Beginner's guide to security features in Flash Media Server 3.5

Encryption, or the "cone of silence"

Don't you just hate it when you're having a conversation with someone and you just know the guy leaning on the wall over there is listening in? This is quite common on the Internet, where third-party applications have been developed that listen to what's going on between the server and your client. When they detect a data stream that interests them, they grab it—without asking.

Flash Media Server 3.5 actually has data encryption built in, and here's the best thing about it: you don't need a doctorate in advanced quantum physics to use it. In fact, it is added by a simple press on your keyboard.

Here's how:

1. Download the files that are used in this example. When you unzip the download, drag the two files (Vultures.flv and Vultures.mp4) to the media folder in the vod folder. The path is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Flash Media Server 3.5\applications\vod\media.

   Note: I would like the thank William Hanna, dean of the School of Media Studies and Information Technology at the Humber Institute of Advanced Learning and Technology in Toronto, for permission to use these clips, produced by the students at the School of Media Studies at Humber.

2. Open a new Flash CS4 Professional document. When the document opens, drag a copy of the FLVPlayback component to the Stage.
3. In the Parameters tab of the Component inspector, double-click the source parameter to open the Content Path dialog box (see Figure 1).
4. Enter the following path: rtmpe://localhost/vod/Vultures
5. Click OK. The dialog box will close after Flash gets the metadata into the FLV file.
6. Save and test the movie.

Figure 1. Encrypting an FLV simply by adding an "e" to the rtmp path

The video that plays is an encrypted version of the FLV file. By adding that letter "e" into the path, you tell FMS 3.5 to add real-time encryption to the FLV file in the vod folder. The file is encrypted as it moves from the server to the client, Flash Player. Best of all, no keys are required by Flash Player to decrypt it.

Your only indication that the stream is encrypted is if you open the FMS 3.5 Administration Console. If you click View Applications and then click the Clients tab, you will see in the Protocol column that your stream is actually streaming out of the server using the RTMPE protocol (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Administration Console showing an encrypted FLV stream in the Protocol column

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