Question

I am trying to create a folder structure like so:

• Uploaded files
  • a
    • [e-mail]
  • b
  • c
  • …all the way to z

one level ABOVE the public web directory. The only unique key (besides the user_id itself) is the user email, since their email is their username, so…

Question: Would people be able to access these directories and get a hold of all user’s email address? How bad of an idea is this? What possible alternatives do you suggest?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Definitely make sure you use hashes instead of plain-text E-Mail addresses. That is a must.

Other than that, I guess this is as safe (and unsafe) as a solution can be that is based on security through obscurity (i.e. your security relies solely on the fact that nobody knows the URLs – but if they do, they can access them without limitation.) There are many potential holes – a user could bookmark a URL; it could be embedded somewhere on a page; it can be stored in server, browser, and proxy logs…