George... Fundamentally, there are really only two ways to constrain inbound connections regarding client identification. As I am sure you are aware, keep in mind that neither TCP nor HTTP have any built in mechanisms for facilitating client identification or rejecting connections based on any rules. As a result, it is irrelevant what address / port you "listen" on, as TCP will always attempt to allow the connection initially, unless a firewall or something else between the host and server prevents the process. It is up to you then to reject any unwanted connect attempts at some point.
Given this, you must address the issue in either or both of the following areas: 1. Client origin or source of connection If you wish, you may determine the client's origin and reject the connection based on that origin. The TWSocket components give you this ability at the session level. The standard TCP stack has no mechanism to do this until after the session is actually arbitrated, so by default you must accept the connect (at least partially into the cycle), then reject the connection, once you have determined that you wish to do so. So, if you wanted to constrain the source address of the client to a local or specific address only, you could provide some functionality in the OnClientConnect event that determines the connecting source address and rejects the ones you don't want, such as if it is not in the local address space. Bear in mind that the local address space could originate from the local loopback (127.0.0.1), as well as one of the local NIC addresses as well. For example, you could use, TMyHttpConnection(Client).GetPeerAddr, to get the client's address and then determine if you want to disconnect it. You would have to provide this logic and any rules as you need. Also, bear in mind that the source address can be compromised through various attacks. PPTP and other forms of tunneling attempt to prevent those kinds of issues (such as with VPNs implementations). 2. Some form of secure authentication that should be at least moderately trustable. If I understand your need correctly, you are saying that you DO want to allow connections from other IP subnets, you just want to know if they are from you or something else. To accomplish this, you need to support some form of authentication, because there is NO inherent ability in TCP or HTTP to tell you this. This is what you are really looking for. Regardless of the source of origin, you are really trying to ask the question, "Is this me or someone else"? Right? If so, the only solution is to use some form of authentication to determine this. I personally don't use HTTP much because it is so weak in this regard; in that, it has no native ability to support authentication. As a result, you must address authentication very high up the stack, on top of protocols that understand nothing about security or authentication. However, there are several mechanisms for performing authentication over HTTP. I would suggest that you look at the ICS demo app "WebServ". It appears to be handling the authentication you are looking for and should have the code examples you are looking for. Then, after you successfully authenticate the client, the next challenge comes in determine appropriate types of content requests to redirect. You said that you wish to just allow "Flash". You can only assume certain things based on port and content, but you cannot be certain of any of them, really. Ultimately, what you are trying to create is a secure proxy that allows you to redirect, modify or respond as you need. At this point, you must determine the appropriate content to pass or not. I think doing so is much more complicated than I would want to describe here, even if I wanted to attempt it, assuming I understood enough to do so. However, maybe someone else has some simple solution to this need. Anyway, sorry for the long post. I am not the HTTP guru, by any means. However, I believe the basic TCP / HTTP concepts I described should at least point in some direction? Also, anyone is welcome to correct me, if I am missing something or misunderstand something here. Regards... Hoby -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of George Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 6:13 AM To: ICS support mailing Subject: [twsocket] Webserver only with local connections Hello, I created a THttpServer that is used as a middleware between my delphi app and a flash application. I want to make sure that only me and flash will communicate each other so I want to restrict connections from outside internet or local IPs. What's the safest way to check it? Any piece of code is welcomed. Thanks George -- To unsubscribe or change your settings for TWSocket mailing list please goto http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twsocket Visit our website at http://www.overbyte.be -- To unsubscribe or change your settings for TWSocket mailing list please goto http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twsocket Visit our website at http://www.overbyte.be
