Securing Applications

Securing Applications

This chapter describes how to write secure Jakarta EE applications, which contain components that perform user authentication and access authorization for the business logic of Jakarta EE components.

For information about administrative security for the Eclipse GlassFish, see the Eclipse GlassFish Security Guide.

For general information about Jakarta EE security, see Security in The Jakarta EE Tutorial.

The following topics are addressed here:

The Web Profile of the Eclipse GlassFish supports the EJB 3.1 Lite specification, which allows enterprise beans within web applications, among other features. The full Eclipse GlassFish supports the entire EJB 3.1 specification. For details, see JSR 318 (http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=318).

Security Goals

In an enterprise computing environment, there are many security risks. The goal of the Eclipse GlassFish is to provide highly secure, interoperable, and distributed component computing based on the Jakarta EE security model. Security goals include:

  • Full compliance with the Jakarta EE security model. This includes EJB and servlet role-based authorization.

  • Support for single sign-on across all Eclipse GlassFish applications within a single security domain.

  • Support for web services message security.

  • Security support for application clients.

  • Support for several underlying authentication realms, such as simple file and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Certificate authentication is also supported for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) client authentication. For Solaris, OS platform authentication is supported in addition to these.

  • Support for declarative security through Eclipse GlassFish specific XML-based role mapping.

  • Support for Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC) pluggable authorization as included in the Jakarta EE specification and defined by Java Specification Request (JSR) 115 (http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=115).

  • Support for Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers as included in the Jakarta EE specification and defined by JSR 196 (http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=196).

  • Support for Web Services Interoperability Technologies (WSIT) as described in Jakarta EE Tutorial.

  • Support for the Jakarta EE Security API as included in the Jakarta EE specification and defined by JSR 375 (https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=375)

Eclipse GlassFish Specific Security Features

The Eclipse GlassFish supports the Jakarta EE security model, as well as the following features which are specific to the Eclipse GlassFish:

Container Security

The component containers are responsible for providing Jakarta EE application security. The container provides two security forms:

Annotations (also called metadata) enable a declarative style of programming, and so encompass both the declarative and programmatic security concepts. Users can specify information about security within a class file using annotations. When the application is deployed, this information can either be used by or overridden by the application or module deployment descriptor.

Declarative Security

Declarative security means that the security mechanism for an application is declared and handled externally to the application. Deployment descriptors describe the Jakarta EE application’s security structure, including security roles, access control, and authentication requirements.

The Eclipse GlassFish supports the deployment descriptors specified by Jakarta EE and has additional security elements included in its own deployment descriptors. Declarative security is the application deployer’s responsibility. For more information about Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptors, see the Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide.

There are two levels of declarative security, as follows:

Application Level Security

For an application, roles used by any application must be defined in @DeclareRoles annotations in the code or role-name elements in the application deployment descriptor (application.xml). Those role names are scoped to the EJB XML deployment descriptors (ejb-jar.xml and glassfish-ejb-jar.xml files) and to the servlet XML deployment descriptors (web.xml and glassfish-web.xml files). For an individually deployed web or EJB module, you define roles using @DeclareRoles annotations or role-name elements in the Jakarta EE deployment descriptor files web.xml or ejb-jar.xml.

To map roles to principals and groups, define matching security-role-mapping elements in the glassfish-application.xml, glassfish-ejb-jar.xml, or glassfish-web.xml file for each role-name used by the application. By default, group principal names are mapped to roles of the same name. Accordingly, the Default Principal To Role Mapping setting is enabled by default on the Security page of the Eclipse GlassFish Administration Console. This default role mapping definition is in effect if you do not define your own mapping in the deployment descriptor for your application as described in this section. For more information, see Roles, Principals, and Principal to Role Mapping.

Component Level Security

Component level security encompasses web components and EJB components.

A secure web container authenticates users and authorizes access to a servlet or JSP by using the security policy laid out in the servlet XML deployment descriptors (web.xml and glassfish-web.xml files).

The EJB container is responsible for authorizing access to a bean method by using the security policy laid out in the EJB XML deployment descriptors (ejb-jar.xml and glassfish-ejb-jar.xml files).

Programmatic Security

Programmatic security involves an EJB component or servlet using method calls to the security API, as specified by the Jakarta EE security model, to make business logic decisions based on the caller or remote user’s security role. Programmatic security should only be used when declarative security alone is insufficient to meet the application’s security model.

The API for programmatic security consists of methods of the Jakarta EE Security API SecurityContext interface, and methods of the EJB EJBContext interface and the servlet HttpServletRequest interface. The Eclipse GlassFish supports these interfaces as specified in the Java EE specification.

There is also a proprietary Glassfish API for programmatic login. See Programmatic Login Using the ProgrammaticLogin Class.

For more information about programmatic security, see Using Programmatic Security in the The Jakarta EE Tutorial.

Roles, Principals, and Principal to Role Mapping

By default, any groups that an authenticated user belongs to will be mapped to roles with the same names. Therefore, the Default Principal To Role Mapping setting is enabled by default on the Security page of the GlassFish Administration Console. To change the default mapping you can clear this setting. For applications, you define roles in @DeclareRoles annotations or the Jakarta EE deployment descriptor file application.xml. You define the corresponding role mappings in the Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptor file glassfish-application.xml. For individually deployed web or EJB modules, you define roles in @DeclareRoles annotations or the Jakarta EE deployment descriptor files web.xml or ejb-jar.xml. You define the corresponding role mappings in the Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptor files glassfish-web.xml or glassfish-ejb-jar.xml.

For more information regarding Jakarta EE deployment descriptors, see the Jakarta EE Specification. For more information regarding Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptors, see "Elements of the Eclipse GlassFish Deployment Descriptors" in Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide.

Each security-role-mapping element in the glassfish-application.xml, glassfish-web.xml, or glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file maps a role name permitted by the application or module to principals and groups. For example, a glassfish-web.xml file for an individually deployed web module might contain the following:

<glassfish-web-app>
    <security-role-mapping>
        <role-name>manager</role-name>
        <principal-name>jgarcia</principal-name>
        <principal-name>mwebster</principal-name>
        <group-name>team-leads</group-name>
    </security-role-mapping>
    <security-role-mapping>
        <role-name>administrator</role-name>
        <principal-name>dsmith</principal-name>
    </security-role-mapping>
</glassfish-web-app>

A role can be mapped to either specific principals or to groups (or both). The principal or group names used must be valid principals or groups in the realm for the application or module. Note that the role-name in this example must match the @DeclareRoles annotations or the role-name in the security-role element of the corresponding web.xml file.

You can also specify a custom principal implementation class. This provides more flexibility in how principals can be assigned to roles. A user’s JAAS login module now can authenticate its custom principal, and the authenticated custom principal can further participate in the Eclipse GlassFish authorization process. For example:

<security-role-mapping>
    <role-name>administrator</role-name>
    <principal-name class-name="CustomPrincipalImplClass">
        dsmith
    </principal-name>
</security-role-mapping>

You can specify a default principal and a default principal to role mapping, each of which applies to the entire Eclipse GlassFish instance. The default principal to role mapping maps group principals to the same named roles. Web modules that omit the run-as element in web.xml use the default principal. Applications and modules that omit the security-role-mapping element use the default principal to role mapping. These defaults are part of the Security Service, which you can access in the following ways:

  • In the Administration Console, select the Security component under the relevant configuration. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • Use the asadmin set command. For details, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual. For example, you can set the default principal as follows.

    asadmin set server-config.security-service.default-principal=dsmith
asadmin set server-config.security-service.default-principal-password=secret

    You can set the default principal to role mapping as follows.

    asadmin set server-config.security-service.activate-default-principal-to-role-mapping=true
asadmin set server-config.security-service.mapped-principal-class=CustomPrincipalImplClass

    Default principal to role mapping is enabled by default. To disable it, set the default principal to role mapping property to false.

Realm Configuration

The following topics are addressed here:

Supported Realms

The following realms are supported in the current release of the Eclipse GlassFish:

  • file - Stores user information in a file. This is the default realm when you first install the Eclipse GlassFish.

  • ldap - Stores user information in an LDAP directory.

  • jdbc - Stores user information in a database.

    In the JDBC realm, the server gets user credentials from a database. The Eclipse GlassFish uses the database information and the enabled JDBC realm option in the configuration file. For digest authentication, a JDBC realm should be created with digestRealm as the JAAS context.

