Forms: robots.txt

asked on October 25, 2018

Hi all,

Does anyone know if it's possible/has anyone successfully implemented a robots.txt file with Forms Portal? We have a client that wants to host what would logically be classified as an internal form on the Portal, in order that some users do not have to log in (they have logins, they just don't want to literally log in).

My thought was that we could give the form a very unique URL (ie, using a GUID) which we could provide to internal users, then use a robots.txt file to prevent the form from being indexed by search engines.

Is this viable? Any insight appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

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replied on October 25, 2018

I would advise against security through obscurity. As an attacker, I might peruse your robots.txt and find the GUID path. Then it's a simple matter to use that path to poke around in an area that you'd rather I stay out of. This is all assuming that there might be lookups with sensitive information.

If the form isn't of any import and the security needed is very low, then you can do it as you described. There's no reason to use a GUID, though. Just give it a friendly name, and disallow that path in robots.txt.

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replied on October 25, 2018

Thanks for the reply, Devin. I will confirm re: the lookups, but I think it's simply a matter of minimizing the likelihood an external user submits the form.

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