Set the generator security tokens using the WSS API

We can secure the SOAP messages, without using policy sets, by using the WS-Security APIs. To configure the token on the generator side, use the WS-Security APIs (WSS API). The generator security tokens are part of the com.ibm.websphere.wssecurity.wssapi.token interface package.

The pluggable token framework in WAS has been redesigned so that the same framework from the WSS API can be reused. The same implementation of creating and validating security token can be used both for the WS-Security runtime and for the WSS API application code. The redesigned framework also simplifies the SPI model and will make it easier to add security token types.

Use the WSS API or we can configure the tokens by using the admin console. To configure tokens, complete the following token tasks:

• Set the generator tokens.

• Set the consumer tokens.

The JAAS CallbackHandler and JAAS LoginModule are responsible for creating the security token on the generator side.

On the generator side, the token is created by using the JAAS LoginModule and by using JAAS CallbackHandler to pass authentication data. Then, the JAAS LoginModule creates the securityToken object, such as the UsernameToken, and passes it to the Web Service Security run time.

On the consumer side, the XML format is passed to the JAAS LoginModule for validation or authentication. then the JAAS CallbackHandler is used to pass authentication data from the Web Service Security runtime to the LoginModule. After the token is authenticated, a security token object is created, and the token is passed it to the Web Service Security runtime.

When using the WSS API for generator token creation, certain default behaviors occur. The simplest way to use the WSS API is to use the default behavior (see the example code). The WSS API provide default values for the token type, the token value, and the JAAS confirmation name. The default token behaviors include:

Table 1. Token decisions and default behaviors

Generator token decisions	Default behavior
Which token type to use	The token type specifies which type of token to use for message integrity, message confidentiality, or message authenticity. WAS provides the following pre-configured generator token types for message integrity and message confidentiality: Derived key token X509 tokens We can also create custom token types, as needed. WAS also provides the following pre-configured generator token types for the message authenticity: Username token LTPA tokens X509 tokens We can also create custom token types, as needed.
What JAAS login configuration name to specify	The JAAS login configuration name specifies which JAAS login configuration name to use.
Which configuration type to use	The JAAS login module specifies the configuration type. Only the pre-configured generator configuration types can be used for generator token types.

The SecurityToken class (com.ibm.websphere.wssecurity.wssapi.token.SecurityToken) is the generic token class and represents the security token that has methods to get the identity, the XML format, and the cryptographic keys. Using the SecurityToken class, we can apply both the signature and encryption to the SOAP message. However, to apply both, have two SecurityToken objects, one for the signature and one for encryption, respectively.

The following tokens types are subclasses of the generic security token class:

Table 2. Subclasses of the SecurityToken

Token type	JAAS login configuration name
Username token	system.wss.generate.unt
Security context token	system.wss.generate.sct
Derived key token	system.wss.generate.dkt

The following tokens types are subclasses of the binary security token class:

Table 3. Subclasses of the BinarySecurityToken

Token type	JAAS login configuration name
LTPA token	system.wss.generate.ltpa
LTPA propagation token	system.wss.generate.ltpaProp
X.509 token	system.wss.generate.x509
X.509 PKI Path token	system.wss.generate.pkiPath
X.509 PKCS7 token	system.wss.generate.pkcs7

Notes:

• For each JAAS login token generator configuration name, there is a respective token consumer configuration name. For example, for the Username token, the respective token consumer configuration name is system.wss.consume.unt.

• The LTPA and LTPA propagation tokens are only available to a requester that is running as a server-based client. The LTPA and LTPA propagation tokens are not supported for the Java SE 6 or Java EE application client.

 

1. To configure the securityToken package, com.ibm.websphere.wssecurity.wssapi.token, first verify the appserver is installed.

2. Use the WS-Security token generator process to configure the tokens. For each token type, the process is similar to the following process that demonstrates the UsernameToken token generator process:

   1. Uses WSSFactory.getInstance() to get the WSS API implementation instance.

   2. Creates the WSSGenerationContext instance from the WSSFactory instance.

   3. Creates a JAAS CallbackHandler. The authentication data, such as the user name and password are specified as part of the CallbackHandler. For example, the following code specifies Chris as the user name and sirhC as the password: UNTGenerationCallbackHandler("Chris", "sirhC");

   4. Calls any JAAS CallbackHandler parameters and reviews the token class information for which parameters are required or optional. For example, for the UsernameToken, the following parameters can be configured also:

      Nonce

      Indicates whether a nonce is included in the user name token for the token generator. Nonce is a unique, cryptographic number that is embedded in a message to help stop repeat, unauthorized attacks of user name tokens. The nonce value is valid only when the generated token type is a UsernameToken and only when it applies to the request generator binding.

