Hi @seanlip , Could you please confirm if the solutions I’ve suggested are correct? Also, are there any additional characters you suggest restricting in filenames for better security (beyond <, >, etc)? Thanks!

Hi @TARishabh, the approach of going with an allowlist for filenames seems good. Better to do that than a denylist.

One question: for your example video, how do the images currently get locally stored in your local GCS? What are the filenames there? (Need this info to assess how important this issue is.)

@seanlip Sorry for the delay ! Currently, in my local setup, images are stored in the following format within the GCS file system:
<entity>/<entity-id>/assets/image/<image_name>

For example:

Entity: exploration
Entity ID: 2eMUrx1Y2uRb
Image name: img_20241215_181758_c1er5we4z9_height_350_width_450.svg

This results in the GCS file path:
exploration/2eMUrx1Y2uRb/assets/image/img_20241215_181758_c1er5we4z9_height_350_width_450.svg

When accessed locally during development, the full URL to the image is:
http://localhost:8181/assetsdevhandler/exploration/2eMUrx1Y2uRb/assets/image/img_20241215_181758_c1er5we4z9_height_350_width_450.svg

Thanks !

Thanks, sounds good. I think this means we autogenerate the image names so this might not be super-high priority, but still would be good to fix. Thanks!

@TARishabh I looked at this again and I think the issue, as written, needs more clarification.

It looks like autogenerated filenames already follow the restrictions you laid out. Shouldn't the issue be to update the backend code that processes the creation of files on GCS? If so, could you please link to the relevant file in the issue description? If not, could you please clarify where the validation should happen (backend, frontend, connection to GCS, etc.)?

Thanks!

@seanlip , Sorry for the delay.

To clarify, while the autogenerated filenames currently follow a basic pattern, the goal of this issue is to further restrict special characters (like <, >, &, etc.) to enhance security and compatibility, especially in cases where the filenames might be exposed to external systems or used in URLs.

I agree that the validation needs to be enforced during the backend file creation process before files are uploaded to GCS. I believe it would be best to handle the sanitization there, as this would ensure consistency across all scenarios, whether the files are being accessed locally or remotely.

I'll update the issue description to include this information and link the relevant backend file that processes file creation on GCS. Does this sound good?

Thanks !

@TARishabh Yes, seems fine, thanks. If it's a simple fix, feel free to make it directly too. Thanks!