I'm looking at using the Angular Azure Mobile Service Client for a project, I saw this sample code:
angular.module('your-module-name').constant('AzureMobileServiceClient', {
API_URL : 'https://<your-api-url>.azure-mobile.net/',
API_KEY : '<your-api-key>',
});
Is it safe to use the API Key in an AngularJS app like this (or any JavaScript based client)? I'm unsure what someone could potentially do if they had this key?
Found this in the Azure Mobile Services documentation:
With default permissions, anyone with the app key may call the custom API. However, the application key is not considered a secure credential because it may not be distributed or stored securely. Consider restricting access to only authenticated users for additional security.
It is'Safe' depending on what you are trying to do. Javascript and any keys in it can be read by everyone. This is key is not meant to be used as a password to access important information. Instead it is made to prevent malevolent abuse of your application.
For example if someone is trying to log in 1,000 times per second with every possible password/username combination, they are submitting this key with each request. So you could throttle, or block anyone using this key. Then you would issue a new key to your apps. If you have a system for issuing those keys you might even identify the person that was doing it. It can stop DDOS, Bruteforce, and some other abuses
