Configure the server to handle BasicAuth authentication information

Important distinction between Version 5.x and Version 6 applications

Note: The information in this article supports version 5.x applications only that are used with WebSphere Application Server Version 6. The information does not apply to version 6 applications.

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. If the user ID and the password supplied are not valid, an exception is thrown and the request ends without invoking the resource. For more information on BasicAuth authentication, see BasicAuth authentication method.

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

1. Launch an assembly tool. For more information on the assembly tools, see Assembly tools.

2. Open the J2EE perspective by clicking Window > Open perspective > Other > 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 such as the Application Server Toolkit or Rational Web Developer.

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

   • BasicAuth

   • Signature

   • ID assertion

   • Lightweight Third Party Authentication (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.

   You 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 you 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.

What to do next

Related concepts
BasicAuth authentication method

Related tasks
Configuring the server to validate BasicAuth authentication information
Configuring the server security bindings using an assembly tool
Configuring the server security bindings using the administrative console