  • certificate - Sets up the user identity in the Eclipse GlassFish security context, and populates it with user data obtained from cryptographically verified client certificates.

  • solaris - Allows authentication using Solaris username+password data. This realm is only supported on the Solaris operating system, version 9 and above.

For information about configuring realms, see How to Configure a Realm.

How to Configure a Realm

You can configure a realm in one of these ways:

  • In the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration and go to the Realms page. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • Use the asadmin create-auth-realm command to configure realms on local servers. For details, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

How to Set a Realm for an Application or Module

The following deployment descriptor elements have optional realm or realm-name data subelements or attributes that override the domain’s default realm:

  • glassfish-application element in glassfish-application.xml

  • web-app element in web.xml

  • as-context element in glassfish-ejb-jar.xml

  • client-container element in sun-acc.xml

  • client-credential element in sun-acc.xml

If modules within an application specify realms, these are ignored. If present, the realm defined in glassfish-application.xml is used, otherwise the domain’s default realm is used.

For example, a realm is specified in glassfish-application.xml as follows:

<glassfish-application>
    ...
    <realm>ldap</realm>
</glassfish-application>

For more information about the deployment descriptor files and elements, see "Elements of the Eclipse GlassFish Deployment Descriptors" in Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide.

Creating a Custom Realm

You can create a custom realm by providing a custom Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) login module class and a custom realm class. Note that client-side JAAS login modules are not suitable for use with the Eclipse GlassFish.

To activate the custom login modules and realms, place the JAR files in the domain-dir/lib directory or the class files in the domain-dir`/lib/classes` directory. For more information about class loading in the Eclipse GlassFish, see Class Loaders.

JAAS is a set of APIs that enable services to authenticate and enforce access controls upon users. JAAS provides a pluggable and extensible framework for programmatic user authentication and authorization. JAAS is a core API and an underlying technology for Jakarta EE security mechanisms. For more information about JAAS, refer to the specification, available at https://jakarta.ee/specifications/authentication/ and https://jakarta.ee/specifications/authorization/.

For general information about realms and login modules, see the section about working with realms, users, groups, and roles in Introduction to Security in the Jakarta EE Platform in The Jakarta EE Tutorial.

For Javadoc tool pages relevant to custom realms, see the com.sun.appserv.security package.

Custom login modules must extend the com.sun.appserv.security.AppservPasswordLoginModule class. This class implements javax.security.auth.spi.LoginModule. Custom login modules must not implement LoginModule directly.

Custom login modules must provide an implementation for one abstract method defined in AppservPasswordLoginModule:

abstract protected void authenticateUser() throws LoginException

This method performs the actual authentication. The custom login module must not implement any of the other methods, such as login, logout, abort, commit, or initialize. Default implementations are provided in AppservPasswordLoginModule which hook into the Eclipse GlassFish infrastructure.

The custom login module can access the following protected object fields, which it inherits from AppservPasswordLoginModule. These contain the user name and password of the user to be authenticated:

protected String _username;
protected String _password;

The authenticateUser method must end with the following sequence:

String[] grpList;
// populate grpList with the set of groups to which
// _username belongs in this realm, if any
commitUserAuthentication(grpList);

Custom realms must extend the com.sun.appserv.security.AppservRealm class and implement the following methods:

public void init(Properties props) throws BadRealmException, NoSuchRealmException

This method is invoked during server startup when the realm is initially loaded. The props argument contains the properties defined for this realm. The realm can do any initialization it needs in this method. If the method returns without throwing an exception, the Eclipse GlassFish assumes that the realm is ready to service authentication requests. If an exception is thrown, the realm is disabled.

public String getAuthType()

This method returns a descriptive string representing the type of authentication done by this realm.

public abstract Enumeration getGroupNames(String username) throws
    InvalidOperationException, NoSuchUserException

This method returns an Enumeration (of String objects) enumerating the groups (if any) to which the given username belongs in this realm.

Custom realms that manage users must implement the following additional methods:

public abstract boolean supportsUserManagement();

This method returns true if the realm supports user management.

public abstract Enumeration getGroupNames() throws BadRealmException;

This method returns an Enumeration of all group names.

public abstract Enumeration getUserNames() throws BadRealmException;

This method returns an Enumeration of all user names.

public abstract void refresh() throws BadRealmException;

This method refreshes the realm data so that new users and groups are visible.

public abstract void persist() throws BadRealmException;

This method persists the realm data to permanent storage.

public abstract User getUser(String name) throws NoSuchUserException,
BadRealmException;

This method returns the information recorded about a particular named user.

public abstract void addUser(String name, String password, String[] groupList) throws
BadRealmException, IASSecurityException;

This method adds a new user, who cannot already exist.

public abstract void removeUser(String name) throws NoSuchUserException,
BadRealmException;

This method removes a user, who must exist.

public abstract void updateUser(String name, String newName, String password,
String[] groups) throws NoSuchUserException, BadRealmException, IASSecurityException;

This method updates data for a user, who must exist.

The array passed to the commitUseAuthentication method should be newly created and otherwise unreferenced. This is because the group name array elements are set to null after authentication as part of cleanup. So the second time your custom realm executes it returns an array with null elements.

Ideally, your custom realm should not return member variables from the authenticate method. It should return local variables as the default JDBCRealm does. Your custom realm can create a local String array in its authenticate method, copy the values from the member variables, and return the String array. Or it can use clone on the member variables.

Jakarta EE Security API Support

JSR-375 defines several authentication-related plugin SPIs, such as, HttpAuthenticationMechanism interface, the IdentityStore and IdentityStoreHandler interfaces:

  • HttpAuthenticationMechanism: An interface for modules that authenticate callers to a web application. An application can supply its own HttpAuthenticationMechanism, or use one of the default implementations provided by the container.

  • IdentityStore: This interface defines methods for validating a caller’s credentials (such as user name and password) and returning group membership information. An application can provide its own IdentityStore, or use the built in LDAP or Database store.

  • RememberMeIdentityStore: This interface is a variation on the IdentityStore interface, intended to address cases where an authenticated user’s identity should be remembered for an extended period of time, so that the caller can return to the application periodically without needing to present primary authentication credentials each time.

In addition to these authentication plugin SPIs, the Jakarta EE Security API specification defines the SecurityContext API for use by application code to query and interact with the current security context. The SecurityContext interface defines methods that allow an application to access security information about a caller, authenticate a caller, and authorize a caller. These methods include getCallerPrincipal(), getPrincipalsByType(), isCallerInRole(), authenticate(), and hasAccessToWebResource().

JACC Support

JACC (Java Authorization Contract for Containers) is part of the Jakarta EE specification and defined by JSR 115 (http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=115). JACC defines an interface for pluggable authorization providers. Specifically, JACC is used to plug in the Java policy provider used by the container to perform Jakarta EE caller access decisions. The Java policy provider performs Java policy decisions during application execution. This provides third parties with a mechanism to develop and plug in modules that are responsible for answering authorization decisions during Java EE application execution. The interfaces and rules used for developing JACC providers are defined in the JACC 1.0 specification.

The Eclipse GlassFish provides a simple file-based JACC-compliant authorization engine as a default JACC provider, named default. An alternate provider named simple is also provided. To configure an alternate provider using the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration, and select the JACC Providers component. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

Pluggable Audit Module Support

Audit modules collect and store information on incoming requests (servlets, EJB components) and outgoing responses. You can create a custom audit module.

The following topics are addressed here:

Configuring an Audit Module

To configure an audit module, you can perform one of the following tasks:

  • To specify an audit module using the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration, and select the Audit Modules component. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • You can use the asadmin create-audit-module command to configure an audit module. For details, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

The AuditModule Class

You can create a custom audit module by implementing a class that extends com.sun.enterprise.security.audit.AuditModule.

For Javadoc tool pages relevant to audit modules, see the com.sun.enterprise.security.audit package.

