GWT app with encryption/decryption doesn't work inside a firewall

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I added gwt-crypto module to my GWT based app, which is deployed on Google App 
Engine. The application works perfectly most of the time. However, when I try 
to access it from within my company network, it gets blocked somehow and 
doesn't load. I don't have a problem accessing the app from my home, or even 
from my phone on a 3G network. 

If I disable encryption/decryption in my app, then it works perfectly even from 
within the firewall. 

So, I'm trying to figure out, why the firewall is blocking the app, when I 
include gwt-crypto. I'm not sure whether it's an issue with my app or 
gwt-crypto. I'll appreciate any help. Thanks. 



What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?


What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?


Please provide any additional information below.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by harwinde...@gmail.com on 26 Aug 2011 at 5:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sorry, I accidentally submitted the issue without filling out the other 
sections in the template. 

I'm using gwt-crypto-2.3.0-20110518.123759-2.jar

OS - Windows XP SP3
GWT - v2.1
GAE for Java - v1.5.3

I'm also using SmartGWT v2.5 (not sure whether that is relevant here). 

Original comment by harwinde...@gmail.com on 26 Aug 2011 at 8:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What modules (AES, RSA, digest, etc.) of the crypto are you using? Did you try 
to use wireshark to track the communication with your server from home/company 
and compare them, are there any notable differences? Does your company uses 
some other networking equipment (proxies, firewalls) that could somehow 
intercept your web content? Also try to use newer GWT, it could possibly solve 
your problem. I honestly cant figure out why firewall should block some http 
communication if there is some more JS in it or if it has encrypted content. 
For which purpose are you using the crypto? Maybe we could figure some other 
way to use it in order to make this work.

Original comment by rame...@gmail.com on 31 Aug 2011 at 6:28

[GoogleCodeExporter]

First of all, thank you. I'm glad to see your response. I'm just using the 
TripleDesCipher to encrypt and decrypt the content following the example 
mentioned on your usage page: 

http://code.google.com/p/gwt-crypto/wiki/Usage

I'm not sure what you call that module as. This is the first time I've heard 
about Wireshark, but I'll explore more on that. Today I talked to some network 
security guys in my company, but could not talk to the key guys. From what I've 
learned so far, we are using Juniper equipment and it has had problems with GWT 
applications in the past. Exactly what those problems were are still not clear 
to me. I'll get the details soon. 

I'll try to upgrade to the latest version of GWT that is support for SmartGWT 
and check the result. 

Regarding the purpose: I'm developing an exam prep system. I noticed that all 
the content (collection of questions and answers), which is sent from the 
server, is visible in plain text in Firebug. I didn't really feel comfortable 
with that. I wanted to add a layer of obscurity (not really security) to the 
content that comes over from the server to the client. I came across 
gwt-crypto, followed the example given on the usage page, and got exactly what 
I wanted within a few minutes. So, my purpose is to really obfuscate the 
content, and not really secure it.

If you can suggest other means of achieving the same result, that will be 
great. 

Thanks again.

Original comment by harwinde...@gmail.com on 31 Aug 2011 at 8:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Here are some updates on this: 

1. The issue is still unresolved. The network team (including the network 
security team) spent almost 2 days investigating into this, but could not find 
anything wrong. According to them, no packets were getting dropped anywhere. 

2. If I use SSL, then the app works behind the firewall too. For example 
http://www.myapp.com does NOT work, but https://myapp.appspot.com works.

3. I also upgraded to GWT 2.4, but that didn't help.

4. Interestingly, even the onModuleLoad() of my app does not get called when I 
have encryption enabled, even though there's no encryption/decryption at the 
point of loading the application. Encryption / decryption only kicks in when 
user performs a particular action, which invokes an RPC call. So, I'm not sure 
why the onModuleLoad() is not invoked. 

5. In the meanwhile, few other users of my app have also reported the same 
issue - the app doesn't load in their corporate network. 

I haven't tried wireshark yet. 

Thanks. 

Original comment by harwinde...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2011 at 4:01

[GoogleCodeExporter]

One more point:

When encryption/decryption is turned on (I use a boolean constant to turn the 
encryption/decryption on/off), I noticed that the *.cache.html seems to get 
truncated, not entirely blocked. 

Original comment by harwinde...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2011 at 4:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

That's really interesting, even more so if you say the app works anywhere if 
transferred via SSL.

Wireshark (as you probably know now is packet sniffing software I use a lot 
when dealing with these kind of problems) might help you catch the transmission 
problem but if your network guys are saying it isn't the problem then I guess 
they are right.

Can you confirm that your browser downloads the JS code successfully in both 
cases (HTTP/HTTPS or corporate/home) and that there are no errors in JS console?

I suppose that this issue can be seen on any browser not just FF? I had some 
problems with Chrome that refused to load/run some JS from my intranet, but 
thats probably different issue.

What you may try is to use code splitting 
(http://code.google.com/intl/cs-CZ/webtoolkit/doc/latest/DevGuideCodeSplitting.h
tml) and place your decryption code there, this way you can tell whether the 
app starts running (onModuleLoad gets called) which might point you to a 
solution.

Original comment by rame...@gmail.com on 10 Oct 2011 at 7:00