Guardian API Proxy

A single proxy server to authenticate requests to multiple internal APIs. Experimenting with using Node.js as a single point of entry to access internal APIs. The idea being you have a single entry point so APIs can remain inaccessible to the outside world and you only have to edit a single point when making security enhancements. Individual APIs are secured by having to pass a client_id, username, and password along with the request. This is validated early in the request.

Added benefits include:

• A single database change to the client_id and you have re-secured access, if for some reason a malicious intent is discovered. At that point, the method of entry can be addressed, and new client_ids can be distributed (typically in the form of an app update).
• In the use-case of mobile apps, changing the client_id can also be detected, and this can be the basis for forcing an app update (i.e. trigger a popup to download new version from app store).
• Logging API traffic is now made super simple and analytics become a natural/inherent part of this service.
• And a lot more...

An example of how this is intended to work is as follows:

• Let's say we have an API that returns a list of books when we navigate to http://example.com/api/books.

• We associate a client_id of bookapiv01 to the base url above in a database (in real world use, this should be a completely random generated string so as not to be guessable).

• Our "guardian" service is setup at https://guardian.serverexample.com/.

• We send a post request to our new guardian server (including the uri string) which includes the following:

  • https://guardian.serverexample.com/api/books is the url
  • client_id = booksapiv01
  • username = allowedusername
  • password = reallysecurepw
  • _method = GET (optional)
  • params = {"author":"bill"} (optional)

• The resulting response is the list of books as if we queried the API directly. Only we successfully authenticated the request and have all the benefits mentioned above.

• Version 0.0.1 (the alpha's alpha)

Installation

• git clone git@github.com:leothelocust/guardian-api-proxy.git
• npm install
• node or nodemon app.js
• Voila! It workie.

Contribution guidelines

• Write tests
• Then code
• Code review
• 4 spaces (no tabs)
• Submit pull request

Contact

• Levi Olson on Github