The AuditModule class provides default "no-op" implementations for each of the following methods, which your custom class can override.

public void init(Properties props)

The preceding method is invoked during server startup when the audit module is initially loaded. The props argument contains the properties defined for this module. The module can do any initialization it needs in this method. If the method returns without throwing an exception, the Eclipse GlassFish assumes the module realm is ready to service audit requests. If an exception is thrown, the module is disabled.

public void authentication(String user, String realm, boolean success)

This method is invoked when an authentication request has been processed by a realm for the given user. The success flag indicates whether the authorization was granted or denied.

public void webInvocation(String user, HttpServletRequest req, String type, boolean success)

This method is invoked when a web container call has been processed by authorization. The success flag indicates whether the authorization was granted or denied. The req object is the standard HttpServletRequest object for this request. The type string is one of hasUserDataPermission or hasResourcePermission (see JSR 115 (http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=115)).

public void ejbInvocation(String user, String ejb, String method, boolean success)

This method is invoked when an EJB container call has been processed by authorization. The success flag indicates whether the authorization was granted or denied. The ejb and method strings describe the EJB component and its method that is being invoked.

public void webServiceInvocation(String uri, String endpoint, boolean success)

This method is invoked during validation of a web service request in which the endpoint is a servlet. The uri is the URL representation of the web service endpoint. The endpoint is the name of the endpoint representation. The success flag indicates whether the authorization was granted or denied.

public void ejbAsWebServiceInvocation(String endpoint, boolean success)

This method is invoked during validation of a web service request in which the endpoint is a stateless session bean. The endpoint is the name of the endpoint representation. The success flag indicates whether the authorization was granted or denied.

The server.policy File

Each Eclipse GlassFish domain has its own global J2SE policy file, located in domain-dir/config. The file is named server.policy.

The Eclipse GlassFish is a Jakarta EE compliant application server. As such, it follows the requirements of the Jakarta EE specification, including the presence of the security manager (the Java component that enforces the policy) and a limited permission set for Jakarta EE application code.

The following topics are addressed here:

Default Permissions

Internal server code is granted all permissions. These are covered by the AllPermission grant blocks to various parts of the server infrastructure code. Do not modify these entries.

Application permissions are granted in the default grant block. These permissions apply to all code not part of the internal server code listed previously. The Eclipse GlassFish does not distinguish between EJB and web module permissions. All code is granted the minimal set of web component permissions (which is a superset of the EJB minimal set). Do not modify these entries.

A few permissions above the minimal set are also granted in the default server.policy file. These are necessary due to various internal dependencies of the server implementation. Jakarta EE application developers must not rely on these additional permissions. In some cases, deleting these permissions might be appropriate. For example, one additional permission is granted specifically for using connectors. If connectors are not used in a particular domain, you should remove this permission, because it is not otherwise necessary.

System Properties

The following predefined system properties, also called variables, are available for use in the server.policy file. The system property most frequently used in server.policy is ${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}. For more information about system properties, see the asadmin create-system-properties command in the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

Table 4-1 Predefined System Properties

Property Default Description

com.sun.aas.installRoot

depends on operating system

Specifies the directory where the Eclipse GlassFish is installed.

com.sun.aas.instanceRoot

depends on operating system

Specifies the top level directory for a server instance.

com.sun.aas.hostName

none

Specifies the name of the host (machine).

com.sun.aas.javaRoot

depends on operating system

Specifies the installation directory for the Java runtime.

com.sun.aas.imqLib

depends on operating system

Specifies the library directory for the Open Message Queue software.

com.sun.aas.configName

server-config

Specifies the name of the configuration used by a server instance.

com.sun.aas.instanceName

server1

Specifies the name of the server instance. This property is not used in the default configuration, but can be used to customize configuration.

com.sun.aas.clusterName

cluster1

Specifies the name of the cluster. This property is only set on clustered server instances. This property is not used in the default configuration, but can be used to customize configuration.

com.sun.aas.domainName

domain1

Specifies the name of the domain. This property is not used in the default configuration, but can be used to customize configuration.

Changing Permissions for an Application

The default policy for each domain limits the permissions of Jakarta EE deployed applications to the minimal set of permissions required for these applications to operate correctly. Do not add extra permissions to the default set (the grant block with no codebase, which applies to all code). Instead, add a new grant block with a codebase specific to the applications requiring the extra permissions, and only add the minimally necessary permissions in that block.

If you develop multiple applications that require more than this default set of permissions, you can add the custom permissions that your applications need. The com.sun.aas.instanceRoot variable refers to the domain-dir. For example:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/-" {
...
}

You can add permissions to stub code with the following grant block:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/generated/-" {
...
}

In general, you should add extra permissions only to the applications or modules that require them, not to all applications deployed to a domain. For example:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/MyApp/-" {
...
}

For a module:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/MyModule/-" {
...
}

Deployment directories may change between Eclipse GlassFish releases.

An alternative way to add permissions to a specific application or module is to edit the granted.policy file for that application or module. The granted.policy file is located in the domain-dir`/generated/policy/`app-or-module-name directory. In this case, you add permissions to the default grant block. Do not delete permissions from this file.

When the Eclipse GlassFish policy subsystem determines that a permission should not be granted, it logs a server.policy message specifying the permission that was not granted and the protection domains, with indicated code source and principals that failed the protection check. For example, here is the first part of a typical message:

[#|2005-12-17T16:16:32.671-0200|INFO|sun-appserver-pe9.1|
javax.enterprise.system.core.security|_ThreadID=14;_ThreadName=Thread-31;|
JACC Policy Provider: PolicyWrapper.implies, context(null)-
permission((java.util.PropertyPermission java.security.manager write))
domain that failed(ProtectionDomain
(file:/E:/glassfish/domains/domain1/applications/cejug-clfds/ ... )
...

Granting the following permission eliminates the message:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/cejug-clfds/-" {
    permission java.util.PropertyPermission "java.security.manager", "write";
}

Do not add java.security.AllPermission to the server.policy file for application code. Doing so completely defeats the purpose of the security manager, yet you still get the performance overhead associated with it.

As noted in the Jakarta EE specification, an application should provide documentation of the additional permissions it needs. If an application requires extra permissions but does not document the set it needs, contact the application author for details.

As a last resort, you can iteratively determine the permission set an application needs by observing AccessControlException occurrences in the server log.

If this is not sufficient, you can add the -Djava.security.debug=failure JVM option to the domain. Use the following asadmin create-jvm-options command, then restart the server:

asadmin create-jvm-options -Djava.security.debug=failure

For more information about the asadmin create-jvm-options command, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

You can use the J2SE standard policytool or any text editor to edit the server.policy file. For more information, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/security/tour2/index.html.

For detailed information about policy file syntax, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/PolicyFiles.html.

For information about using system properties in the server.policy file, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/PolicyFiles.html.

For detailed information about the permissions you can set in the server.policy file, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/permissions.html.

The Javadoc for the Permission class is at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/security/Permission.html.

Enabling and Disabling the Security Manager

The security manager is disabled by default.

In a production environment, you may be able to safely disable the security manager if all of the following are true:

  • Performance is critical

  • Deployment to the production server is carefully controlled

  • Only trusted applications are deployed

  • Applications don’t need policy enforcement

Disabling the security manager may improve performance significantly for some types of applications.

To enable the security manager, do one of the following:

  • To use the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration, and check the Security Manager Enabled box. Then restart the server. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • Use the following asadmin create-jvm-options command, then restart the server:

    asadmin create-jvm-options -Djava.security.manager

To disable the security manager, uncheck the Security Manager Enabled box or use the corresponding asadmin delete-jvm-options command. For more information about create-jvm-options and delete-jvm-options, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

If the security manager is enabled and you are using the Java Persistence API by calling Persistence.createEMF(), the EclipseLink persistence provider requires that you set the eclipselink.security.usedoprivileged JVM option to true as follows:

asadmin create-jvm-options -Declipselink.security.usedoprivileged=true

If the security manager is enabled and you are using the Java Persistence API by injecting or looking up an entity manager or entity manager factory, the EJB container sets this JVM option for you.

You must grant additional permissions to CDI-enabled Jakarta EE applications that are deployed in a Eclipse GlassFish 7 domain or cluster for which security manager is enabled. These additional permissions are not required when security manager is disabled.

To deploy CDI-enabled Jakarta EE applications in a Eclipse GlassFish 7 domain or cluster for which security manager is enabled, add the following permissions to the applications:

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/[ApplicationName]" {
 permission java.lang.reflect.ReflectPermission "suppressAccessChecks";
};

For example, for a CDI application named foo.war, add the following permissions to the server.policy file, restart the domain or cluster, and then deploy and use the application.

grant codeBase "file:${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/applications/foo" {
 permission java.lang.reflect.ReflectPermission "suppressAccessChecks";
};

For more information about modifying application permissions, see Changing Permissions for an Application.

