Configure the server to support signature authentication

Use this task to configure signature authentication at the server. Signature authentication refers to an X.509 certificate sent by the client to the server. The certificate is used to authenticate to the user registry configured at the server.  After a request is received by the server that contains the certificate, the server needs to log in to form a credential.  The credential is used for authorization.  If the certificate supplied cannot be mapped to an entry in the user registry, an exception is thrown and the request ends without invoking the resource. For more information on signature authentication, see Signature authentication method.

  1. Launch the Assembly Toolkit.

  2. Open the J2EE perspective by clicking Window > Open Perspective > Other > J2EE.

  3. Select the Web services-enabled Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) or Web module.

  4. In the Project Navigator window, locate the META-INF directory for an EJB module or the WEB-INF directory for a Web module.

  5. Right-click the webservices.xml file, and click Open With > Web Services Editor.

  6. Click the Security Extensions tab, which is located at the bottom of the Web Services Editor within the Assembly Toolkit.

  7. Expand the Request Receiver Service Configuration Details > Login Configuration section.You can select from the following options: 

  8. Select Signature to authenticate the client using an X509 certificate.The certificate that is sent from the client is the certificate that issued for signing the message.  You must be able to map this certificate to the configured user registry.  For Local operating system (OS) registries, the common name (cn) of the distinguished name (DN) is mapped to a user ID in the registry.  For LDAP, you can configure multiple mapping modes:

    • EXACT_DN is the default mode that directly maps the DN of the certificate to an entry in the LDAP server.

    • CERTIFICATE_FILTER is the mode that provides the LDAP advanced configuration with a place to specify a filter that maps specific attributes of the certificate to specific attributes of the LDAP server.

For more information on getting started with the Web services editor within the Assembly Toolkit, see Configuring the server security bindings using the Assembly Toolkit.

After you specify how the server handles signature authentication information, you must specify how the server validates the authentication information. See Configuring the server to validate signature authentication information for more information.

 

See Also

Signature authentication method
Securing Web services using signature authentication
Configuring the server to validate signature authentication information
Configuring the server security bindings using the Assembly Toolkit