InfoPath Dev

Hello -

We are integrating infopath forms with our web software product that we sell to other companies. This is not for internal use - the applcations run over the internet via https, not on an intranet.

Currently users will select a link in a web page which will redirect them to the url of an infopath xml form. IE will then launch Infopath on the client prompting the user to open the file or save it.

We are trying to decide on the best way to secure the forms so that joe somebody cannot just go to the browser, type in the url to the xml form and launch it.

The solution we have in mind right now is to write the username and password (encrypted) of the requesting user into the form xml when the user requests the form. Then on the form load event run a method thru our webservice to verify that the user name and password are there and valid. Then when the user submits the form to the webservice, or saves it locally, we will strip the encrypted username and password from the xml file. This way the form will not have the required username/password on it unless the user came thru our web application. So if someone directly types in https://localhost/SampleForm.xml - they will not be able to open the form.

This solution is not very elegant and might not stand up to stricter HIPPA requirements. Does anyone have a better solution?

Thanks!

Donna

Hi Donna,

For local intranet, you'd use an ASPX page to authenticate the user and serve up the XML, but you can't rely on Windows Authentication via your domain since people are coming from outside of your domain.

The Security problem with your current approach is spoofing. Someone can create an InfoPath solution and stick it in their cache and then save the XML form to desktop and open it up offline. The solution could be reverse engineered to ignore the user/password, so this is not good. Of course, people can also just save the xml and open in Notepad... :) If you are hiding sensitive information in the xml file, you'll want to at least encrypt it.... better yet, don't put any sensitive data in there!

You need some kind of authentication in your middle-tier. You could create a web page that forces users to login against a server-side database before sending the XML file down, but people can still save the XML and send it to someone, so you lose Information Privacy for the sample form.

Why not just remove the sensitive information in the SampleForm and try to load it from a secure site onload? Then, you can have the user authenticate against the secure site using the built-in dialogs.

In general, you'll have to restrict access, and reduce sensitive data. Good luck.

Patrick Halstead [InfoPath MVP]
InfoPathDev