Configuring Message Security for Web Services

In message security, security information is applied at the message layer and travels along with the web services message. Web Services Security (WSS) is the use of XML Encryption and XML Digital Signatures to secure messages. WSS profiles the use of various security tokens including X.509 certificates, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) assertions, and username/password tokens to achieve this.

Message layer security differs from transport layer security in that it can be used to decouple message protection from message transport so that messages remain protected after transmission, regardless of how many hops they travel.

Message security (JSR 196) is supported only in the full Eclipse GlassFish, not in the Web Profile.

In this release of the Eclipse GlassFish, message layer annotations are not supported.

For more information about web services, see Developing Web Services.

For more information about message security, see the following:

The following topics are addressed here:

Message Security Providers

When you first install the Eclipse GlassFish, the providers XWS_ClientProvider and XWS_ServerProvider are configured but disabled. You can enable them in one of the following ways:

  • To enable the message security providers using the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration, select the Message Security component, and select SOAP. Then select XWS_ServerProvider from the Default Provider list and XWS_ClientProvider from the Default Client Provider list. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • You can enable the message security providers using the following commands.

    asadmin set
server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.default_provider=XWS_ServerProvider
asadmin set
server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.default_client_provider=XWS_ClientProvider

    For more information about the asadmin set command, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

The example described in Understanding and Running the Sample Application uses the ClientProvider and ServerProvider providers, which are enabled when the Ant targets are run. You don’t need to enable these on the Eclipse GlassFish prior to running the example.

If you install the OpenSSO, you have these additional provider choices:

  • AMClientProvider and AMServerProvider - These providers secure web services and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages using either WS-I BSP or Liberty ID-WSF tokens. These providers are used automatically if they are configured as the default providers. If you wish to override any provider settings, you can configure these providers in message-security-binding elements in the glassfish-web.xml, glassfish-ejb-jar.xml, and glassfish-application-client.xml deployment descriptor files.

  • AMHttpProvider - This provider handles the initial end user authentication for securing web services using Liberty ID-WSF tokens and redirects requests to the OpenSSO for single sign-on. To use this provider, specify it in the httpservlet-security-provider attribute of the glassfish-web-app element in the glassfish-web.xml file.

Liberty specifications can be viewed at http://www.projectliberty.org/resources/specifications.php/?f=resources/specifications.php. The WS-I BSP specification can be viewed at http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/BasicSecurityProfile-1.0.html.

For more information about the Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptor files, see the Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide.

For information about configuring these providers in the Eclipse GlassFish, see the Eclipse GlassFish Security Guide. For additional information about overriding provider settings, see Application-Specific Message Protection.

You can create new message security providers in one of the following ways:

  • To create a message security provider using the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration, and select the Message Security component. For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • You can use the asadmin create-message-security-provider command to create a message security provider. For details, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

In addition, you can set a few optional provider properties using the asadmin set command. For example:

asadmin set server-config.security-service.message-security-config.provider-config.property.debug=true

The following table describes these message security provider properties.

Table 4-2 Message Security Provider Properties

Property Default Description

security.config

domain-dir`/config/wss-server-`config-1.0.xml

Specifies the location of the message security configuration file. To point to a configuration file in the domain-dir/config directory, use the system property ${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/``config/, for example:

${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/config/``wss-server-config-1.0.xml

See System Properties.

debug

false

If true, enables dumping of server provider debug messages to the server log.

dynamic.username.password

false

If true, signals the provider runtime to collect the user name and password from the CallbackHandler for each request. If false, the user name and password for wsse:UsernameToken(s) is collected once, during module initialization. This property is only applicable for a ClientAuthModule.

encryption.key.alias

s1as

Specifies the encryption key used by the provider. The key is identified by its keystore alias.

signature.key.alias

s1as

Specifies the signature key used by the provider. The key is identified by its keystore alias.

Message Security Responsibilities

In the Eclipse GlassFish, the system administrator and application deployer roles are expected to take primary responsibility for configuring message security. In some situations, the application developer may also contribute, although in the typical case either of the other roles may secure an existing application without changing its implementation and without involving the developer.

The following topics are addressed here:

Application Developer Responsibilities

The application developer can turn on message security, but is not responsible for doing so. Message security can be set up by the system administrator so that all web services are secured, or set up by the application deployer when the provider or protection policy bound to the application must be different from that bound to the container.

The application developer is responsible for the following:

  • Determining if an application-specific message protection policy is required by the application. If so, ensuring that the required policy is specified at application assembly which may be accomplished by communicating with the application deployer.

  • Determining if message security is necessary at the Eclipse GlassFish level. If so, ensuring that this need is communicated to the system administrator, or taking care of implementing message security at the Eclipse GlassFish level.

Application Deployer Responsibilities

The application deployer is responsible for the following:

  • Specifying (at application assembly) any required application-specific message protection policies if such policies have not already been specified by upstream roles (the developer or assembler)

  • Modifying Eclipse GlassFish deployment descriptors to specify application-specific message protection policies information (message-security-binding elements) to web service endpoint and service references

These security tasks are discussed in Application-Specific Message Protection. A sample application using message security is discussed in Understanding and Running the Sample Application.

System Administrator Responsibilities

The system administrator is responsible for the following:

  • Configuring message security providers on the Eclipse GlassFish.

  • Managing user databases.

  • Managing keystore and truststore files.

  • Installing the sample. This is only done if the xms sample application is used to demonstrate the use of message layer web services security.

A system administrator uses the Administration Console to manage server security settings and uses a command line tool to manage certificate databases. Certificates and private keys are stored in key stores and are managed with keytool. If Network Security Services (NSS) is installed, certificates and private keys are stored in an NSS database, where they are managed using certutil. System administrator tasks are discussed in the Eclipse GlassFish Security Guide.

Application-Specific Message Protection

When the Eclipse GlassFish provided configuration is insufficient for your security needs, and you want to override the default protection, you can apply application-specific message security to a web service.

Application-specific security is implemented by adding the message security binding to the web service endpoint, whether it is an EJB or servlet web service endpoint. Modify Eclipse GlassFish XML files to add the message binding information.

Message security can also be specified using a WSIT security policy in the WSDL file. For details, see the WSIT page at http://wsit.java.net/.

For more information about message security providers, see Message Security Providers.

For more details on message security binding for EJB web services, servlet web services, and clients, see the XML file descriptions in "Elements of the Eclipse GlassFish Deployment Descriptors" in Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide.

The following topics are addressed here:

Using a Signature to Enable Message Protection for All Methods

To enable message protection for all methods using digital signature, update the message-security-binding element for the EJB web service endpoint in the application’s glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file. In this file, add request-protection and response-protection elements, which are analogous to the request-policy and response-policy elements discussed in the Eclipse GlassFish Security Guide. To apply the same protection mechanisms for all methods, leave the method-name element blank. Configuring Message Protection for a Specific Method Based on Digital Signatures discusses listing specific methods or using wildcard characters.

This section uses the sample application discussed in Understanding and Running the Sample Application to apply application-level message security to show only the differences necessary for protecting web services using various mechanisms.

To Enable Message Protection for All Methods Using Digital Signature

Follow this procedure.

  1. In a text editor, open the application’s glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file.

    For the xms example, this file is located in the directory app-dir`/xms-ejb/src/conf`, where app-dir is defined in To Set Up the Sample Application.

  2. Modify the glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file by adding the message-security-binding element as shown:

    <glassfish-ejb-jar>
  <enterprise-beans>
    <unique-id>1</unique-id>
    <ejb>
      <ejb-name>HelloWorld</ejb-name>
      <jndi-name>HelloWorld</jndi-name>
      <webservice-endpoint>
        <port-component-name>HelloIF</port-component-name>
        <endpoint-address-uri>service/HelloWorld</endpoint-address-uri>
        <message-security-binding auth-layer="SOAP">
          <message-security>
            <request-protection auth-source="content" />
            <response-protection auth-source="content"/>
          </message-security>
        </message-security-binding>
      </webservice-endpoint>
    </ejb>
  </enterprise-beans>
</glassfish-ejb-jar>

  3. Compile, deploy, and run the application as described in To Run the Sample Application.

Configuring Message Protection for a Specific Method Based on Digital Signatures

To enable message protection for a specific method, or for a set of methods that can be identified using a wildcard value, follow these steps. As in the example discussed in Using a Signature to Enable Message Protection for All Methods, to enable message protection for a specific method, update the message-security-binding element for the EJB web service endpoint in the application’s glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file. To this file, add request-protection and response-protection elements, which are analogous to the request-policy and response-policy elements discussed in the Eclipse GlassFish Security Guide. The administration guide includes a table listing the set and order of security operations for different request and response policy configurations.

