i have a Swing-client and a Server running on tomcat 7, which communicate with each other using Spring (3.1) HTTP invoker. The communication works fine so far (even with TSL), but now i am trying to add Spring Security.
side-note: In a typical webapplication i would use basic authentication to authenticate the user. After my CustomAuthenticationProvider returns an Authentication object for the user, everything "just works", meaning that on every further request the SecurityContext is automatically set. I guess the login returns a session-key to the client which is send on every request to identify the session.
That is pretty much what i am looking for with HTTP-Invoker. At the moment it seems like i get a new context on every request, which is bad, because my customAuthenticationManager.authenticate(Authentication auth) method is pretty costy and should really only be called once per user-session.
Any Idea?
edit i found some hints on this at http://forum.springsource.org/showthread.php?10764-Maintaing-State-while-using-HttpInvoker ,but as this link is more then 8 years old, i was hoping for an easier solution.
I found the solution now. First you need to know that the spring-security part is completely the same as it would be in a webapplication (which is great).
On client-side you need a more complex HTTP-client implementation. I used org.springframework.remoting.httpinvoker.HttpComponentsHttpInvokerRequestExecutor. On server-side you could use the create-session="always"-Attribute of the <http-element to ensure that a session is always created. However, i found it better to create the session myself (just call httpServletRequest.getSession() which creates a session if non exists), because that way you can specify when to do that. In my case i create the session in my authenticationProvider only if authentication was successful.
Related
I'm currently trying to implemente some basic security structure to my Spring Boot project, but I can't find an really concrete answer to what is going on in the authentication process. Basically, I just followed this tutorial:
https://leaks.wanari.com/2017/11/28/how-to-make-custom-usernamepasswordauthenticationfilter-with-spring-security
An it seems to be using the default Spring Security protocols and stuff, i really only implemented a custom filter where my code checks MongoDB for an existing user, and the thing works as expected.
The thing is, Postman tells me that whenever I do a successful login I receive a JSESSIONID cookie, and this cookie is used on get requests, for example. If there is a SESSION ID, I assume that Spring somehow knows how to map ID to users, but how? I haven't set up any DB configuration for that, and Spring seems to store that state somewhere. How can I access it, or change to a DB on which access I have control of?
if you want to save sessions to database, you can add org.springframework.session:spring-session-jdbc dependencty. You can choose sql file from here for your database and create tables.
I’ve got a question which seems popular, but I couldn’t find the answer. Well there’s a lot of information about it but I’m not sure what the best way is. So here’s the scenario.
We have a Single Page Application (SPA) and a RESTful Web Service (API). We use an external authentication/authorization service provider via OAuth2/JWT. But I need to persist the user ID (provided by the external authentication provider) on the database on the server side after successful login. And also I need to enrich the Authentication/Principal object in security context after successful login (for example by adding email).
There's a lot on the web about this scenario. But we have SDK for authentication/authorization already and it works perfectly (no custom code, etc). I just need to add something to the authentication object. What is the correct way to do it? Thanks.
For the record, this is what we did:
As I said there's already a SDK doing all the heavy lifting of authentication mechanics. We just need to enrich the authentication object after successful authentication. So we wrapped the AuthenticationProvider (implemented in the SDK) in our implementation (inspired by PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationProvider) and after successful authentication, we enriched the result using our UserDetails implementation (inspired by PreAuthenticatedGrantedAuthoritiesUserDetailsService). The rest was straight forward.
PS: please let me know if you don't like the idea.
I've implemented really basic user authentication before - generate a session cookie when logging in, and when the user loads a page with authentication just check the cookie.
However, the complexity of Spring Security / Apache Shiro is really confusing me.
All I really want is:
be able to have a user log in once and see their username on every page they visit (like on Stackoverflow)
have this login persist for a reasonable length (cookie expiry time or something like that)
It looks like I have the option of using EhCache or implementing my own subclass of... something... to use something like postgres.
I seem to have gotten the first thing I want working in Apache Shiro:
Subject sub = SecurityUtils.getSubject();
UsernamePasswordToken token = new UsernamePasswordToken(username, password);
token.setRememberMe(remember);
try {
sub.login(token);
// ...
But I'm super stuck on how to get this session to persist between restarts of the spring webserver. Like, I know Stackoverflow highly recommends a code example but I literally don't even know where to start. Right now my "progress" on trying to figure out how to persist sessions between restarts (bolded to clarify what I'm asking) is literally the single line
DefaultWebSecurityManager dwsm = new DefaultWebSecurityManager();
// ...
dwsm.setCacheManager(new EhCacheManager());
and I don't even know what that actually does.
I would really appreciate any kind of guidance here since I really don't even know where to begin and the documentation I've been able to find is unfortunately not super thorough.
thats one of the problems with just sessions. That they are not persistant over restarts unless you save your sessions.
