Develop programmatic logins with the Java Authentication and Authorization Service

JAAS replaces the CORBA programmatic login APIs. WAS provides some extension to JAAS:

• Refer to the Develop applications that use CosNaming (CORBA Naming interface) article for details on how to set up the environment for thin client applications to access remote resources on a server.

• If the application uses a custom JAAS login configuration, verify that the JAAS login configuration is properly defined.

• Some of the JAAS APIs are protected by Java 2 security permissions. If these APIs are used by application code, verify that these permissions are added to the application was.policy file.
  • Add the was.policy file to applications for Java 2 security
  • Use PolicyTool to edit policy files for Java 2 security
  • Set the was.policy file for Java 2 security

  For more details on which APIs are protected by Java 2 security permissions, check the IBM Developer Kit, Java Technology Edition; JAAS and WAS public APIs documentation in the Security: Links article. Some of the APIs that are used in the sample code in this documentation and the Java 2 security permissions that are required by these APIs are in the following list:

  • javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext constructors are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "createLoginContext" object.
  • javax.security.auth.Subject.doAs and com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs methods are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "doAs" object.
  • javax.security.auth.Subject.doAsPrivileged and com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAsPrivileged methods are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "doAsPrivileged" object.

• Enhanced model to Java EE resources for authorization checks.

  Due to a design oversight in JAAS V1.0, the javax.security.auth.Subject.getSubject method does not return the Subject that is associated with the running thread inside a java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged code block. This oversight can present inconsistent behavior, which might have unwanted effects. The com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject class provides a workaround to associate a Subject to a running thread. The com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject class extends the JAAS model to Java EE resources for authorization checks. If the Subject associates with the running thread within the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs method or if the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAsPrivileged code block contains product credentials, the Subject is used for Java EE resource authorization checks.

• User interface support for defining new JAAS login configuration. You can configure a JAAS login configuration in the admin console and store the JAAS login configuration in a configuration repository. Applications can define a new JAAS login configuration in the admin console and the data is persisted in the configuration repository. However, WAS still supports the default JAAS login configuration format (plain text file) that is provided by the JAAS default implementation. If duplicate login configurations are defined in both the configuration repository and the plain text file format, the one in the repository takes precedence. Advantages to defining the login configuration in the configuration repository includes:
  • Administrative console support in defining JAAS login configuration
  • Central management of the JAAS login configuration
  • Distribution of the JAAS login configuration

• Application support for programmatic authentication.

  WAS provides JAAS login configurations for applications to perform programmatic authentication to the WebSphere security runtime. These configurations perform authentication to the WAS-configured authentication mechanism (Simple WebSphere Authentication Mechanism (SWAM), LTPA) and user registry (Local OS, LDAP, custom registries, or federated repositories) and Kerberos authentication based on the authentication data that is supplied. The authenticated Subject from these JAAS login configurations contains the required principal and credentials that the WebSphere security runtime can use to perform authorization checks on Java EE role-based protected resources.

  SWAM is deprecated in WAS V7.0 and will be removed in a future release. Here are the JAAS login configurations that are provided by WAS:

  • WSLogin JAAS login configuration. A generic JAAS login configuration can use Java clients, client container applications, servlets, JSPs, and EJB components to perform authentication based on a user ID and password, or a token to the security runtime for WAS. However, this configuration does not honor the CallbackHandler handler specified in the client container deployment descriptor.

  • WSKRB5Login JAAS login configuration. A generic JAAS login configuration can use Java clients, client container applications, servlets, JSPs, and Enterprise Java Beans™ (EJB) components to perform authentication based on a user ID and password, or a token to the security runtime for WAS. However, this configuration does not honor the CallbackHandler handler specified in the client container deployment descriptor.
  • ClientContainer JAAS login configuration. This JAAS login configuration honors the CallbackHandler handler specified in the client container deployment descriptor. The login module of this login configuration uses the CallbackHandler handler in the client container deployment descriptor if one is specified, even if the application code specified one callback handler in the login context. This is for a client container application.

