While the username and password system provides a decent level
of security, it is not fool-proof. If your computer is lost or stolen,
or some spyware passes your access details to a potential attacker,
then an attacker could use your details to access your site. An
attacker may also attempt a brute force attack - repeated trial and
error attempts and logging in.
Since the number of
admin users is typically quite small, and they will normally access
from one or two locations (e.g. office or home), then it is possible
to apply extra security to the back end in the form of an IP address
restriction. For this to work, you must have a fixed IP (or one within
a relatively narrow range).
Open up the
web.config file in the root of the web, and find
this tag:
<add key="BackEndIpLock" value=""></add>
Into the value, add your IP address, or part of your address.
Separate multiple values with a comma. For
example:
000.000.000.000,111.111.111
(the
first number is a single IP address, the second is a partial IP
address)
If you have your own server or virtual server, and have admin
access to the IIS web server, you can restrict access to the back end
through this.
In IIS 6, the ability to limit access
by IP is built in. In IIS 7, you might have to activate this feature
separately.
Using IIS to enforce security in this
way adds an additional level of security because it is completely
independent of Kartris. Anyone trying to access the Kartris back end
will be turned away unless their IP address matches one of those you
have expressly authorized. Kartris pages won't even get
run.
You can also ban particular IP addresses and
ranges (although it is far better from a security perspective to 'deny
all' and then allow specific addresses rather than try to ban problem
IPs and ranges).