Now days people usually use a token based approach like oauth2.
The flow in a token based authentication system is:
User sends his/hers credentials to an authorizationserver (oauth2).
If credentials were correct they get a token back
The client (webpage) makes a request to the backend to get the user object and supplies the token in this call as an "Authorization"-header.
The backend takes the token and sends it to the authorizationserver (oauth2) to check its validity.
if the token is valid the backend server fetches the user object and sends this to the client.
The client gets the username from the user object and stores this in its state (react, redux if such an app). In every call to the backend the client must supply the token it got from the first login so that the server always knows that the caller is whom he/she claims to be
Haven't seen many Geneva related questions yet, I have posted this question in the Geneva Forum as well...
I'm working on a scenario where we have a win forms app with a wide installbase, which will be issuing frequent calls to various services hosted by us centrally throughout it's operation.
The services are all using the Geneva Framework and all clients are expected to call our STS first to be issued with a token to allow access to the services.
Out of the box, using the ws2007FederationHttpBinding, the app can be configured to retrieve a token from the STS before each service call, but obviously this is not the most efficient way as we're almost duplicating the effort of calling the services.
Alternatively, I have implemented the code required to retrieve the token "manually" from the app, and then pass the same pre-retrieved token when calling operations on the services (based on the WSTrustClient sample and helpon the forum); that works well and so we do have a solution,but I believeit's not very elegant as it requires building the WCF channel in code, moving away from the wonderful WCF configuration.
I much prefer the ws2007FederationHttpBinding approach where by the client simply calls the service like any other WCF service, without knowing anything about Geneva, and the bindings takes care of the token exchange.
Then someone (Jon Simpson) gave me [what I think is] a great idea - add a service, hosted in the app itself to cache locally retrieved tokens.
The local cache service would implement the same contract as the STS; when receiveing a request it would check to see if a cahced token exists, and if so would return it, otherwise it would call the 'real' STS, retrive a new token, cache it and return it.
The client app could then still use ws2007FederationHttpBinding, but instead of having the STS as the issuer it would have the local cache;
This way I think we can achieve the best of both worlds - caching of tokens without the service-sepcific custom code; our cache should be able to handle tokens for all RPs.
I have created a very simple prototype to see if it works, and - somewhat not surprising unfortunately - I am slightly stuck -
My local service (currently a console app) gets the request, and - first time around - calls the STS to retrieve the token, caches it and succesfully returns it to the client which, subsequently, uses it to call the RP. all works well.
Second time around, however, my local cahce service tries to use the same token again, but the client side fails with a MessageSecurityException -
"Security processor was unable to find a security header in the message. This might be because the message is an unsecured fault or because there is a binding mismatch between the communicating parties. This can occur if the service is configured for security and the client is not using security."
Is there something preventing the same token to be used more than once? I doubt it because when I reused the token as per the WSTrustClient sample it worked well; what am I missing? is my idea possible? a good one?
Here's the (very basic, at this stage) main code bits of the local cache -
static LocalTokenCache.STS.Trust13IssueResponse cachedResponse = null;
public LocalTokenCache.STS.Trust13IssueResponse Trust13Issue(LocalTokenCache.STS.Trust13IssueRequest request)
{
if (TokenCache.cachedResponse == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("cached token not found, calling STS");
//create proxy for real STS
STS.WSTrust13SyncClient sts = new LocalTokenCache.STS.WSTrust13SyncClient();
//set credentials for sts
sts.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName = "Yossi";
sts.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password = "p#ssw0rd";
//call issue on real sts
STS.RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollectionType stsResponse = sts.Trust13Issue(request.RequestSecurityToken);
//create result object - this is a container type for the response returned and is what we need to return;
TokenCache.cachedResponse = new LocalTokenCache.STS.Trust13IssueResponse();
//assign sts response to return value...
TokenCache.cachedResponse.RequestSecurityTokenResponseCollection = stsResponse;
}
else
{
}
//...and reutn
return TokenCache.cachedResponse;
This is almost embarrassing, but thanks to Dominick Baier on the forum I no now realise I've missed a huge point (I knew it didn't make sense! honestly! :-) ) -
A token gets retrieved once per service proxy, assuming it hadn't expired, and so all I needed to do is to reuse the same proxy, which I planned to do anyway, but, rather stupidly, didn't on my prototype.
In addition - I found a very interesting sample on the MSDN WCF samples - Durable Issued Token Provider, which, if I understand it correctly, uses a custom endpoint behaviour on the client side to implement token caching, which is very elegant.
I will still look at this approach as we have several services and so we could achieve even more efficiency by re-using the same token between their proxies.
So - two solutions, pretty much infornt of my eyes; hope my stupidity helps someone at some point!
