Network Level Security

Information on this page only applies to retailers with their own inhouse Servers. If you are using Fieldpine online then you cannot change these options

A Store Server or Head Office Server is a special type of web server called an application server. It behaves a lot like a normal web server but is designed specifically for retail operations not general purpose web serving. The default configuration is to allow all connections from local LAN addresses and block any internet connections. If you wish to allow realtime integration or access from mobile staff, at home, etc then you might like to allow access from the internet.

Enabling Internet Access

As your server is situated inside your network it does not normally have inbound acces from the internet. There main reasons you may want to enable internet access to your Fieldpine server are

• To provide selected access to information to outside applications and users
• So you can manage and review your store from home or while mobile
• In order to use HTTPS / SSL on web pages inside your network, allowing your tablets to use secure resources such as cameras and geo location. ( More on using HTTPS )

Before you start, first enable a password so that it is protected immediately. Instructions to set a password are further down this page. After that you need to enable internet access. There are two main ways this can be done

	Pros	Cons
Cloudflare Tunnel	More secure from attacks Can start/stop access if not required 24x7 Currently free Offers SSL certificates so you can use HTTPS	Need a DNS address that can be moved to Cloudflare
Opening Firewall (on your router)	Often easy and quick Can expose alternative ports rather than 80/443	Requires static IP or similar Will need to organise SSL certificates for SSL/HTTPS

Cloudflare Tunnels

By using a Cloudflare Tunnel you are able to install a special program on your server that connects out to the Cloudflare network and makes Fieldpine available without having to open firewalls or expose your origin IP address (the internat address you have).

Step 1. Register for a free, pro or business Cloudflare account and move your DNS server to them. If you do not have a custom DNS name like "mystore.com" you might like to purchase one of these. Search for "domain registrars".

Step 2. Install the Cloudflare tunnel application. Cloudflares instructions for this are available here, or a quick list is

1. Download and install Cloudflared. These instructions will assume you place this in the \fieldpine\Cloudflared folder
2. Register Cloudflared as per standard instructions
3. Create a tunnel with cloudflared tunnel create XXX
   Where XXX is a name you wish to call the tunnel such as 'GDS'. This name is not used by general public it is only for admin purposes.
4. If you are using one machine to create tunnels, but are deploying to different machine, repeat steps 1 & 2 (but not 3) on the target machine, and all the following instructions on the target machine
5. Copy the tunnel definition file created in step 3 to the target machine folder containing the cloudflared program. (\fieldpine\cloudflared) The tunnel definition file will have a name that looks something like F1CB-ED8173737-585839858T-3847EA.json
6. Create the folder \windows\system32\config\systemprofile\.cloudflared and then create a text file called config.yml in that folder, Note, there is a "." (dot) in that path name between systemprofile and cloudlared. Insert the following content, changing as required

   url: http://localhost:8310
   tunnel: F1CB-ED8173737-585839858T-3847EA
   credentials-file: /fieldpine/cloudflared/F1CB-ED8173737-585839858T-3847EA.json
   

7. Open a command prompt with administrator rights. Set your default to the cloudflared folder and issue the command cloudflared service install
8. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cloudflared and add "tunnel run" to the ImagePath key. Example C:\Fieldpine\Cloudflared\cloudflared.exe tunnel run
9. Start the service.
10. Login to your Cloudflare account and configure a DNS record pointing to your tunnel. Instructions for this are on the cloudflare website
11. You should now be able to browse to https://YOUR-DOMAIN/report/pos/sshome.htm and it should prompt for a password, assuming you enabled a password as recommeneded.

Opening a Router/Firewall port

When you open your firewall/router, then any connections to your IP address/port will forward to your Fieldpine Server.

To open a port, login to your internet router and add something variously called "Virtual server", "Port forwarding", "Pinhold routing", "Remote applications" on different routers. You may need to consult your router documentation to complete this step.

Tip, if you aren't sure what this is all about, hire a local IT technician to make these changes, it will take them less than an hour. Fieldpine support cannot help with configuring routers as there are numerous models and they all vary.

Changing Security

Your retail server applies security at 3 levels

1. The interface port at socket level. When a connetion is opened, this is the first area it connects too. When a connection arrives, Fieldpine performs the following:
   • Determine the remote IP address of the socket and allocate this to internet or private IP address ranges
   • If that address type is not enabled, close the socket
   • If accept/deny lists of IP addresses are present, apply those rules
   • Read the HTTP headers and look for the header X-Forwarded-For indicating a proxy is in use. Validate all those x-forwarded-for addresses and verify they also meet the above restrictions
   • If the source claims to be via Cloudflare, perform additonal checks to verify that claim
2. Next, any host requested in the HTTP headers is located, and then broadly speaking the same rules as above are applied
3. Finally, the retail environment (essentially your database) is located and checked with similar rules.

Requiring a username/password

The minimum security we recommend is to apply a username/password for internet connections. Edit the file \fieldpine\gds\gds.ctl using notepad, and make the changes as shown in bold

interface
port=8310

filter-internet=require-password(mySecretUserName:mySecretPassword)
type=debug,normal,internet,private,ipv6,trace

You may insert multiple filter-internet=require-password options if you wish, so that you can have a couple of different logins. But do not create a login/password for each user here, there are better ways to manage bulk authorisations.

Tip. The username/password does not need to be friendly, most browsers or password managers will offer to remember the password so you only need to enter it rarely

Allowing or Blocking Specific IP addresses

If you wish to permit or deny specific IP addresses these can be hardcoded into Gds.ctl This can be used in a multistore environment where external stores have static IP addresses. You can then add them and they are granted access. This is not needed if your stores are running a VPN, as with VPN remote stores will have IP addresses in the Private IP address range.

interface
port=8310

filter-internet=allow(202.123.45.67)
filter-internet=block(199.*.*.*)

IP addresses allowed do not need to provide any password. Blocked IP addresses are blocked, even if they supply the correct name/password.

Permitting Specific API Keys

A common requirement is to permit external eCommerce websites to access the APIs. If you list the valid API-keys, then those keys are permitted access and also do not need to provide the access username/password.

interface
port=8310

filter-internet=apikey(Gkfjhvh3k50v83h5hvivh2kj5hgiuvwjBDhvdiBVFvh4hv)
filter-internet=apikey(i82ghvghwjenvG4f5gBGbgdXDDJSORJV89245jv9himum9uadjdj3vkpejjvakaGDD)

An alternative strategy would be to list the valid source IP addresses of the eCommerce site, however this may be tricky especially if the website is hosted on common platforms such as Azure or AWS.