The following choices are available
when configuring the
Common Secure Interoperability Version 2 (CSIv2) outbound communications
panel.
Before you begin
Outbound communications refers
to the configuration
that determines the type of authentication that is performed for outbound
requests to downstream servers. Several layers or methods of
authentication can occur. The downstream server inbound authentication
configuration must support at least one choice made in this server
outbound authentication configuration. If nothing is supported, the
request might go outbound as unauthenticated. This situation does
not create a security problem because the authorization runtime is
responsible for preventing access to protected resources. However,
if you choose to prevent an unauthenticated credential from going
outbound, you might want to designate one of the authentication layers
as required, rather than supported. If a downstream server does not
support authentication, then when authentication is required, the
method request fails to go outbound.
About this task
The following
choices are available in the Common Secure
Interoperability Version 2 (CSIv2) outbound communications panel.
Remember that you are not required to complete these steps in the
displayed order. Rather, these steps are provided to help you understand
your choices for configuring outbound communications.
Procedure
- Select Identity Assertion (attribute
layer). When selected, this server sends an identity token
to a downstream
server if the downstream server supports identity assertion. When
an originating client authenticates to this server, the authentication
information supplied is preserved in the outbound identity token.
If the client authenticating to this server uses client certificate
authentication, then the identity token format is a certificate chain,
containing the exact client certificate chain from the inbound socket.
The same scenario is true for other mechanisms of authentication.
Read theIdentity
Assertion topic for more information.
- Select SSL Client
certificate authentication (transport
layer). The main reason to enable outbound Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) client authentication from one server to a downstream
server is to create a trusted environment between those servers. For
delegating client credentials, use one of the two layers mentioned
previously. However, you might want to create SSL personal certificates
for all the servers in your domain, and only trust those servers in
your SSL truststore file. No other servers or clients can connect
to the servers in your domain, except at the tiers where you want
them. This process can protect your enterprise bean servers from access
by anything other than your servlet servers.
Example
Typically, the outbound authentication
configuration is for
an upstream server to communicate with a downstream server. Most
likely, the upstream server is a servlet server and the downstream
server is an Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)
server. On a servlet server, the client authentication that is performed
to access the servlet can be one of many different types of authentication,
including client certificate and basic authentication. When receiving
basic authentication data, whether through a prompt login or a form-based
login, the basic authentication information is typically authenticated
to from a credential of the mechanism type that is supported by the
server, such as the Lightweight Third Party Authentication (LTPA).
When LTPA is the mechanism, a forwardable token exists in the credential.
Choose the message layer (BasicAuth) authentication
to propagate the client credentials. If the credential is created
using a certificate login and you want to preserve sending the certificate
downstream, you might decide to go outbound with identity assertion.