I've provided a complete sample for caching the token here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/20/caching-sts-security-token-with-an-active-web-client.aspx
Disclaimer: I'm new to the REST school of thought, and I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.
So, I'm reading this page, Common REST Mistakes, and I've found I'm completely baffled by the section on sessions being irrelevant. This is what the page says:
There should be no need for a client
to "login" or "start a connection."
HTTP authentication is done
automatically on every message. Client
applications are consumers of
resources, not services. Therefore
there is nothing to log in to! Let's
say that you are booking a flight on a
REST web service. You don't create a
new "session" connection to the
service. Rather you ask the "itinerary
creator object" to create you a new
itinerary. You can start filling in
the blanks but then get some totally
different component elsewhere on the
web to fill in some other blanks.
There is no session so there is no
problem of migrating session state
between clients. There is also no
issue of "session affinity" in the
server (though there are still load
balancing issues to continue).
Okay, I get that HTTP authentication is done automatically on every message - but how? Is the username/password sent with every request? Doesn't that just increase attack surface area? I feel like I'm missing part of the puzzle.
Would it be bad to have a REST service, say, /session, that accepts a GET request, where you'd pass in a username/password as part of the request, and returns a session token if the authentication was successful, that could be then passed along with subsequent requests? Does that make sense from a REST point of view, or is that missing the point?
To be RESTful, each HTTP request should carry enough information by itself for its recipient to process it to be in complete harmony with the stateless nature of HTTP.
Okay, I get that HTTP authentication
is done automatically on every message
- but how?
Yes, the username and password is sent with every request. The common methods to do so are basic access authentication and digest access authentication. And yes, an eavesdropper can capture the user's credentials. One would thus encrypt all data sent and received using Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Would it be bad to have a REST
service, say, /session, that accepts a
GET request, where you'd pass in a
username/password as part of the
request, and returns a session token
if the authentication was successful,
that could be then passed along with
subsequent requests? Does that make
sense from a REST point of view, or is
that missing the point?
This would not be RESTful since it carries state but it is however quite common since it's a convenience for users; a user does not have to login each time.
What you describe in a "session token" is commonly referred to as a login cookie. For instance, if you try to login to your Yahoo! account there's a checkbox that says "keep me logged in for 2 weeks". This is essentially saying (in your words) "keep my session token alive for 2 weeks if I login successfully." Web browsers will send such login cookies (and possibly others) with each HTTP request you ask it to make for you.
It is not uncommon for a REST service to require authentication for every HTTP request. For example, Amazon S3 requires that every request have a signature that is derived from the user credentials, the exact request to perform, and the current time. This signature is easy to calculate on the client side, can be quickly verified by the server, and is of limited use to an attacker who intercepts it (since it is based on the current time).
Many people don't understand REST principales very clearly, using a session token doesn't mean always you're stateful, the reason to send username/password with each request is only for authentication and the same for sending a token (generated by login process) just to decide if the client has permission to request data or not, you only violate REST convetions when you use weither username/password or session tokens to decide what data to show !
instead you have to use them only for athentication (to show data or not to show data)
in your case i say YES this is RESTy, but try avoiding using native php sessions in your REST API and start generating your own hashed tokens that expire in determined periode of time!
No, it doesn't miss the point. Google's ClientLogin works in exactly this way with the notable exception that the client is instructed to go to the "/session" using a HTTP 401 response. But this doesn't create a session, it only creates a way for clients to (temporarily) authenticate themselves without passing the credentials in the clear, and for the server to control the validity of these temporary credentials as it sees fit.
Okay, I get that HTTP authentication
is done automatically on every message
- but how?
"Authorization:" HTTP header send by client. Either basic (plain text) or digest.
Would it be bad to have a REST
service, say, /session, that accepts a
GET request, where you'd pass in a
username/password as part of the
request, and returns a session token
if the authentication was successful,
that could be then passed along with
subsequent requests? Does that make
sense from a REST point of view, or is
that missing the point?
The whole idea of session is to make stateful applications using stateless protocol (HTTP) and dumb client (web browser), by maintaining the state on server's side. One of the REST principles is "Every resource is uniquely addressable using a universal syntax for use in hypermedia links". Session variables are something that cannot be accessed via URI. Truly RESTful application would maintain state on client's side, sending all the necessary variables over by HTTP, preferably in the URI.
Example: search with pagination. You'd have URL in form
http://server/search/urlencoded-search-terms/page_num
It's has a lot in common with bookmarkable URLs
I think your suggestion is OK, if you want to control the client session life time. I think that RESTful architecture encourages you to develop stateless applications. As #2pence wrote "each HTTP request should carry enough information by itself for its recipient to process it to be in complete harmony with the stateless nature of HTTP" .
However, not always that is the case, sometimes the application needs to tell when client logs-in or logs-out and to maintain resources such as locks or licenses based on this information. See my follow up question for an example of such case.