lesson
Identity and permission are separate checks
1 · Learn
Authentication establishes an identity under a system's rules. Authorisation checks whether that identity may perform a particular action on a particular resource. A signed-in user is not automatically allowed to read every file.
Hiding a button is not access control. The server must check permission when the request is made, including ownership and relevant organisation boundaries.
2 · Worked example
A student may view their own upload while another signed-in student must be denied the same private file URL.
3 · Your turn
Why is removing a download link insufficient to protect a private file?
Check your answer
Someone could request the URL directly; the server must enforce access independently of the visible link.
4 · Apply your learning
Create an access matrix for invented roles and resources and include denied cases in the tests.
Adult guidance and safety
Work in an approved local sandbox with invented records and test accounts. Do not access other people's systems or collect real credentials. Practical project evidence is required in addition to these explanations; this is not a specified GCSE Computer Science course.
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Write, draw or show your working. Use a mouse, pen or finger. This pad is not a submitted answer.
Not saved to your account. Download your drawing as PNG and your typed notes as TXT before leaving or refreshing. They are separate files. Do not enter private information.
Open a picture saved on this device to draw on it again. Opening replaces the drawing, but Undo can restore it. PNG only, up to 4 MB and 4096 × 4096 pixels. The picture stays in this browser; it is not uploaded. Paper lines in a saved picture become part of that picture.
Clear the drawing? Your typed notes will stay. You can undo this action.
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Open a UTF-8 TXT file from this device, up to 40 KB and 10,000 characters. It stays in this browser. Opening can be undone until you type again. Downloads keep a new copy; they do not change the file you opened.
Replace the notes on this page with the opened file? Download the current notes first if you want to keep them.
Typed notes are not submitted answers.
Check a calculation · Year 5 onward
Use this only when your teacher or adult allows a calculator for the task. Show your thinking first. It does not replace mental or written arithmetic and does not mark your lesson answer.
Powers, roots and trigonometry · Year 7 onward
Use only when the task allows a calculator. Choose one operation at a time and record your working. Trigonometry here always uses degrees (DEG), not radians. Inverse sine, cosine and tangent return an angle, not a reciprocal. Keep exact fractions and π in answers when requested.
Approximate numerical results use up to 12 significant digits. Inverse sine returns −90° to 90°, inverse cosine 0° to 180°, and inverse tangent −90° to 90°; these are principal values, not every possible solution of a trigonometric equation.
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