[ic] Moving the admin interface to a different url

[John1]

On Sunday, November 18, 2007 5:20 AM Paul Jordan wrote:

> interchange-users-bounces at icdevgroup.org wrote:
>> On Saturday, November 17, 2007 5:45 PM Paul Jordan wrote:
>>
>>>> I just thought it would be nice if there was a simple way to move
>>>> admin pages from: www.websitedomain.com/admin
>>>> to say:
>>>> www.websitedomain.com/adminqwerty
>>>
>>>
>>> This really would not afford you much security.
>>>
>> Why not?  :-)
>
>
> Because the URL will be found. Do you have any mobile workers? If
> not, then only allow the office IP address -  you're done. If you do,
> where do they go? Are laptop users careful? Do they all have secure
> Wifi at home if they are logging in? Do you have people travelling in
> small towns and out of country who will go to fly by night internet
> cafe's, airports?
>
We are only a small company and nobody *should* be trying to access the 
admin page from laptops or internent cafes.  Restricting the IP range is a 
good idea, though I would have to allow some ISP dynamic ranges.

> If you are not locked down, then the effort is not worth the value. I
> did not say it was no security, just that it will not afford you much
> of it. For the same effort you can put in place a myriad of
> techniques and make it secure - and not just hiding.
>
I agree that if I have to search for all the hardcoded references to /admin 
it may not be worth the effort

> I put in place a random access code, for remote users who find
> themselves in a possibly compromised environment (hotel wifi,
> internet cafe, foreign country, etc). It txt msg's *only* a random
> code to the users registered cell phone. The code is good, along with
> their username (which is not transmitted) for 5 minutes only, once
> logged in, it is instantly invalid. This is so they won't have to
> compromise their password when out of the office/home. The only way
> into that system is by someone who knows you, and really really wants
> to get in. The system is also requires it to be turned on, so if you
> are going somewhere, you have to enable it first, for yourself,
> otherwise, you have to call in and have an admin enable it. That
> system also has dual logins, so we can see where snoops were. For
> example, the first password is just that, but it only gets you to
> another login page :-) The random access codes are archived with a
> creation date, so that if they are used later, we can track where the
> user was - say at an internet cafe in Boise. We know that place was
> compromised. That user then has to change their primary password, as
> punishment for being an idiot.
>
> It works well, as #1 we don't want anyone that can steal a mobile
> phone to have access to the system, #2 we want to know where leaks
> are, and #3, we want users to change their passwords now and then.
>
> clinck-clinck!
>
I like the idea of texting a random code, for supporting on-the-road users 
(although we don't have this need at the moment).

> Anyways, putting in place valid security will require less (read no)
> maintenance than changing and (inevitably) changing again, page
> locations.
>
> The page will be found.
>
> No, I am not paranoid, but here's some advice - Trust No One
>
> 8-)
>
8-) OK, but maybe a little bit more paranoid than me :-)

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions - I'll consider them :-)