How to set anonymous user as a specific user

Question

I am using SharePiont Server 2007 Enterprise with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. I am developing using VSTS 2008 + C# + .Net 3.5. I am wondering whether SharePoint has any means to set an anonymous user to be some specific user by code automatically?

For example, I want to set the anonymous to be administrator automatically when the anonymous connects from a specific IP address to access default.aspx (i.e. no need to let the user know password of administrator if the user connects from a special machine with a special IP address). Another example is when anonymous user connects my site using special connection string, like http://mysite/default.aspx?specialtestuser=foo,then I will set current anonymous to be foo.Appreciate if any code samples to reference?

BTW: I am using Forms authentication, not sure whether in Forms authentication in SharePoint, there are any ways to set the anonymous user to someone based on some custom defined rules(e.g. IP address or http parameter)?

Answer 1

This method: FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie() has worked for me in the past when I was trying to create an NTLM login into FBA.

Answer 2

The above question sounds a bit scary to me. You do realize that IP's can be spoofed? It sounds like a very insecure way to handle administrative privileges. If i was in your IT department, i would be worried :-)

Answer 3

Jumping on Anders wagon here. Doing that will create a security risk on your SharePoint environment and I would advise against it.

Answer 4

Even though it's dangerous, it can be quite powerful if you now what you are doing.

I have done something similar before, where people could switch the identity of the current user to another one simply by clicking on a username in a list of available users. Obviously this is something you would only use for dev and testing purposes and NOT FOR PRODUCTION.