How to secure the SDK

[Kaan Soral]

If the SDK is accessible to the outer world, it poses a HUGE security risk

One can simply write a script for "Interactive Console" and steal all your code/data

To prevent this - one may restrict access to Development Console and permit only 127.0.0.1, this can be easily done by modifying the Handlers of the Development Console

Can you guys think of any other security holes?

I've been meaning to ask this for a long time, but at the same time I didn't want to attract anyone to exploit these risks - but here it is anyway

[Ronoaldo José de Lana Pereira]

By your assumption that arbitrary code execution will affect your SDK binaries (either java or python), I'am assuming that you are using Windows, downloading the SDK binaries from untrusted websites or not running the MD5 checksums.  I suggest you to do all these: use Linux, downlaod only the code from Google and never deploy untrusted jars / python code with your application.

Hope this helps,

-Ronoaldo

[Kaan Soral]

I don't think this is related to my question, but thanks anyway

[Simon Knott]

Why would your SDK be available to the outside world?  It's a development tool, no different to any development environments - lock it down via the network infrastructure, as you would any other development environment.  If you have production data in your dev environment and it contains sensitive data, then take the normal steps to sanitise it.

[Kaan Soral]

Why? - because sometimes you have to work with external systems and they have to work with you - even on the development level

[Aidan O'Kelly]

Still should be a network security concern, ie, setup a secure vpn, or allow limited access to a range of IP's through your firewall. 

The java version of the SDK at least, has a -bindAddress option. Binding to 127.0.0.1 will mean the server will only listen for requests from your machine. (It set itself up like this by default for me) 

Anyway, if you run any kind of developer sdk server and allow access to the outside world you are asking for trouble, since they are never written with the intention of being a secure production server. 

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[Kaan Soral]

Great idea

What would be an easy solution to permit access for only a range of IP's? Preferrably with logging etc to deny first and allow later.
On windows and for a network noob - This is probably not the right place for asking this but it would be great if any of you have suggestions

[Barry Hunter]

Can use the windows firewall
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Open-a-port-in-Windows-Firewall

to open the port - and configure who can access it.

Its probably worth using a non default port (ie not 80) - to make it
harder for people to find. (the dev server allows you to choose a port
at startup)

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[Ikai Lan (Google)]

This is a great question for StackOverflow because you'll get a lot more responses if you tag it correctly.

On Linux you have a lot of options. One of the easiest ones is iptables. Well ... "easiest".

PERSONAL OPINION ALERT: I highly recommend learning Linux or working with a *nix system. I find that it's way easier to do software development on that kind of a system than trying to deal with Windows. Not to mention: I've rarely been in a situation using Linux where I've wanted to do some weird networking or security thing and not been able to find at least a half-assed guide somewhere describing how to do it (and, in struggling with said half-assed guide, become slightly better at using Linux myself). IMO there really aren't any good reasons why you can't learn Linux. If you don't want to dual boot, you can always use a tool like VirtualBox and run an Ubuntu ISO. There's no dollar cost.

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Ikai Lan 
Developer Programs Engineer, Google App Engine

plus.ikailan.com

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