Disabling authentication for a single page (ColdFusion)

Question

Let me start by saying I am not really a full-stack developer and this is out of my scope of understanding. I have tried searching for an answer but I can't find anything relevant. If you have any reasons to share they would be much appreciated!

I am working on a website running on coldfusion and framework one. I've been instructed to make a single specific page accessible without authentication. I know this might seem like a bad idea, security wise I have no idea how dangerous this really is but it doesn't seem great. Regardless, those are my instructions.

Where would I even do something like this? Is there some sort of "authenticator" action that I can disable? When visiting a page on the domain while logged out the user is just redirected to the initial login page. Perhaps I can disable this redirect? I've looked in the relevant controller and view pages for the area of the site I'm working on but I can't find anything and it's hard for me to google without much knowledge on the topic to begin with. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Since you state that you don't have experience with ColdFusion this answer is kept simple and does not try to explain how ColdFusion applications work or what an Application scope is in ColdFusion.

1. create a sub-folder within your original application folder
2. create your non-secure page within this new sub-folder
3. create another page under the same sub-folder named Application.cfm with the following code (it's just a comment, it's an empty page but it will prevent the code that re-directs to login to execute)

code for Application.cfm

<!--- // this folder is not secure --->

---

If this does not work for you because you need access to stuff that is part of the secured application, let me know and I'll update my answer but will get a bit more complex like you'll need to find out where the redirection to login takes place and you'll need to understand what you're doing in ColdFusion.