We are the process of developing a android phone app using IONIC framework and Web Api as the backend. My question is ,is it sufficient to use Forms Authentication along with SSL to keep the phone app secure.
Our background is in Asp.Net web development and we could not see any examples that uses Hybrid mobile app development along with forms authentication,that makes me wonder if we are in the wrong track.
We implemented CORS along with WithCredentials both on Angular and Web API side, and the authentication piece seems to work fine for all subsequent calls in debug mode.
Do we need to take additional steps for security ,since its a phone app ?
Edit: I was reading about bearer token authentication with Web Api, is this a recommended way to go with phone apps ?
Thanks !
Yes my recommendation is to go with bearer tokens not with forms authentication.
You need to use OAuth 2.0 Resource Owner Credentials Flow which means that end-user provides the username/password only once for a specific endpoint i.e(/token) and then if the username/password valid you obtain something called Bearer Access Token.
This token is valid for specified period and you can configure this in your Web API. Once you obtain the access token, you need to store it securely in your android/hybrid app, then you keep sending it with each request to your web api protected end points using the Authorization header (Bearer scheme). I've written very detailed post which covers your scenario 100%. Please check the post Token Based Authentication and another one for authentication with AngularJS authentication which should work with your case. Let me know if you need further help.