Question

Flash Security?

Asked by: aaroncampbell

I 'm setting up a site with an admin section. Currently, frame 1 has all the stuff that's accessible to everyone. It also has an "admin" button, which sends the user to frame 2. Frame 2 checks if the user is logged in (loadVars, accessing a PHP page). If they ARE, then it sends them to frame 3 (where I will be building the admin section). If not, it keeps them at frame 2, and gives them a chance to enter username, password, etc. When the "login" button is clicked, it uses sendAndLoad to send the info, and get whether the username/pass are valid. If they ARE, it will send the user to frame 3. Assuming the PHP is secure (that's what I've done up till now), is this a semi-secure way of logging in a user? Is there any way for them to FORCE the .swf to continue past frame 2 to frame 3 without entering the info?

The only other thing I was thinking was that I could have frame 3 load a movie clip using something like: loadMovie("admin_movie.php"); and then admin.php would check if they are logged in, and pass through 1 of 2 .swf files...either a login page, or an admin page.

That seems like a bit of overkill on an admin page for an image gallery. What does everyone else do? Are there any tutorials on stuff like this?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2005-10-04 at 14:56:45ID21583876
Topic

Adobe Flash

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
2

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. loadMovie ?
    I am using a plugin from Wildform called SWFX. About 40 of the 100 effects can be IMPORTED directly into Flash 4. The other 60 need LoadMovie or someting to that effect. Could you explain how I use a script for this? I Do not know scripting, but I know how to access the actio...
  2. loadmovie
    How do you load an external .swf movie into the parent movie? And then tell it to open up in a specific place in your parent movie? For example: When you click on a button this will activate the loadmovie command and the new .swf movie will open up in a square or specific area.
  3. FLASH - Loading Empty Movie Clip
    Has anyone out there successfully loaded the contents of a website into a empty movie clip? I am familiar with loading individual movies into an empty movie clip, but no success trying to load a website. Is it even possible to do? I am working on an online portfolio and rath...
  4. How to resize the swf by LoadMovie
    I have a swf and would like to load it in the existing fla file. I have created a movie cilp(temp) which size is set to my desired size for the movie. When the main movie load, the swf is loaded to the movie clip(temp) by using loadMovie. I found that my swf did not resize a...
  5. loadMovie works when loaded in level but not in clip
    I am loadind a moving using the loadMovie method in Flash MX. When I use a clip to load it, the movie appears but doesn't play. However, if I load it into a level it does play but I can't positionn it. Any idea?
  6. loadMovie() within a loaded movie???
    I've created a swf file (sub.swf) that contains a Movie Clip named "MC_MP3". I can load swf files into that mc using loadMovie("xxx.swf",MC_MP3) without a problem. That all works great within the Flash environment and when I run the sub.swf on its own. He...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: dutchfoxerPosted on 2005-10-04 at 17:14:39ID: 15018586

You know that people can unlock a SWF movie and see the actionscript inside? They can. So they could see the actionscripts on all the different keyframes. Would they also see the passwords? No, because it is not in the flash file.

Would they be able to jump to keyframe3 without loggin in? Yes. Without having the FLA file I could change the actionscript to jump to keyframe nr 3  -> gotoAndStop(3)

Flash is not secure in that way.

So I would turn things around. After they log in correctly they get to see your flash admin page. If not, no Flash file whatso-ever. So the HTML-file holding the flash is behind a secured access / directory. That would be savest.

Tutorials... not really. There are some examples of flash-files for loggin in.

Heres many downloadable FLA's with login functionality. Some are very creative in hiding actionscript etc:
http://www.flashkit.com/search.php?per=10&page=1&field=Description&cat=movies&term=login

Good luck!

 

by: vickerleungPosted on 2005-10-04 at 20:38:11ID: 15019307

aaroncampbell

Hi there, actually I am just partly agree with dutchfoxer.

Yes, Flash is very insecure in someway. Because it can be easily decompiled by some applications in the market. And after decompiling, the user can browse all the scripts inside Flash.

However Flash is good in a certain way. Let's say, Flash itself cant be refreshed. This can totally prevent multiple execution of some server side script using Refresh.

As long as you dont put the authetication part inside Flash, then it will be perfect.

My suggestion is like this.

Use Flash to build the login interface.
When login, use PHP to do the authentication.
And inside PHP, store the login information inside session.
Finally, all the other forthcoming PHP have to check the session.
(e.g. inside the admin_movie.php, check whether a session present, if yes, then echo the movie url back to Flash)

By this, I think it is already secure enough.

Cheers :)
Vicker

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...