Set the server to handle basic authentication information

Basic authentication (BasicAuth) refers to the user ID and the password of a valid user in the registry of the target server. After a request is received that contains basic authentication information, the server needs to log in to form a credential. The credential is used for authorization.

Overview

There is an important distinction between V5.x and V6.0.x and later applications. The information in this article supports V5.x applications only that are used with WAS V6.0.x and later. The information does not apply to V6.0.x and later applications.

Complete the following steps to configure the server to handle BasicAuth authentication information:

 

1. Launch an assembly tool.

   See the related information on Assembly Tools.

2. Switch to the Java EE perspective. Click Window > Open Perspective > J2EE.

3. Click EJB Projects > application_name > ejbModule > META-INF.

4. Right-click the webservices.xml file, and click Open with > Web services editor.

5. Click the Extensions tab, which is located at the bottom of the Web services editor within an assembly tool.

6. Expand the Request receiver service configuration details > Login configuration section. We can select the following options:

   • BasicAuth

   • Signature
   • ID assertion
   • LTPA

7. Select BasicAuth to authenticate the client with a user ID and a password. The client must specify a valid user ID and password in the server user registry. If the user ID and the password supplied are not valid, an exception is provided, and the request ends without invoking the resource.

   We can select multiple login configurations, which means that different types of security information might be received at the server. The order in which the login configurations are added decides the order in which they are processed when a request is received. Problems can occur if we have multiple login configurations added that have security tokens in common. For example, ID assertion contains a BasicAuth token. For ID assertion to work properly, list ID assertion ahead of BasicAuth in the processing list or the BasicAuth processing overrides the IDAssertion processing.

 

Next steps

After you specify how the server handles BasicAuth authentication information, specify how the server validates the authentication information. See the task for configuring the server to validate BasicAuth authentication if we have not previously specified this information.

 

Related concepts

BasicAuth authentication method
Assembly tools

 

Related tasks

Set the server to validate basic authentication information
Set the server security bindings using an assembly tool
Set the server security bindings
Secure Web services for V5.x applications using XML encryption