di->setShared(
'session',
function () {
$session = new \Phalcon\Session\Adapter\Files();
$session->start();
return $session;
}
);
Adding a captcha to the form is also recommended to completely avoid the risks of this attack.
Setting up the component¶
This component is automatically registered in the services container as security, you can re-register it to setup its options:
<?php
use Phalcon\Security;
$di->set(
'security',
function () {
$security = new Security();
// Set the password hashing factor to 12 rounds
$security->setWorkFactor(12);
return $security;
},
true
);
Random¶
The Phalcon\Security\Random class makes it really easy to generate lots of types of random data.
<?php
use Phalcon\Security\Random;
$random = new Random();
// ...
$bytes = $random->bytes();
// Generate a random hex string of length $len.
$hex = $random->hex($len);
// Generate a random base64 string of length $len.
$base64 = $random->base64($len);
// Generate a random URL-safe base64 string of length $len.
$base64Safe = $random->base64Safe($len);
// Generate a UUID (version 4).
// See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier
$uuid = $random->uuid();
// Generate a random integer between 0 and $n.
$number = $random->number($n);