How to restrict admin related AngularJs Controllers in Laravel?

Question

In Laravel , you can restrict access to some Controllers (eg. Admin-related controllers such as Admin/UsersController, Admin/SettingsController, etc.) to specific user sessions. Because it's server-side, the user has no-way to snoop-out about such controllers unless authenticated.

In the case of AngularJs 's, the code resides in the browser. Thus, anyone can get a look at the javascript source codes and might figure-out the behaviour of the app. Say he might discover that there are controllers that manage admin-related data. Or anyone might try to brute-force-search the app's URL for javascript files to observe. Say he looks at http://myapp.com/AdminSettingsController.js in which authenticated users should only be able to see or should not at all.

Going back to the main question, how do you resolve such issues?

Answer 1

This problem has only one solution. Treat JavaScript as language for your User Interface only. Nothing more than that. Don't store any sensitive data in browser, don't store any sensitive logic (eg database queries) either. There is no way to hide network traffic or source code from client .

I usually create some sort of user object on client side, which contains users role for resolving permissions, and I use the permission for display controls, eg show some buttons only to admin etc. BUT, this only affects the displaying of the page, If user interacts with that controls, the controls rely on the server and if the user does not have proper permissions on the server as well, the interaction with the control fails, so if anyone with some knowledge change the user object on the client and grants him administrator role, he only sees the control what the administrator would see, but he can not make administrator actions nor he sees any sensitive data.