Feature request : Make reply only readable by original requester

[nuharaf]

• Defect
• Feature Request or Change Proposal

Feature Requests

Use Case:

Presently, when using Request API , the reply can be read by any client subscribing to _INBOX.*.* or _INBOX.>. While client do not actually subscribe to _INBOX.*.* but instead _INBOX.<someRandomNUID>.* , it is still possible to do so. Making reply only readable by original requester fit better to request reply pattern

Proposed Change:

Add mechanism to disallow subscribing using wildcard (only explicit token allowed) for certain token level. Say, subscribing to notAWildcard.notaWildcard.* is allowed but to *.*.* is disallowed. A more general approach is adding negative permission (subject which not allowed to subscribe), but I thinks it is more complex.

Who Benefits From The Change(s)?

Developer using NATS for IoT devices

Alternative Approaches

• Give each device different username. say Device-1 , Device-2 ... Device-n . Device then use _INBOX.DeviceID. for reply inbox and adjust configuration accordingly. Cons :
  -- config grow proportionaly with the amount of device.
  -- incompatibility with Request API

authorization {
  Device1 = {
    publish = ">"
    subscribe = "_INBOX.Device1.*"
  } 
 Device2 = {
    publish = ">"
    subscribe = "_INBOX.Device2.*"
  } 
 Device3 = {
    publish = ">"
    subscribe = "_INBOX.Device3.*"
  } 
...

• Use separate account for each device (I hear multi tenant is coming soon), but I think it is to expensive.

[derekcollison]

Thanks for the feedback, we have had several requests for this type of functionality. We will get something done.

[derekcollison]

We have some good insight into how this will work across accounts which are coming soon. But also just added PR to do negative permissions via 'deny" clauses.

#725

[derekcollison]

We allow deny clauses and we also now have account support and anonymous replies for service endpoints that are imported. Closing for now, but feel free to open back up if needed.