Clearly advise how to protect uploaded files

[brynwhyman]

Overview

A userform can be built to include a file upload field. At the top of this field edit form, there's the message Files uploaded through this field could be publicly accessible if the exact URL is known, but the user isn't instructed on how to avoid this.

By not taking further action, it's possible that a CMS user could be exposing files from their website visitors for anyone to access, through:

• Search engine indexing, unless there's specific exclusions through things like robots.txt files
• Malicious website visitors fuzzing site URLs for expected file paths

It's relatively easy to ensure that uploaded files are protected:

1. Create a folder in the Files are and set the 'Who can view this file?' permission to 'Logged-in users'
2. When adding the File Upload Field to a userform, set the upload folder to be the one created in step 1.

However, this requires prior understanding of protected assets. I'm wondering whether there is a nice UX flow that could be built within userforms to make this more intuitive.

User story

As a CMS user creating a userform, I want to set all uploads made through a File Upload Field to be protected from anonymous users, so that I can ensure potential private information is safe from malicious use.

[chillu]

Actually, I'm advocating that we protect files by default - we shouldn't retain bad defaults like this - see #934

[brynwhyman]

Yup, I'd agree protecting files should be a default.

[clarkepaul]

I think this might be covered @brynwhyman @chillu. Also, some additional user guide to help with this understanding has been created too.

Same goes for #934

[brynwhyman]

Yup, definitely covered with the impending release of v5.3, specifically those mentioned in this comment. Closing