By grover66
Is there a way to leverage the CDN service as an optimized content delivery/cache/edge service, but limit the access to those assets by only authenticated users on my nginx site? I assume I need to implement a reverse proxy in my nginx to inspect the url prior to serving it up, but that will defeat the benefit of the CDN service (because I would have to block the access from the CDN and require my nginx to serve up the asset). Is there a document that may explain an approach that I can possibly implement?
Thanks in advance.
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Heya,
Just came across this answer and decided to write some general guidelines for anyone who comes across this in the future despite the old question.
One common way to accomplish this is by using CDN-signed URLs. These are specialized URLs that grant access to the file for a limited time. When your authenticated user requests a file, your server can generate a temporary signed URL and return that to the user. This could involve modifying your app code to generate these temporary URLs when needed.
Please note, however, that as of now, DigitalOcean Spaces, which serves as the CDN, does not natively support signed URLs or token authentication out of the box. You may need to consider third-party CDN solutions that offer this feature.
I suggest implementing an access control mechanism at the application level, where the application validates whether a user is authenticated and authorized to view the content prior to generating the Spaces object URL.
To understand more about controlling access to Spaces, please visit this DigitalOcean document link.
Remember, it’s a good practice to regularly review security measures for any hosted content, and always implement the principle of least privilege where possible.
Hope that this helps!
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