WebSphere Application Server - Express, Version 6.0.x     Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows

Developing programmatic logins with the Java Authentication and Authorization Service

Before you begin

Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) represents the strategic application programming interfaces (API) for authentication.

JAAS replaces the CORBA programmatic login APIs

WebSphere Application Server provides some extension to JAAS:
  • Refer to the Developing applications that use CosNaming (CORBA Naming interface) article for details on how to set up the environment for thin client applications to access remote resources on a server.
  • If the application uses a custom JAAS login configuration, verify that the JAAS login configuration is properly defined. See Configuring application logins for Java Authentication and Authorization Service for details.
  • Some of the JAAS application programming interfaces (API) are protected by Java 2 security permissions. If these APIs are used by application code, verify that these permissions are added to the application was.policy file. See Adding the was.policy file to applications, Using Policy Tool to edit policy files, and Configuring the was.policy file for details. For more details on which APIs are protected by Java 2 security permissions, check the IBM Developer Kit, Java Technology Edition; JAAS and WebSphere Application Server public APIs documentation in Security: Resources for learning. Some of the APIs that are used in the sample code in this documentation and the Java 2 security permissions that are required by these APIs are presented in the following list:
    • javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext constructors are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "createLoginContext" object.
    • javax.security.auth.Subject.doAs and com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs methods are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "doAs" object.
    • javax.security.auth.Subject.doAsPrivileged and com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAsPrivileged methods are protected by the javax.security.auth.AuthPermission "doAsPrivileged" object.
  • Enhanced model to Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) resources for authorization checks. Due to a design oversight in JAAS Version 1.0, the javax.security.auth.Subject.getSubject method does not return the Subject that is associated with the running thread inside a java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged code block. This oversight can present inconsistent behavior, which might have unwanted effects. The com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject class provides a workaround to associate a Subject to a running thread. The com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject class extends the JAAS model to J2EE resources for authorization checks. If the Subject associates with the running thread within the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs method or if the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAsPrivileged code block contains product credentials, the Subject is used for J2EE resource authorization checks.
  • User interface support for defining new JAAS login configuration. You can configure a JAAS login configuration in the administrative console and store the JAAS login configuration in the WebSphere Common Configuration Model. Applications can define a new JAAS login configuration in the administrative console and the data is persisted in the configuration repository. However, WebSphere Application Server still supports the default JAAS login configuration format (plain text file) that is provided by the JAAS default implementation. If duplicate login configurations are defined in both the WebSphere Common Configuration model and the plain text file format, the one in the WebSphere Common Configuration model takes precedence. Advantages to defining the login configuration in the WebSphere Common Configuration model includes:
    • UI support in defining JAAS login configuration
    • Central management of the JAAS login configuration
    • Distribution of the JAAS login configuration in a Network Deployment installation
  • Application support for programmatic authentication. WebSphere Application Server provides JAAS login configurations for applications to perform programmatic authentication to the WebSphere security run time. These configurations perform authentication to the WebSphere Application Server-configured authentication mechanism (Simple WebSphere Authentication Mechanism (SWAM) or Lightweight Third Party Authentication (LTPA)) and user registry (Local OS, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Custom) based on the authentication data that is supplied. The authenticated Subject from these JAAS login configurations contains the required principal and credentials that the WebSphere security run time can use to perform authorization checks on J2EE role-based protected resources. Here are the JAAS login configurations that are provided by WebSphere Application Server:
    • WSLogin JAAS login configuration. A generic JAAS login configuration can use Java clients, client container applications, servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP) files, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components to perform authentication based on a user ID and password, or a token to the WebSphere security run time. However, this configuration does not honor the CallbackHandler handler that is specified in the client container deployment descriptor.
    • ClientContainer JAAS login configuration. This JAAS login configuration honors the CallbackHandler handler that is specified in the client container deployment descriptor. The login module of this login configuration uses the CallbackHandler handler in the client container deployment descriptor if one is specified, even if the application code specified one callback handler in the login context. This is for a client container application.

      A Subject authenticated with the previously mentioned JAAS login configurations contains a com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSPrincipal principal and a com.ibm.websphere.security.cred.WSCredential credential. If the authenticated Subject is passed in the com.ibm.websphere.security.auth.WSSubject.doAs or the other doAs methods, the product security run time can perform authorization checks on J2EE resources based on the com.ibm.websphere.security.cred.WSCredential Subject.

  • Customer-defined JAAS login configurations. You can define other JAAS login configurations to perform programmatic authentication to your authentication mechanism. See the Configuring application logins for Java Authentication and Authorization Service for details. For the product security run time to perform authorization checks, the subjects from these customer-defined JAAS login configurations must contain the required principal and credentials.
  • Naming requirements for programmatic login on a pure Java client. When programmatic login occurs on a pure Java client and the property com.ibm.CORBA.validateBasicAuth equals true, it is necessary for the security code to know where the SecurityServer resides. Typically, the default InitialContext is sufficient when a java.naming.provider.url property is set as a system property or when the property is set in the jndi.properties file. In other cases it is not desirable to have the same java.naming.provider.url properties set in a system wide scope. In this case, there is a need to specify security specific bootstrap information in the sas.client.props file. The following steps present the order of precedence for determining how to find the SecurityServer in a pure Java client:

Steps for this task

  1. Use the sas.client.props file and look for the following properties:
    com.ibm.CORBA.securityServerHost=myhost.mydomain
    com.ibm.CORBA.securityServerPort=mybootstrap port
    If you specify these properties, you are guaranteed that security looks here for the SecurityServer. The host and port specified can represent any valid WebSphere host and bootstrap port. The SecurityServer resides on all server processes and therefore it is not important which host or port you choose. If specified, the security infrastructure within the client process look up the SecurityServer based on the information in the sas.client.props file.
  2. Place the following code in your client application to get a new InitialContext():
    ...
       import java.util.Hashtable;
      	import javax.naming.Context;
      	import javax.naming.InitialContext;
      	...
       
    // Perform an InitialContext and default lookup prior to logging 
    // in so that target realm and bootstrap host/port can be 
    // determined for SecurityServer lookup.
       
       			Hashtable env = new Hashtable();
       			env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, 			"
                  com.ibm.websphere.naming.WsnInitialContextFactory");
       			env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, 			
                  "corbaloc:iiop:myhost.mycompany.com:2809");
       			Context initialContext = new InitialContext(env);
       			Object obj = initialContext.lookup("");
    
    			// programmatic login code goes here.
    
    Complete this step prior to executing any programmatic login. It is in this code that you specify a URL provider for your naming context, but it must point to a valid WebSphere Application Server within the cell that you are authenticating to. This allows thread specific programmatic logins going to different cells to have a single system-wide SecurityServer location.
  3. Use the new default InitialContext() method relying on the naming precedence rules. These rules are defined in the article, Example: Getting the default initial context.

Example

Example: Programmatic logins



Sub-topics
Example: Programmatic logins

Related concepts
Programmatic login

Related reference
Security: Resources for learning

Task topic    

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Last updated: Jun 8, 2005 12:45:23 PM EDT
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