Concerns regarding safe mode

Support
1

I believe safe mode should be IP restricted.

For example, the overwatch forums redirect some built-in pages to a 404. Safe mode allows anyone to bypass that 404 and just see the page:

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I can also see the other pages they wanted to hide like /faq, /tos, and /privacy

Not a big deal because there’s no real security threat. But does entering safe mode disable Akismet as well?

7 Likes
2

Nope, safe mode only disable client-side stuff like CSS/JS/HTML.

4 Likes
3

Interesting, thanks for noting this and bringing it to our attention. Do you have any feelings on this @sam?

1 Like
4

I think the issue here is that they did not disable stuff hard enough server side on said forum, if we feel like we do not want end users to get certain info we got to close the tap on the server side, a soft 404 on part of the endpoint may not be enough

3 Likes
5

So then it is a call that @eviltrout needs to make?

3 Likes
9

I think an option to disable safe mode is a good thing. I’ll look into it.

3 Likes
12

In the latest version of Discourse you can disable safe mode via a site setting:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/fd14ee47979ba859875eac458cc9c37c8029ead8

8 Likes
13

Here’s a small change: staff members can always use safe mode, even if disabled. @sam suggested this and I think it’s a good idea.

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/a5172a37e0bf2089300783d95f61380e22552120

18 Likes