      Created timestamp

      Indicates whether to insert a time stamp into the UsernameToken. The timestamp value is valid only when the generated token type is a UsernameToken and only when it applies to the request generator binding.

   5. Creates the SecurityToken from WSSFactory.

      By default, the UsernameToken API specifies the ValueType as: "http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#UsernameToken"

      By default, the UsernameToken API provides the QName of this class and specifies the NamespaceURI as http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd and also specifies the LocalPart as UsernameToken.

   6. Specifies the JAAS login module configuration name. On the generator side, the configuration type is always generate (for example, system.wss.generate.unt).

   7. Adds the SecurityToken to the WSSGenerationContext.

   8. Calls WSSGenerationContext.process() and generates the WS-Security header.

 

Results

If there is an error condition, a WSSException is provided. If successful, the WSSGenerationContext process() is called, and the security token for the generator binding is attached.

 

Example

The following example code shows how the WSS API process creates a Username security token, attaches the Username token to the SOAP message, and configures the Username token in the generator binding.

// get the message context
   Object msgcontext = getMessageContext();


// generate WSSFactory instance
   WSSFactory factory = WSSFactory.getInstance();


// generate WSSGenerationContext instance
   WSSGenerationContext gencont = factory.newWSSGenerationContext();


// generate callback handler
   UNTGenerateCallbackHandler untCallbackHandler = 
  new UNTGenerateCallbackHandler("Chris", "sirhC");


// generate the username token 
   SecurityToken unt = factory.newSecurityToken(UsernameToken.class, untCallbackHandler);


// add the SecurityToken to the WSSGenerationContext
   gencont.add(unt);


// generate the WS-Security header gencont.process(msgcontext);

The following example shows how to use secure conversation with the WSS APIs to configure the generator tokens, as well as the consumer tokens. In this example, the SecurityContextToken token is created using the WS-SecureConversation draft namespace: http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/02/sc/sct. To use the WS-SecureConversation version 1.3 namespace, http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-secureconversation/200512/sct, specify SecurityContextToken13.class instead of SecurityContextToken.class.

WSSGenerationContext bootstrapGenCon = 
                           wssFactory.newWSSGenerationContext();

    
// Create a Timestamp
                ..
    
//add Timestamp
                ..
    

    
// Sign the SOAP Body, WS-Addressing headers, and Timestamp
    X509GenerateCallbackHandler btspReqSigCbHandler = new X509GenerateCallbackHandler(
        ...);
    SecurityToken btspReqSigToken = wssFactory.newSecurityToken(
        X509Token.class, btspReqSigCbHandler);
    WSSSignature bootstrapReqSig = wssFactory.newWSSSignature(btspReqSigToken);
    bootstrapReqSig.setCanonicalizationMethod(WSSSignature.EXC_C14N);
                
//add Sign Parts
    ..
                bootstrapGenCon.add(bootstrapReqSig);
              

    
// Encrypt the SOAP Body and the Signature
    X509GenerateCallbackHandler btspReqEncCbHandler = new X509GenerateCallbackHandler(
        ...);
    SecurityToken btspReqEncToken = wssFactory.newSecurityToken(X509Token.class, btspReqEncCbHandler);
    WSSEncryption bootstrapReqEnc = wssFactory.newWSSEncryption(btspReqEncToken);
    bootstrapReqEnc.setEncryptionMethod(WSSEncryption.AES128);
    bootstrapReqEnc.setKeyEncryptionMethod(WSSEncryption.KW_RSA15);
                
// add Encryption parts
    ..
                ..
                bootstrapGenCon.add(bootstrapReqEnc);

                WSSConsumingContext bootstrapConCon = wssFactory.newWSSConsumingContext();
                X509ConsumeCallbackHandler btspRspVfyCbHandler = new X509ConsumeCallbackHandler(....);
                WSSVerification bootstrapRspVfy = wssFactory.newWSSVerification(X509Token.class, btspRspVfyCbHandler);
                bootstrapRspVfy.addAllowedCanonicalizationMethod(WSSVerification.EXC_C14N);

