Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

faruq f -
Колькасьць адказаў: 11

Users I've set up in Moodle 2, have in their navigation

Settings > My profile settings>security keys

can I remove this, do I want to remove this? Is it useful?

Сярэдняе рэйтынгаў: -
У адказ на faruq f

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Claire Browne -

Hello,

In the Moodle student roles have you defined the student having yes to moodle/webservice:createtoken capability?

If so move this dot to prohbit or prevent.

У адказ на faruq f

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Keith Murray -
У адказ на Keith Murray

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Sytske van Hasselt -

I wanted to answer: also check the settings for Authenticated User.

But i've just done that in my Moodle 2.0.3 installation, and I find that it's set to 'Not set'.

So: it is indeed an interesting question: which setting do you have to turn off to remove this option from student's Settingsmenu?

У адказ на Sytske van Hasselt

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Helen Foster -
Выява Core developers Выява Documentation writers Выява Moodle HQ Выява Particularly helpful Moodlers Выява Plugin developers Выява Testers Выява Translators

It seems that security keys are used for secure RSS feeds as well as for web services. However unfortunately I don't know any more than that! Hopefully someone knowledgeable will reply to this thread and explain all and/or update the documentation Security keys.

У адказ на Keith Murray

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Dan Poltawski -
Hi Keith,

Apologies as this is quite a technical answer..

It appears that page has mixed uses - one is for web services (controlled by the capability suggested above). The other is for 'secure RSS feeds', which I suspect is why you can see this (it is displayed when RSS feeds are enabled).

Secure RSS feeds is a feature added to Moodle 2.0 which allows users to have a RSS feed with a 'secret url'. It was developed by a summer of code student and the project was discussed in this thread. The idea is that the URL is not guessable and can be used as a primitive way of ensuring only the person who's URL it is can access the feed. (The reason to do this rather than ask for a usernames and password is because many RSS readers such as google reader do not support using a username and password to access RSS feeds).

This token which you are seeing is a 'secret' token (thinks of it as a password for the RSS feed) which can be used to access the private RSS feeds. It is displayed here in order to allow you to rest the token (or 'password') if you believe someone may have found your secure RSS feed url for example.

It appears as though there is not a capability to disable access to this page, although it will not be displayed if RSS feeds are disabled.

thanks,
dan
У адказ на Dan Poltawski

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Sytske van Hasselt -

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the information and clarification! Even though it is technical падморгваньне

You write: 'It appears as though there is not a capability to disable access to this page, although it will not be displayed if RSS feeds are disabled.'Indeed, when i disable RSS-feeds from Site admin > advanced (Moodle 2.0), the link to the keys disappears.

But I don't want to disable RSS, because we use a 'school news' rss-feed for all students on the My Moodle page. Disabling RSS also hides this block.

Do you think it might help if I request, via tracker, that some way be added to Moodle (a capability or so), that one can hide the link from Authenticated Users / Students?

У адказ на Sytske van Hasselt

Re: Security keys, what are they? Do I need them?

Dan Poltawski -
Hi Sytske,

Certainly - if you put the component to RSS then I am the RSS component maintainer and will be assigned this issue.

cheers,
dan