This section uses the sample application discussed in Understanding and Running the Sample Application to apply application-level message security to show only the differences necessary for protecting web services using various mechanisms.

To Enable Message Protection for a Particular Method or Set of Methods Using Digital Signature

Follow this procedure.

  1. In a text editor, open the application’s glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file.

    For the xms example, this file is located in the directory app-dir`/xms-ejb/src/conf`, where app-dir is defined in To Set Up the Sample Application.

  2. Modify the glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file by adding the message-security-binding element as shown:

    <glassfish-ejb-jar>
  <enterprise-beans>
  <unique-id>1</unique-id>
    <ejb>
      <ejb-name>HelloWorld</ejb-name>
      <jndi-name>HelloWorld</jndi-name>
      <webservice-endpoint>
        <port-component-name>HelloIF</port-component-name>
        <endpoint-address-uri>service/HelloWorld</endpoint-address-uri>
        <message-security-binding auth-layer="SOAP">
          <message-security>
            <message>
              <java-method>
                <method-name>ejbCreate</method-name>
              </java-method>
            </message>
            <message>
              <java-method>
                <method-name>sayHello</method-name>
              </java-method>
            </message>
            <request-protection auth-source="content" />
            <response-protection auth-source="content"/>
          </message-security>
        </message-security-binding>
      </webservice-endpoint>
    </ejb>
  </enterprise-beans>
</glassfish-ejb-jar>

  3. Compile, deploy, and run the application as described in To Run the Sample Application.

Understanding and Running the Sample Application

This section discusses the WSS sample application. This sample application is installed on your system only if you installed the J2EE 1.4 samples. If you have not installed these samples, see To Set Up the Sample Application.

The objective of this sample application is to demonstrate how a web service can be secured with WSS. The web service in the xms example is a simple web service implemented using a Jakarta EE EJB endpoint and a web service endpoint implemented using a servlet. In this example, a service endpoint interface is defined with one operation, sayHello, which takes a string then sends a response with Hello prefixed to the given string. You can view the WSDL file for the service endpoint interface at app-dir`/xms-ejb/src/`conf/HelloWorld.wsdl, where app-dir is defined in To Set Up the Sample Application.

In this application, the client looks up the service using the JNDI name java:comp/env/service/HelloWorld and gets the port information using a static stub to invoke the operation using a given name. For the name Duke, the client gets the response Hello Duke!

This example shows how to use message security for web services at the Eclipse GlassFish level. For information about using message security at the application level, see Application-Specific Message Protection. The WSS message security mechanisms implement message-level authentication (for example, XML digital signature and encryption) of SOAP web services invocations using the X.509 and username/password profiles of the OASIS WS-Security standard, which can be viewed from the following URL: http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-soap-message-security-1.0.pdf.

The following topics are addressed here:

To Set Up the Sample Application

Before You Begin

To have access to this sample application, you must have previously installed the J2EE 1.4 samples. If the samples are not installed, follow the steps in the following section.

After you follow these steps, the sample application is located in the directory as-install/j2ee14-samples/samples/webservices/security/ejb/apps/xms/ or in a directory of your choice. For easy reference throughout the rest of this section, this directory is referred to as simply app-dir.

  1. Go to the J2EE 1.4 download URL (https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/java-archive-eesdk-downloads.html) in your browser.

  2. Click on the Download button for the Samples Bundle.

  3. Click on Accept License Agreement.

  4. Click on the J2EE SDK Samples link.

  5. Choose a location for the j2eesdk-1_4_03-samples.zip file.

    Saving the file to as-install is recommended.

  6. Unzip the file.

    Unzipping to the as-install/j2ee14-samples directory is recommended. For example, you can use the following command.

    unzip j2eesdk-1_4_03-samples.zip -d j2ee14-samples
To Run the Sample Application

  1. Make sure that the Eclipse GlassFish is running.
    Message security providers are set up when the Ant targets are run, so you do not need to configure these on the Eclipse GlassFish prior to running this example.

  2. If you are not running HTTP on the default port of 8080, change the WSDL file for the example to reflect the change, and change the common.properties file to reflect the change as well.
    The WSDL file for this example is located at app-dir`/xms-ejb/`src/conf/HelloWorld.wsdl. The port number is in the following section:

    <service name="HelloWorld">
  <port name="HelloIFPort" binding="tns:HelloIFBinding">
    <soap:address location="http://localhost:8080/service/HelloWorld"/>
  </port>
</service>

    Verify that the properties in the as-install/samples/common.properties` file are set properly for your installation and environment. If you need a more detailed description of this file, refer to the "Configuration" section for the web services security applications at as-install/j2ee14-samples/samples/webservices/security/docs/common.html#Logging`.

  3. Change to the app-dir directory.

  4. Run the following Ant targets to compile, deploy, and run the example application:

    1. To compile samples: ant

    2. To deploy samples: ant deploy

    3. To run samples: ant run

    If the sample has compiled and deployed properly, you see the following response on your screen after the application has run:
    run:[echo] Running the xms program:[exec] Established message level security : Hello Duke!

  5. To undeploy the sample, run the following Ant target:

    ant undeploy

All of the web services security examples use the same web service name (HelloWorld) and web service ports. These examples show only the differences necessary for protecting web services using various mechanisms. Make sure to undeploy an application when you have completed running it. If you do not, you receive an Already in Use error and deployment failures when you try to deploy another web services example application.

Programmatic Login Using the ProgrammaticLogin Class

Programmatic login allows a deployed Jakarta EE application or module to invoke a login method. If the login is successful, a SecurityContext is established as if the client had authenticated using any of the conventional Jakarta EE mechanisms. Programmatic login is supported for servlet and EJB components on the server side, and for stand-alone or application clients on the client side. Programmatic login is useful for an application having special needs that cannot be accommodated by any of the Jakarta EE standard authentication mechanisms.

This section describes a proprietary GlassFish mechanism, but see also the standard security APIs in the Jakarta EE tutorial.

The com.sun.appserv.security.ProgrammaticLogin class in Eclipse GlassFish is not a Jakarta EE API; therefore, it is not portable to other application servers.

The following topics are addressed here:

Programmatic Login Precautions

The Eclipse GlassFish is not involved in how the login information (user, password) is obtained by the deployed application. Programmatic login places the burden on the application developer with respect to assuring that the resulting system meets security requirements. If the application code reads the authentication information across the network, the application determines whether to trust the user.

Programmatic login allows the application developer to bypass the Eclipse GlassFish-supported authentication mechanisms and feed authentication data directly to the security service. While flexible, this capability should not be used without some understanding of security issues.

Since this mechanism bypasses the container-managed authentication process and sequence, the application developer must be very careful in making sure that authentication is established before accessing any restricted resources or methods. It is also the application developer’s responsibility to verify the status of the login attempt and to alter the behavior of the application accordingly.

The programmatic login state does not necessarily persist in sessions or participate in single sign-on.

Lazy authentication is not supported for programmatic login. If an access check is reached and the deployed application has not properly authenticated using the programmatic login method, access is denied immediately and the application might fail if not coded to account for this occurrence. One way to account for this occurrence is to catch the access control or security exception, perform a programmatic login, and repeat the request.

Granting Programmatic Login Permission

The ProgrammaticLoginPermission permission is required to invoke the programmatic login mechanism for an application if the security manager is enabled. For information about the security manager, see The server.policy File. This permission is not granted by default to deployed applications because this is not a standard Jakarta EE mechanism.

To grant the required permission to the application, add the following to the domain-dir`/config/server.policy` file:

grant codeBase "file:jar-file-path" {
     permission com.sun.appserv.security.ProgrammaticLoginPermission
     "login";
 };

The jar-file-path is the path to the application’s JAR file.