    A Subject authenticated with the previously mentioned JAAS login configurations contains a com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSPrincipal principal and a com.ibm.websphere.security.cred.WSCredential credential. If the authenticated Subject is passed in the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs or the other doAs methods, WAS security runtime can perform authorization checks on Java EE resources based on the com.ibm.websphere.security.cred.WSCredential Subject.

• Customer-defined JAAS login configurations.

  We can define other JAAS login configurations to perform programmatic login which creates a custom Subject in either the client or server process. Certain credentials and principals are required in the Subject for WAS security runtime to use it for sending authentication information from the client over a protocol or to use it for handling authorization on the server. The required credentials are generated from provided login modules.

  The login module needed for a pure Java client login is as follows:

  • com.ibm.ws.security.common.auth.module.WSLoginModuleImpl required;

  In addition to using this login module, the callback handler used must be able to handle the following callback classes.

  • javax.security.auth.callback.NameCallback

  • javax.security.auth.callback.PasswordCallback

  A username and password must be specified in the callback handler.

  Custom classes that are added to the Subject on the client side should get propagated to the server automatically whenever security attribute propagation is enabled. We can set the password to null to use identity assertion without a password. For information about enabling propagation for a pure Java client, see the corresponding step in Propagating security attributes among appservers.

  The classes added to the Subject must be Java serializable and de-serializable for this to occur properly. The login modules needed for a server login are as follows:

  • com.ibm.ws.security.server.lm.ltpaLoginModule required;

  • com.ibm.ws.security.server.lm.wsMapDefaultInboundLoginModule required;

  For information about the callbacks used for a server-side login configuration, see Customizing a server-side JAAS authentication and login configuration.

• Naming requirements for programmatic login on a pure Java client.

  When programmatic login occurs on a pure Java client and the property com.ibm.CORBA.validateBasicAuth equals true, it is necessary for the security code to know where the SecurityServer resides. Typically, the default InitialContext is sufficient when a java.naming.provider.url property is set as a system property or when the property is set in the jndi.properties file. In other cases it is not desirable to have the same java.naming.provider.url properties set in a system-wide scope. In this case, there is a need to specify security specific bootstrap information in sas.client.props.

  The following steps present the order of precedence for determining how to find the SecurityServer in a pure Java client:

Set com.ibm.CORBA.validateBasicAuth=false whenever connecting to a z/OS server. This function does not currently work from a distributed client to a z/OS server because the SecurityServer is located using the UNAUTHENTICATED principal, which is not accepted on a z/OS system.

 

1. Use sas.client.props and look for the following properties:

   com.ibm.CORBA.securityServerHost=myhost.mydomain com.ibm.CORBA.securityServerPort=mybootstrap port
   

   If we specify these properties, we are guaranteed that security looks here for the SecurityServer. The host and port specified can represent any valid WebSphere host and bootstrap port. The SecurityServer resides on all server processes and therefore it is not important which host or port you choose. If specified, the security infrastructure within the client process look up the SecurityServer based on the information in sas.client.props.

2. Place the following code in the client application to get a new InitialContext():

   ...
      import java.util.Hashtable;
       import javax.naming.Context;
       import javax.naming.InitialContext;
       ...
      
   
   // Perform an InitialContext and default lookup prior to logging 
   
   // in so that target realm and bootstrap host/port can be 
   
   // determined for SecurityServer lookup.
      
            Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
            env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,       "
                 com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory");
            env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL,       
                 "corbaloc:iiop:myhost.mycompany.com:2809");
            Context initialContext = new InitialContext(env);
            Object obj = initialContext.lookup("");
   
         
   // programmatic login code goes here.
   
   

   Complete this step prior to running any programmatic login. It is in this code specified a URL provider for the naming context, but it must point to a valid WAS within the cell to which we are authenticating. Pointing to one cell allows thread specific programmatic logins going to different cells to have a single system-wide SecurityServer location.

3. Use the new default InitialContext() method relying on the naming precedence rules. These rules are defined in the article, Example: Getting the default initial context.

 

Example

See the Example: Programmatic logins using BasicAuth article.

Example: Programmatic logins using BasicAuth

 

Related

Programmatic login for JAAS
Set programmatic logins for JAAS
Develop applications that use CosNaming (CORBA Naming interface)
Customizing application login with JAAS
Example: Getting an initial context by setting the provider URL property
Security: Links