In my first post about encryption I discussed a solution that was basic. The approach used Spring’s Encryptor classes, one of which, the queryable TextEncryptor, was deprecated due to it being insecure. Since then, I have spent time enhancing other aspects of the platform, as well as kicking off an app based on it.… Read more
Moving JWT from headers to cookies
One item that has been nagging me, as we continue developing our framework and sample apps, is that the Java Web Token (JWT) is n the header of the request like this.
GET http://localhost:8080/someprotectedendpoint
Authorization: Bearer <jwt token>While this works absolutely fine, there are some drawbacks in terms of security.… Read more
Python, oh how I’ve missed you (the power of unpack)
Recently I started playing around more with my Neo Smartpen. The company makes their data storage format public and I wondered how long it would take me to write a program to show my handwritten pages within a simple app. Given my background, I knew I could do this quickly in Java with a UI in Swing so I started there.… Read more
Cognito to rule them all?
After writing custom code to handle signing up users, sending emails, supporting multi-factor authentication, I looked more into alternatives. Why? As a startup you have to be scrappy. Use what’s free, create solutions for platform parts that cost too much for where you’re at. Eventually, you will grow out of this and will need to look at alternatives.… Read more
MFA (Take Two)
It’s been a while since I’ve written a post. I’ve been heads down working on the platform thinking more about use cases, revising code and introducing a basic React client. If I haven’t mentioned already, I love IntelliJ. It’s my tool of choice and have been using it for years. Every time they make a release they introduce something cool that is helpful.… Read more
Multi Factor Authentication
Multi factor authentication has become ubiquitous in web applications. If you work in financial services it’s even a legal requirement in some states. For most of us working professionals I believe we all agree enhanced security for our customers is a good thing. While we have already tackled broader approaches, such as encryption and server hardening, we also want to cover more fine grained approaches that affect an individual’s experience.… Read more
Account Verification
Once a user signs up for service on our site we want to make sure we have some type of verification system in place to help ensure they are a real user. Quite often this is done by sending out an email with an account verification link which allows a prospective user to finalize their account creation.… Read more
Authentication and Authorization
We’ve all most likely seen they boiler plate code for managing users in Spring. This post really won’t be that much different so feel free to skip this if you are already familiar. We will be building off of this code so if a subsequent post throws you for a loop please come back here.… Read more
Building e-commerce sites with SpringBoot
As I’ve been working on side projects I realize how much I depend on the tutorials of others to get code or ideas on how to accomplish certain features. I’ve been extremely thankful to have those resource and felt it was time to start giving back with my most recent project.… Read more
Mutual TLS using SpringBoot
Moving from a legacy in-house framework to an open standard like SpringBoot has been extremely satisfying. However, being part of a large organization sometimes one doesn’t get the exposure to how things are done, case in point mTLS. Another group is responsible for the solution that’s used by others and exposed through a common library.… Read more