## TL;DR

Treat download URLs like shared links, not permission checks. If a file must stay private, keep it under a path only its owner can read and do not hand the URL out.

## Steps

1. Treat download URLs like shared links, not permission checks.

2. If a file must stay private, keep it under a path only its owner can read and do not hand the URL out.

## When to use

You are seeing this: Treat download URLs like shared links, not permission checks. Use this skill when you run into "Firebase Storage download URLs bypass your security rules".

## When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

## Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

## Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.