Ajax post via https from an http page - ajax

I have an ajax call that really needs to be https. However, the page that it is being called from is http. The browser complains about restricted URI denied, presumably due to the same origin policy. Are there any known workaround for this?

Yes, that's same-origin policy stopping you. You have to use same workarounds as for cross-domain requests.
Requests from non-secure website are not secure, even if you're making requests to HTTPS URLs (because MITM attack can replace all "https" with "http"), so you should consider using HTTPS for the whole page.

Related

Can I "trust" request origin parameter?

Let's assume my site is example.com. On my server I have script which must works only for white listed site. I have setuped this code which allow XHR requests only from my site.
header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://www.example.com')
Now I'm wondering can someone change origin parameter and send fake AJAX requests from another sites ?
So is origin parameter trusted or there is a ways to "override" origin parameter example from script or browser configuration or from some third part service ?
CORS policies are enforced on the client side; i.e. by the browser.
You can trust that they will work to prevent CSRF for your regular visitors, but there's nothing preventing someone from manually sending requests to you as they wish.

HTTPS and HTTP CORS

My questions is simple, but I cannot find an answer and I haven't got any resources to test it myself.
Can I make HTTPS CORS request from one domain to another HTTPS domain?
Can I make HTTP CORS request from one domain to another HTTPS domain?
I know that I can do HTTP CORS request from one domain to another HTTP domain, but I don't know if there is any difference when I use HTTPS.
Yes you can do a CORS request from a HTTPS domain to another HTTPS domain.
The only difference is because HTTPS is a secure origin, you can only make call to secure origin, so not to HTTP, the browser will block it with a message like:
Mixed Content: The page at 'https://example.com/index.html' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure XMLHttpRequest endpoint 'http://example2.com/endpoint'. This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS.
Warning: If you allow http requests to call your https webpage, it will be insecure because it means an attacker can force requests to your https webpage with the cookies of a victim and read the answer
Beware if you still need to support IE8/IE9 and are using XDomainRequest as it does not support cross-protocol requests. As per MDN:
The origin's security protocol must match that of the requested URL. (http to http, https to https). If these do not match, the request will error "Access is Denied".

Magento Ajax Request Not Working In Custom Module

I'm getting this error when trying to make an ajax request in a custom module:
XMLHttpRequest cannot load https://www.vossmarket.com/index.php/shoppinglist/index/showLists/product/4294/form_key/6erZKqom1ynOWDKI/qty/1/. No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource. Origin 'http://www.vossmarket.com' is therefore not allowed access.
I'm assuming the problem is that I am calling https from the http, but I'm not able to figure out why it is calling the https. I've turned off https in the magento config (I changed secure_base_url to http://vossmarket.com and I turned Use Secure URLs in Frontend to "no"). Now all links stay http, but when I visit my custom module, it is still redirecting (302) to https. This happens to every link http://vossmarket.com/shoppinglist (my custom module), any other route stays http, but any route that hits my module in any ways 302s to https
Any ideas what might be happening or the best way to fix it?
Have you tried putting a file called crossdomain.xml in your web root (accessible by both http and https), ie at http(s)://vossmarket.com/crossdomain.xml
This should help define that cross site origin is allowed between http and https.
In your case, I think the custom module is upset about being accessed over http and is sending the 302 to your browser, so it would be a case of studying the controller action of the custom module to figure out why it is forcing https (instead of asking Magento what the secure URL is).
Actually, if you try this crossdomain.xml you will need the browser to request https out of the http loaded page otherwise I think you will still get the 302 redirect - but with crossdomain.xml in place you should be able to XMLHttpRequest from http://vossmarket.com to https://vossmarket.com
But, you know, often there is good reason for https so I think you should understand why https is being forced and also I don't know about that XML secure="false" - does it really mean an https request is returned over http? I hope not but I don't know.
For more information read up on CORS although your 'cross domain' is http crossing to https.

Switching from https to http

Is it correct to switch from HTTPS to HTTP (say by clicking a click which has full path in the href - with HTTP). Appreciate if someone let know what are the implications in such cases.
Thanks.
This actually can be a security risk, it depends on your situation.
If you create a session in that HTTPS part, and then visit a HTTP page of the same domain, the session cookie will be sent along with the unsecure HTTP request (plaintext). This makes your site vulnerable to session hijacking, an attacker can use this session id and has the same privileges as the logged in user has.
In PHP you can prevent this behaviour, calling the session_set_cookie_params() function, setting the $secure parameter to true. This tells the browser, to send the cookie to HTTPS pages only.
The browser will load a page from a non SSL source. No real implications as far as security is concerned.
Switching from HTTPS to HTTP is entirely correct if that is what the link is intended to do.
Implications include losing the encrypted communication link between client and server that HTTPS provides.
ssl encryption for the http (s) is used to protect transmitted information. For example, use https on the lognin page. After logging on, you can redirect to http.
So switching https and http is quite all right.

Can Ajax HTTP and HTTPS work side by side?

Assuming a single page application accessed initially via HTTP that uses AJAX for all server interaction, is it possible to use HTTP for regular data transfers and then switch to AJAXian HTTPS requests for secure data transfers?
If so, how would the browser handle the certificate and locking notification when a HTTPS AJAX request was made?
If this is not possible, then are there any workarounds to mixing AJAX HTTP and AJAX HTTPS within the same page such as loading an iFrame for HTTPS?
Thanks!
Attempting to switch protocols will violate the same origin policy.
I am not sure how a workaround using iFrames would behave, but I think the browser may block access to the frame that was loaded as HTTPS, again due to the same origin policy.
I know this is old post but since i arrived here by search engine it would be a worth to spill what I've learn.
It is possible to use something called CORS but as usual old MSIE has problem implementing it.
It should be simple as sending additional HTTP headers:
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://example.com:8080 http://foo.example.com

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