The ProgrammaticLogin Class

The com.sun.appserv.security.ProgrammaticLogin class enables a user to perform login programmatically.

For Javadoc tool pages relevant to programmatic login, see the com.sun.appserv.security package.

The ProgrammaticLogin class has four login methods, two for servlets or JSP files and two for EJB components.

The login methods for servlets or JSP files have the following signatures:

public java.lang.Boolean login(String user, String password,
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request,
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response)

public java.lang.Boolean login(String user, String password,
    String realm, javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request,
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response, boolean errors)
    throws java.lang.Exception

The login methods for EJB components have the following signatures:

public java.lang.Boolean login(String user, String password)

public java.lang.Boolean login(String user, String password,
    String realm, boolean errors) throws java.lang.Exception

All of these login methods accomplish the following:

  • Perform the authentication

  • Return true if login succeeded, false if login failed

The login occurs on the realm specified unless it is null, in which case the domain’s default realm is used. The methods with no realm parameter use the domain’s default realm.

If the errors flag is set to true, any exceptions encountered during the login are propagated to the caller. If set to false, exceptions are thrown.

On the client side, realm and errors parameters are ignored and the actual login does not occur until a resource requiring a login is accessed. A java.rmi.AccessException with COBRA NO_PERMISSION occurs if the actual login fails.

The logout methods for servlets or JSP files have the following signatures:

public java.lang.Boolean logout(HttpServletRequest request,
    HttpServletResponse response)

public java.lang.Boolean logout(HttpServletRequest request,
    HttpServletResponse response, boolean errors)
    throws java.lang.Exception

The logout methods for EJB components have the following signatures:

public java.lang.Boolean logout()

public java.lang.Boolean logout(boolean errors)
    throws java.lang.Exception

All of these logout methods return true if logout succeeded, false if logout failed.

If the errors flag is set to true, any exceptions encountered during the logout are propagated to the caller. If set to false, exceptions are thrown.

User Authentication for Single Sign-on

The single sign-on feature of the Eclipse GlassFish allows multiple web applications deployed to the same virtual server to share the user authentication state. With single sign-on enabled, users who log in to one web application become implicitly logged into other web applications on the same virtual server that require the same authentication information. Otherwise, users would have to log in separately to each web application whose protected resources they tried to access.

A sample application using the single sign-on scenario could be a consolidated airline booking service that searches all airlines and provides links to different airline web sites. After the user signs on to the consolidated booking service, the user information can be used by each individual airline site without requiring another sign-on.

Single sign-on operates according to the following rules:

  • Single sign-on applies to web applications configured for the same realm and virtual server. The realm is defined by the realm-name element in the web.xml file. For information about virtual servers, see "Administering Internet Connectivity" in Eclipse GlassFish Administration Guide.

  • As long as users access only unprotected resources in any of the web applications on a virtual server, they are not challenged to authenticate themselves.

  • As soon as a user accesses a protected resource in any web application associated with a virtual server, the user is challenged to authenticate himself or herself, using the login method defined for the web application currently being accessed.

  • After authentication, the roles associated with this user are used for access control decisions across all associated web applications, without challenging the user to authenticate to each application individually.

  • When the user logs out of one web application (for example, by invalidating the corresponding session), the user’s sessions in all web applications are invalidated. Any subsequent attempt to access a protected resource in any application requires the user to authenticate again.

The single sign-on feature utilizes HTTP cookies to transmit a token that associates each request with the saved user identity, so it can only be used in client environments that support cookies.

To configure single sign-on, set the following virtual server properties:

  • sso-enabled - If false, single sign-on is disabled for this virtual server, and users must authenticate separately to every application on the virtual server. The default is false.

  • sso-max-inactive-seconds - Specifies the time after which a user’s single sign-on record becomes eligible for purging if no client activity is received. Since single sign-on applies across several applications on the same virtual server, access to any of the applications keeps the single sign-on record active. The default value is 5 minutes (300 seconds). Higher values provide longer single sign-on persistence for the users at the expense of more memory use on the server.

  • sso-reap-interval-seconds - Specifies the interval between purges of expired single sign-on records. The default value is 60.

Here are example asadmin set commands with default values:

asadmin set server-config.http-service.virtual-server.vsrv1.property.sso-enabled="true"
asadmin set server-config.http-service.virtual-server.vsrv1.property.sso-max-inactive-seconds="300"
asadmin set server-config.http-service.virtual-server.vsrv1.property.sso-reap-interval-seconds="60"

For more information about the asadmin set command, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

Adding Authentication Mechanisms to the Servlet Container

You can use JSR 196 in the web tier to facilitate the injection of pluggable authentication modules within the servlet constraint processing engine. The Eclipse GlassFish includes implementations of a number of HTTP layer authentication mechanisms such as basic, form, and digest authentication. You can add alternative implementations of the included mechanisms or implementations of new mechanisms such as HTTP Negotiate/SPNEGO, OpenID, or CAS.

The following topics are addressed here:

The Eclipse GlassFish and JSR-375

The Eclipse GlassFish implements JSR-375 to provide built-in support for BASIC, FORM and Custom FORM authentication mechanisms. JSR-375 also defines plug-in interfaces for authentication and identity stores, that is, the HttpAuthenticationMechanism interface and the IdentityStore interface, respectively. Though HttpAuthenticationMechanism implementations can authenticate users in any manner they choose, the IdentityStore interface provides a convenient mechanism. A significant advantage of using HttpAuthenticationMechanism and IdentityStore over the declarative mechanisms defined by the Servlet specification is that it allows an application to control the identity stores that it authenticates against, in a standard, portable way. You can use the built-in implementations of these APIs, or define custom implementations.

Jakarta EE Security API defines several annotations, with names that end with Definition, which when used makes the corresponding built-in mechanism available as a CDI bean. Jakarta EE Security API also supports the use of Expression Language 3.0 in these annotations to allow dynamic configuration.

Built-in Authentication Mechanisms

An application packages its own HttpAuthenticationMechanism by including in a bean archive that is a part of the application. Alternatively, it may select and configure one of the container’s built-in mechanisms using the corresponding annotation, as listed below:

  • BasicAuthenticationMechanismDefintion—implements BASIC authentication that conforms to the behavior of the servlet container when BASIC <auth-method> is declared in web.xml.

  • CustomFormAuthenticationMechanismDefinition—implements FORM authentication that conforms to the behavior of the servlet container when the FORM <auth-method> is declared in web.xml.

  • FormAuthenticationMechanismDefinition—implements a modified version of FORM authentication in which custom handling replaces the POST to j_security_check.

In Eclipse GlassFish, all built-in authentication mechanisms need to be authenticated using an identity store. The IdentityStore interface, included in the Jakarta EE Security API, defines an SPI for interacting with identity stores, which are directories or databases containing user account information. The IdentityStore interface has four methods: validate(Credential), getCallerGroups(CredentialValidationResult), validationTypes() and priority().Developers can provide their own implementation of this interface, or use one of the built-in Identity Stores. The RememberMeIdentityStore interface, which is a variation on the IdentityStore interface, can be used when an application wants to "remember" a user’s authenticated session for an extended period, so that the caller can return to the application periodically without needing to present primary authentication credentials each time.

There are two built-in implementations of IdentityStore: an LDAP identity store, and a Database identity store. The following snippet shows the usage of DatabaseIdentityStoreDefinition, which makes DatabaseIdentityStore available as CDI bean.

@DatabaseIdentityStoreDefinition(
    callerQuery = "#{'select password from caller where name = ?'}",
    groupsQuery = "select group_name from caller_groups where caller_name = ?",
    hashAlgorithm = Pbkdf2PasswordHash.class,
    priorityExpression = "#{100}",
    hashAlgorithmParameters = {
        "Pbkdf2PasswordHash.Iterations=3072",
        "${applicationConfig.dyna}"
    }
)

Since Jakarta EE Security API provides support for Expression Langauge 3.0, regular expressions can be used to set value of annotation attributes.

The Eclipse GlassFish provides out of the box implementation of Pbkdf2PasswordHash that supports PBKDF2 password hashing. It is suggested that you use Pbkdf2PasswordHash for generating and validating passwords, unless there are specific requirements which cannot be met any other way.

