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POREST - How to restrict access for not authorized client software
 

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  1. POREST - How to restrict access for not authorized client software
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    <p>here is the challenge:</p> <p>The service-/business layer has a REST (JSON) interface. There are two kinds of clients which can call the API: The webapp, which is running in a browser and a mobile-app (Android). Both of them are public. Everyone who uses the authorized (!) webapp or the authorized (!) mobile-app should have access to the resources. All unauthorized clients (scripts, for instance) should be prohibited.</p> <p>Note: There are no limitations how many or which users have access to the service layer -> client public key certificates probably can't be used. Only the the client software has to be authorized.</p> <p>In my opinion the only one solution is "by obscurity".</p> <h2>Ideas:</h2> <ul> <li>Load a random JS-function (let's call it "the challenge") from the server, which is executed in the browser (or app), fingerprints the browser in a specific way (browser flaws?), computes a result and send the result back with every REST-API call.</li> </ul> <p>Do you have any further ideas or suggestions?</p> <p>Thank you in advance &amp; sorry for my bad english</p> <h2>Edit:</h2> <p>My question has nothing to do with user authentification and/or authorization but <strong>client-software</strong> authentification + authorization.</p> <p>The background of my question is, that there is a RESTful back-end for my own applications (android + web) and I don't want that someone creates his own client-software on top of it. The reason for this is because it's a commercial website/application which provides some data which was quite expencive to collect. I'd like to promote the website and the mobile-app and not the RESTapi (or some third-party competitor).</p>
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    1. COHi - 1) "Security through obscurity" ... *isn't*. 2) Here's an interesting article that discusses how Amazon does it: [Designing a secure REST (Web) API](http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/designing-a-secure-rest-api-without-oauth-authentication/). 3) Here's a good article on [OAuth](http://dsc.sun.com/identity/reference/techart/restwebservices.html).
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    2. CONeither of those would help because OP is trying to restrict which applications can use his API not which users.
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      1. USMorgan Borman
    3. COWhy not just put reasonable limitations on what any client can do? How is a well behaved third party client any worse than your original one(s)?
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