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POObfuscating ids in Rails app
 

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  1. POObfuscating ids in Rails app
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    <p>I'm trying to obfuscate all the ids that leave the server, i.e., ids appearing in URLs and in the HTML output.</p> <p>I've written a simple Base62 lib that has the methods encode and decode. Defining—or better—overwriting the id method of an ActiveRecord to return the encoded version of the id and adjusting the controller to load the resource with the decoded <code>params[:id]</code> gives me the desired result. The ids now are base62 encoded in the urls and the response displays the correct resource.</p> <p>Now I started to notice that subresources defined through <code>has_many</code> relationships aren't loading. e.g. I have a record called <code>User</code> that <code>has_many</code> <code>Post</code>s. Now <code>User.find(1).posts</code> is empty although there are posts with <code>user_id = 1</code>. My explanation is that ActiveRecord must be comparing the <code>user_id</code> of <code>Post</code> with the <strong>method</strong> <code>id</code> of <code>User</code>—which I've overwritten—instead of comparing with <code>self[:id]</code>. So basically this renders my approach useless.</p> <p>What I would like to have is something like defining <code>obfuscates_id</code> in the model and that the rest would be taken care of, i.e., doing all the encoding/decoding at the appropriate locations and preventing ids to be returned by the server.</p> <p>Is there any gem available or does somebody have a hint how to accomplish this? I bet I'm not the first trying this.</p>
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    1. USfphilipe
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    1. COWasting time in obfuscation is wasting time that could have been used to improve the overall security. Or is there another reason for obfuscating?
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    2. COID Obfuscation isn't a security measurement IMHO. It only hides certain information contained in IDs such as how many registered users there are on a site or how many posts. Replacing them with simple base62 encoded versions doesn't reveal this kind of information. I'm not willing to lose too much time with that, that's why it would be cool if I could simply call `obfuscates_id` in the model.
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    3. COIt matters how many users or posts are on the site?
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      1. USEarlz
 

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