                
//add Verify parts
                ..
                ..
                bootstrapConCon.add(bootstrapRspVfy);

                X509ConsumeCallbackHandler btspRspDecCbHandler = new X509ConsumeCallbackHandler(...);
                WSSDecryption bootstrapRspDec = wssFactory.newWSSDecryption(X509Token.class, btspRspDecCbHandler);
                bootstrapRspDec.addAllowedEncryptionMethod(WSSDecryption.AES128);
    bootstrapRspDec.addAllowedKeyEncryptionMethod(WSSDecryption.KW_RSA15);
                
// add Decryption parts
                ..
                ..
                bootstrapConCon.add(bootstrapRspDec);

                SCTGenerateCallbackHandler sctgch =
      new SCTGenerateCallbackHandler(bootstrapGenCon, bootstrapConCon,           ENDPOINT_URL, WSSEncryption.AES128);

                SecurityToken[] scts = wssFactory.newSecurityTokens(new Class[]{SecurityContextToken.class}, sctgch);
                SecurityContextToken sct = (SecurityContextToken)scts[0];
    

                 
// Use the SCT to generate DKTs for Secure Conversation
                 
//Signature algorithm and client and service labels
    DerivedKeyToken dktSig = sct.getDerivedKeyToken(WSSSignature.HMAC_SHA1, "WS-SecureConversation", "WS-SecureConversation");
                 
//Encryption algorithm and client and service labels
    DerivedKeyToken dktEnc = sct.getDerivedKeyToken(WSSEncryption.AES128, "WS-SecureConversation", "WS-SecureConversation");

                
// Create the application generation context for the request message
    WSSGenerationContext applicationGenCon = wssFactory.newWSSGenerationContext();
    
// Create and add Timestamp
    ..
    ..
    
// add the derived key token and Sign the SOAP Body and WS-Addressing headers
    WSSSignature appReqSig = wssFactory.newWSSSignature(dktSig);

    appReqSig.setSignatureMethod(WSSSignature.HMAC_SHA1);
    appReqSig.setCanonicalizationMethod(WSSSignature.EXC_C14N);
    ..
                ..
    applicationGenCon.add(appReqSig);
    
// add the derived key token and Encrypt the SOAP Body and the Signature
    WSSEncryption appReqEnc = wssFactory.newWSSEncryption(dktEnc);

    appReqEnc.setEncryptionMethod(WSSEncryption.AES128);
    appReqEnc.setTokenReference(SecurityToken.REF_STR);
    appReqEnc.encryptKey(false);
    ..
                ..
    applicationGenCon.add(appReqEnc);

                
// Create the application consuming context for the response message
    WSSConsumingContext applicationConCon = wssFactory.newWSSConsumingContext();
                
//client and service labels and decryption algorithm
    SCTConsumeCallbackHandler sctCbHandler =
                new SCTConsumeCallbackHandler("WS-SecureConversation", "WS-SecureConversation", WSSDecryption.AES128);
    
// Derive the token from SCT and use it to Decrypt the SOAP Body and the Signature
    WSSDecryption appRspDec = wssFactory.newWSSDecryption(SecurityContextToken.class, sctCbHandler);
    appRspDec.addAllowedEncryptionMethod(WSSDecryption.AES128);
    appRspDec.encryptKey(false);
    
                ..
    applicationConCon.add(appRspDec);
    
//Derived the token from SCT and use it to Verify the signature on the SOAP Body, WS-Addressing headers, and Timestamp
    WSSVerification appRspVfy = wssFactory.newWSSVerification(SecurityContextToken.class, sctCbHandler);
    ..
                ..
    applicationConCon.add(appRspVfy);

                ..
                applicationGenCon.process(messageContext);
    applicationConCon.process(messageContext);

 

Next steps

For each token type, configure the token using the WSS APIs or using the admin console. Next, specify the similar consumer tokens if we have not done so.

If both the generator and consumer tokens are configured, continue securing SOAP messages either by signing the SOAP message or by encrypting the message, as needed. Use either the WSS APIs or the admin console to secure the SOAP messages.

 

Related concepts

Security token
Username token
Binary security token
Derived key token
Security context token

 

Related tasks

Secure messages at the request generator using WSS APIs
Attach the generator token using WSS APIs to protect message authenticity

 

Related

Protection token settings (generator or consumer)
Callback handler settings