Applying Signed URLs to Cloud Storage Objects

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Cloud
Security

Applying Signed URLs to Cloud Storage Objects

By default, the contents of Cloud Storage buckets are not publicly available. You can, however, make an object or an entire bucket viewable by all. But sometimes neither of these approaches – totally blocking or totally allowing access – is the right one. Google Cloud offers a method for providing limited access to one or more individuals for a specified time: the signed URL. Anyone using the signed URL can access a secure bucket object for the predetermined period, regardless of whether they are in your organization or even have a Google account. In this hands-on lab, we’ll set up a bucket with an object that is not publicly available and then create the necessary structure – a service account with a private key – required to generate the signed URL.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Sep 02, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Create a Cloud Storage Bucket and Copy the File to It
1. Activate the Cloud Shell.
2. When it spins up, create the necessary bucket. gsutil mb -c regional -l us-east1 gs://[BUCKET_NAME]
  
  (Note: The bucket name must be unique.)
3. Clone the GitHub repository: git clone https://github.com/linuxacademy/content-gcpro-security-engineer
4. Change directory to the content-gcpro-security-engineer/signed-url-lab folder: cd content-gcpro-security-engineer/signed-url-lab
5. Copy the file to the bucket: gsutil cp restricted-logo.png gs://[BUCKET_NAME]
Challenge

Create a Service Account and Key
1. In the Cloud Shell, run the following code to establish a variable: export PROJECT_ID=[YOUR_PROJECT_ID]
2. Create a service account with the proper permissions: gcloud iam service-accounts create la-service-account --display-name "LA Service Account" gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding ${PROJECT_ID} --member serviceAccount:la-service-account@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com --role roles/viewer
3. Create a JSON key for authentication: gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json --iam-account la-service-account@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Challenge

Generate a Signed URL
1. In the Cloud Shell, install the openssl headers for Debian GNU/Linux
```
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev 
  python3-dev cargo
```
1. In the Cloud Shell, install the required library:
```
  sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip        
  sudo pip3 install pyopenssl
```
1. Generate the signed URL: gsutil signurl -d 10m key.json gs://[BUCKET_NAME]/restricted-logo.png
2. Test the URL by clicking the generated link.

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