Custom Authentication Mechanism

An application provider can choose to provide its own custom authentication mechanism, apart from built-in authentication mechanism.

A custom authentication mechanism implements the HttpAuthenticationMechanism interface, introduced in Jakarta EE Security API. This interface defines the following three methods.

AuthenticationStatus validateRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
                                     HttpServletResponse response,
                                     HttpMessageContext httpMessageContext
                                    ) throws AuthenticationException;

AuthenticationStatus secureResponse(HttpServletRequest request,
                                    HttpServletResponse response,
                                    HttpMessageContext httpMessageContext
                                    ) throws AuthenticationException;

void cleanSubject(HttpServletRequest request,
                  HttpServletResponse response,
                  HttpMessageContext   httpMessageContext);

HttpAuthenticationMechanism returns AuthenticationStatus to indicate the status of authentication request. Internally, it gets translated to corresponding JASPIC AuthStatus as shown below:

  • AuthenticationStatus.NOT_DONE to AuthStatus.SUCCESS

  • AuthenticationStatus.SEND_CONTINUE to AuthStatus.SEND_CONTINUE

  • AuthenticationStatus.SUCCESS to AuthStatus.SUCCESS

  • AuthenticationStatus.SEND_FAILURE to AuthStatus.SEND_FAILURE

Each method of the HttpAuthenticationMechanism interface performs the same function as the corresponding ServerAuth methods. Unlike JASPIC, HttpAuthenticationMechanism is specified for the servlet container only. Only the validateRequest() must be implemented, for other two methods, default behaviors are specified.

validateRequest allows a caller to authenticate. The request gets inspected inside validateRequest to read credential or any other information, or it can write to standard response with status of the authentication request or redirect the caller to an OAuth provider. Once the credential is validated, the result of the validation is communicated to the container using the HttpMessageContext parameter.

Sample Http Authentication Mechanism

The class MyAuthenticationMechanism.java is a sample HttpAuthenticationMechanism implementation. Note that only validateRequest method has been implemented, since Jakarta EE Security API provides default implementation of other two methods. An application provider may choose to override the default implementation depending on the requirement.

import javax.enterprise.context.RequestScoped;
import javax.inject.Inject;
import javax.security.enterprise.AuthenticationException;
import javax.security.enterprise.AuthenticationStatus;
import javax.security.enterprise.authentication.mechanism.http.HttpAuthenticationMechanism;
import javax.security.enterprise.authentication.mechanism.http.HttpMessageContext;
import javax.security.enterprise.credential.UsernamePasswordCredential;
import javax.security.enterprise.identitystore.CredentialValidationResult;
import javax.security.enterprise.identitystore.IdentityStoreHandler;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import static javax.security.enterprise.identitystore.CredentialValidationResult.Status.VALID;

@RequestScoped
public class MyAuthenticationMechanism implements HttpAuthenticationMechanism {

    @Inject
    private IdentityStoreHandler identityStoreHandler;

    @Override
    public AuthenticationStatus validateRequest(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, HttpMessageContext httpMessageContext) throws AuthenticationException {

          // Get the (caller) name and password from the request
        // NOTE: This is for the smallest possible example only. In practice
        // putting the password in a request query parameter is highly
        // insecure and is discouraged.
        String name = request.getParameter("name");
        String password = request.getParameter("password");

        if (name != null && password != null) {

            // Delegate the {credentials in -> identity data out} function to
            // the Identity Store
            CredentialValidationResult result = identityStoreHandler.validate(
                new UsernamePasswordCredential(name, password));

            if (result.getStatus() == VALID) {
                // Communicate the details of the authenticated user to the
                // container.
                response.addHeader("Authentication Mechanism", "MyAuthenticationMechanism");
                return httpMessageContext.notifyContainerAboutLogin(
                    result.getCallerPrincipal(), result.getCallerGroups());
            } else {
                return httpMessageContext.responseUnauthorized();
            }
        }

        return httpMessageContext.doNothing();
    }

}

The Eclipse GlassFish and JSR 196

The Eclipse GlassFish implements the Servlet Container Profile of JSR 196, Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers. JSR 196 defines a standard service provider interface (SPI) that extends the concepts of the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) to enable pluggability of message authentication modules in message processing runtimes. The JSR 196 standard defines profiles that establish contracts for the use of the SPI in specific contexts. The Servlet Container Profile of JSR 196 defines the use of the SPI by a Servlet container such that:

  • The resulting container can be configured with new authentication mechanisms.

  • The container employs the configured mechanisms in its enforcement of the declarative servlet security model (declared in a web.xml file using security-constraint elements).

The JSR 196 specification defines a simple message processing model composed of four interaction points:

  1. secureRequest on the client

  2. validateRequest on the server

  3. secureResponse on the server

  4. validateResponse on the client

A message processing runtime uses the SPI at these interaction points to delegate the corresponding message security processing to authentication providers, also called authentication modules, integrated into the runtime by way of the SPI.

A compatible server-side message processing runtime, such as the Eclipse GlassFish servlet container, supports the validateRequest and secureResponse interaction points of the message processing model. The servlet container uses the SPI at these interaction points to delegate the corresponding message security processing to a server authentication module (SAM), integrated by the SPI into the container.

Writing a Server Authentication Module

A key step in adding an authentication mechanism to a compatible server-side message processing runtime such as the Eclipse GlassFish servlet container is acquiring a SAM that implements the desired authentication mechanism. One way to do that is to write the SAM yourself.

A SAM implements the javax.security.auth.message.module.ServerAuthModule interface as defined by JSR 196. A SAM is invoked indirectly by the message processing runtime at the validateRequest and secureResponse interaction points. A SAM must implement the five methods of the ServerAuthModule interface:

  • getSupportedMessageTypes — An array of Class objects where each element defines a message type supported by the SAM. For a SAM to be compatible with the Servlet Container Profile, the returned array must include the HttpServletRequest.class and HttpServletResponse.class objects.

  • initialize(MessagePolicy requestPolicy, MessagePolicy responsePolicy, CallbackHandler Map options) — The container calls this method to provide the SAM with configuration values and with a CallbackHandler. The configuration values are returned in the policy arguments and in the options Map. The SAM uses CallbackHandler to access services, such as password validation, provided by the container.

  • AuthStatus validateRequest(MessageInfo messageInfo, Subject clientSubject, Subject serviceSubject) — The container calls this method to process each received HttpServletRequest. The request and its associated HttpServletResponse are passed by the container to the SAM in the messageInfo argument. The SAM processes the request and may establish the response to be returned by the container. The SAM uses the provided Subject arguments to convey its authentication results. The SAM returns different status values to control the container’s invocation processing. The status values and the circumstances under which they are returned are as follows:

    • AuthStatus.SUCCESS is returned when the application request message is successfully validated. The container responds to this status value by using the returned client Subject to invoke the target of the request. When this value is returned, the SAM (provided a custom AuthConfigProvider is not being used) must use its CallbackHandler to handle a CallerPrincipalCallback using the clientSubject as an argument to the callback.

    • AuthStatus.SEND_CONTINUE indicates that message validation is incomplete and that the SAM has established a preliminary response as the response message in messageInfo. The container responds to this status value by sending the response to the client.

    • AuthStatus.SEND_FAILURE indicates that message validation failed and that the SAM has established an appropriate failure response message in messageInfo. The container responds to this status value by sending the response to the client.

    • AuthStatus.SEND_SUCCESS is not typically returned. This status value indicates the end of a multi-message security dialog originating after the service interaction and during the processing of the application response. The container responds to this status value by sending the response to the client.

      The validateRequest method may also throw an AuthException to indicate that the message processing by the SAM failed without establishing a failure response message in messageInfo.

  • secureResponse(MessageInfo messageInfo, Subject serviceSubject) — The container calls this method before sending a response, resulting from an application invocation, to the client. The response is passed to the SAM in the messageInfo argument. In most cases, this method should just return the SEND_SUCCESS status.

  • cleanSubject(MessageInfo messageInfo, Subject subject) — This method removes the mechanism-specific principals, credentials, or both from the subject. This method is not currently called by the container. A legitimate implementation could remove all the principals from the argument subject.

See the Servlet Container Profile section in the JSR 196 specification for additional background and details.

