Why it's safe to sign in to trends.dpautomation.net
The short version: this site is a read-only window onto building trend
data. It has no connection back into any building's control system — nothing you (or
anyone else) does here can command equipment, change a setpoint, or affect building
operation in any way. Data flows one direction only: out of the building's history
archive, into this viewer.
One-way data flow
The building automation system exports copies of its trend records to this site's
database. The viewer reads those copies and draws charts. There is no path from this
site back to any controller: the site holds no credentials for any building system, and
building networks do not accept connections from it. Even if an account here were
misused, the worst case is that someone looks at charts.
Your connection is encrypted
All traffic uses HTTPS (TLS) — the padlock in your browser. Nothing, including
your password, ever travels in the clear.
The site is published through a Cloudflare tunnel: the server makes an outbound,
authenticated, encrypted connection to Cloudflare's network and accepts visitors only
through it. The server itself exposes no inbound ports to the internet.
Browsers are told to always use HTTPS on this domain (HSTS), and standard security
headers restrict the pages to their own origin.
Your password is protected
Passwords are stored only as scrypt hashes — a deliberately slow, salted,
one-way transformation. The site cannot display your password, and neither can anyone
who reads its files. Not even the administrator can recover it (only reset it).
Sign-in attempts are rate-limited per address, so passwords can't be guessed
by brute force.
Session cookies are Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite — they are never sent over
plain HTTP, can't be read by page scripts, and can't be replayed from other sites.
Every state-changing action is also protected against cross-site request forgery.
Passwords issued by the administrator are temporary — you are required to
choose your own at first sign-in, so nobody else ever knows your working password. You
can change it yourself anytime ("change password" on the buildings page).
Use a password unique to this site.
Accounts and access control
There is no self-registration — every account is created by the administrator,
for a specific person, with a specific role.
Viewer accounts can only view. Administrative functions (user management, data
management) require a separate admin role, and the most sensitive operations are
restricted further to the site owner and are only grantable from the server console —
not from any web page.
Accounts can be scoped to specific buildings, so a reviewer for one project cannot
open another project's data.
Security-relevant actions — sign-ins (successful and failed), account changes, data
operations — are recorded in an append-only audit log.
What data the site holds about you
A username and a password hash. That's all. There are no email addresses required, no
names, no tracking, no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party scripts of any kind
— every byte the pages load comes from this site itself.
The server itself
Dedicated single-purpose host that runs only this service and its database.
Administration is by key-based SSH only (passwords disabled, root login
disabled), behind an identity-checked access layer, with automatic banning of
brute-force sources.
A default-deny firewall; the database accepts connections only from the loopback
interface and the private networks that feed it data.
The web application reads the trend database through a SELECT-only database
account — the pages you load are physically unable to modify trend data.
This site is operated by Dallas Probert (dpautomation.net). If you have a security
question or concern — or you'd like your password reset — contact the person who issued
your account credentials.