[mapserver-dev] RFC 67 - Enable/Disable Layers in OGC Web Services

[Stephen Woodbridge]

I agree with Daniel on this also. I think it should be secured by 
default, and enable by some explicit action. 6.0 is the time to fix this.

-Steve W

On 2/10/2011 8:45 AM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
> On 11-02-10 08:04 AM, Kralidis,Tom [Ontario] wrote:
>>
>> - I imagine, in addition to request handling, that this would be handled
>> accordingly in GetCapabilities responses (i.e. we wouldn't write out
>> GetFeatureInfo as an operation if "wms_enable_request"
>> "!GetFeatureInfo")
>>
>
> Yes, that's correct. Perhaps a note about this could be added to the RFC
> to make sure we don't forget that bit.
>
>> - do/will we allow disabling of GetCapabilities requests? I think
>> GetCapabilities would be vital in any use case, in terms of advertising
>> a server's info and supported operations
>>
>
> Disabling GetCapabilities at the server level may not make much sense
> from a pure OGC spec standpoint, but some app developers may want to use
> the OGC protocol for GetMap with OpenLayers for instance, without
> exposing their full layer list to the world (call that security by
> obfuscation).
>
> At the layer level, disabling GetCapabilities can be used with grouped
> layers (wms_layer_group) to hide individual layers from the
> GetCapabilities while still being able to request them in a GetMap as a
> group.
>
>
>> - I think, to be consistent with existing behaviour, that all OWS
>> services should be enabled by default, and that it would be up to the
>> user to explicitly disable them if they want to. This will break every
>> mapfile from an OWS perspective
>>
>
> Good point, but I think everybody will have a different opinion on this
> one so we'll need to vote to make the final call.
>
> My take is that I prefer a system where everything is locked down by
> default and users enable features explicitly, hopefully knowing what
> they are doing.
>
> The current situation with all OGC services enabled by default means
> that many users who are only using the mapserv CGI with templates or
> with an OL app and know nothing about OGC services are exposing all
> their data through a bunch of OGC services that they don't understand...
> and they are not even aware of that.
>
> It seems to me that all OGC services should have been disabled by
> default since day one, and mapfile developers should have enabled them
> explicitly as needed... and 6.0 is a good time to fix this. We're only
> talking about a one-liner to re-enable all services in a mapfile anyway,
> not a huge deal for those who know what they're doing.
>
> The current situation with MapServer/OWS is a bit as if your email
> account was open to the whole world by default, and you'd need to read
> through a pile of docs to figure that out, and then find out that you
> need to find and set the "public = false" setting in the preferences to
> protect your privacy. Most people won't read that far and will leave
> their stuff open to the world without knowing it.
>
> That's my opinion: I prefer to protect the innocent and let those in the
> know explicitly enable this kind of feature. Not everybody will agree so
> we'll need to seek consensus, and if the majority choses to keep things
> open by default then I won't object, but at least we'll have dealt with
> the issue.
>
> Daniel