Sample Server Authentication Module

The class MySam.java is a sample SAM implementation. Notice that the sample implements the five methods of the ServerAuthModule interface. This SAM implements an approximation of HTTP basic authentication.

package tip.sam;

   import java.io.IOException;
   import java.util.Map;
   import javax.security.auth.Subject;
   import javax.security.auth.callback.Callback;
   import javax.security.auth.callback.CallbackHandler;
   import javax.security.auth.callback.UnsupportedCallbackException;
   import javax.security.auth.message.AuthException;
   import javax.security.auth.message.AuthStatus;
   import javax.security.auth.message.MessageInfo;
   import javax.security.auth.message.MessagePolicy;
   import javax.security.auth.message.callback.CallerPrincipalCallback;
   import javax.security.auth.message.callback.GroupPrincipalCallback;
   import javax.security.auth.message.callback.PasswordValidationCallback;
   import javax.security.auth.message.module.ServerAuthModule;
   import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
   import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
   import org.apache.catalina.util.Base64;

   public class MySam implements ServerAuthModule {

      protected static final Class[]
        supportedMessageTypes = new Class[]{
          HttpServletRequest.class,
          HttpServletResponse.class
      };

      private MessagePolicy requestPolicy;
      private MessagePolicy responsePolicy;
      private CallbackHandler handler;
      private Map options;
      private String realmName = null;
      private String defaultGroup[] = null;
      privte static final String REALM_PROPERTY_NAME =
          "realm.name";
      private static final String GROUP_PROPERTY_NAME =
          "group.name";
      private static final String BASIC = "Basic";
      static final String AUTHORIZATION_HEADER =
          "authorization";
      static final String AUTHENTICATION_HEADER =
          "WWW-Authenticate";

      public void initialize(MessagePolicy reqPolicy,
              MessagePolicy resPolicy,
              CallbackHandler cBH, Map opts)
              throws AuthException {
          requestPolicy = reqPolicy;
          responsePolicy = resPolicy;
          handler = cBH;
          options = opts;
          if (options != null) {
              realmName = (String)
                  options.get(REALM_PROPERTY_NAME);
              if (options.containsKey(GROUP_PROPERTY_NAME)) {
                  defaultGroup = new String[]{(String)
                      options.get(GROUP_PROPERTY_NAME)};
              }
          }
      }

      public Class[] getSupportedMessageTypes() {
          return supportedMessageTypes;
      }

      public AuthStatus validateRequest(
              MessageInfo msgInfo, Subject client,
              Subject server) throws AuthException {
          try {

              String username =
                  processAuthorizationToken(msgInfo, client);
              if (username ==
                  null && requestPolicy.isMandatory()) {
                  return sendAuthenticateChallenge(msgInfo);
              }

             setAuthenticationResult(
                 username, client, msgInfo);
             return AuthStatus.SUCCESS;

          } catch (Exception e) {
              AuthException ae = new AuthException();
              ae.initCause(e);
              throw ae;
          }
      }

      private String processAuthorizationToken(
              MessageInfo msgInfo, Subject s)
              throws AuthException {

          HttpServletRequest request =
                  (HttpServletRequest)
                  msgInfo.getRequestMessage();

          String token =
                  request.getHeader(AUTHORIZATION_HEADER);

          if (token != null && token.startsWith(BASIC + " ")) {

              token = token.substring(6).trim();

              // Decode and parse the authorization token
              String decoded =
                  new String(Base64.decode(token.getBytes()));

              int colon = decoded.indexOf(':');
              if (colon <= 0 || colon == decoded.length() - 1) {
                  return (null);
              }

              String username = decoded.substring(0, colon);

             // use the callback to ask the container to
             // validate the password
            PasswordValidationCallback pVC =
                    new PasswordValidationCallback(s, username,
                    decoded.substring(colon + 1).toCharArray());
            try {
                handler.handle(new Callback[]{pVC});
                pVC.clearPassword();
            } catch (Exception e) {
                AuthException ae = new AuthException();
                ae.initCause(e);
                throw ae;
            }

            if (pVC.getResult()) {
                return username;
            }
      }
      return null;
   }

   private AuthStatus sendAuthenticateChallenge(
           MessageInfo msgInfo) {

       String realm = realmName;
         // if the realm property is set use it,
         // otherwise use the name of the server
         // as the realm name.
         if (realm == null) {

          HttpServletRequest request =
                  (HttpServletRequest)
                  msgInfo.getRequestMessage();

          realm = request.getServerName();
        }

       HttpServletResponse response =
               (HttpServletResponse)
               msgInfo.getResponseMessage();

       String header = BASIC + " realm=\"" + realm + "\"";
       response.setHeader(AUTHENTICATION_HEADER, header);
       response.setStatus(
               HttpServletResponse.SC_UNAUTHORIZED);
       return AuthStatus.SEND_CONTINUE;
   }

   public AuthStatus secureResponse(
           MessageInfo msgInfo, Subject service)
           throws AuthException {
       return AuthStatus.SEND_SUCCESS;
   }

   public void cleanSubject(MessageInfo msgInfo,
           Subject subject)
           throws AuthException {
      if (subject != null) {
          subject.getPrincipals().clear();
      }
   }

   private static final String AUTH_TYPE_INFO_KEY =
           "javax.servlet.http.authType";

   // distinguish the caller principal
   // and assign default groups
   private void setAuthenticationResult(String name,
           Subject s, MessageInfo m)
           throws IOException,
           UnsupportedCallbackException {
       handler.handle(new Callback[]{
           new CallerPrincipalCallback(s, name)
       });
       if (name != null) {
         // add the default group if the property is set
           if (defaultGroup != null) {
               handler.handle(new Callback[]{
                   new GroupPrincipalCallback(s, defaultGroup)
               });
           }
           m.getMap().put(AUTH_TYPE_INFO_KEY, ""MySAM");
       }
   }
  }

Note that the initialize method looks for the group.name and realm.name properties. The group.name property configures the default group assigned as a result of any successful authentication. The realm.name property defines the realm value sent back to the browser in the WWW-Authenticate challenge.

Compiling and Installing a Server Authentication Module

Before you can use the sample SAM, you need to compile, install, and configure it. Then you can bind it to an application.

To compile the SAM, include the SPI in your classpath. When the Eclipse GlassFish is installed, the JAR file containing the SPI, jmac-api.jar, is installed in the as-install/lib directory. After you compile the SAM, install it by copying a JAR file containing the compiled SAM to the as-install/lib directory.

Configuring a Server Authentication Module

You can configure a SAM in one of these ways:

  • In the Administration Console, open the Security component under the relevant configuration and go to the Message Security page. Set the following options:

    • Authentication Layer — HttpServlet

    • Provider Type — server or client-server

    • Provider ID — Specify a unique name for the SAM, for example MySAM

    • Class Name — Specify the fully qualified class name, for example tip.sam.MySam

    • Additional Property — Name: group-name Value: user

    • Additional Property — Name: realm-name Value: Sam

      For details, click the Help button in the Administration Console.

  • Use the asadmin create-message-security-provider command to configure a SAM. Set the following options:

    • --layer HttpServlet

    • --providertype server or --providertype client-server

    • --classname tip.sam.MySam

    • --property group-name=user:realm-name=Sam

    • Provider name operand — Specify a unique name for the SAM, for example MySAM

      For details, see the Eclipse GlassFish Reference Manual.

Binding a Server Authentication Module to Your Application

After you install and configure the SAM, you can bind it for use by the container on behalf of one or more of your applications. You have two options in how you bind the SAM, depending on whether you are willing to repackage and redeploy your application:

  • If you are willing to repackage and redeploy, you can bind the SAM using the glassfish-web.xml file. Set the value of the httpservlet-security-provider attribute of the glassfish-web-app element to the SAM’s configured provider ID, for example, MySAM. For more information about the glassfish-web.xml file, see the Eclipse GlassFish Application Deployment Guide. This option leverages the native AuthConfigProvider implementation that ships with the Eclipse GlassFish.

  • Another approach is to develop your own AuthConfigProvider and register it with the Eclipse GlassFish AuthConfigFactory for use on behalf of your applications. For example, a simple AuthConfigProvider can obtain, through its initialization properties, the classname of a SAM to configure on behalf of the applications for which the provider is registered. You can find a description of the functionality of an AuthConfigProvider and of the registration facilities provided by an AuthConfigFactory in the JSR 196 specification.