3 Administering Message Security

Security Tokens and Security Mechanisms

WS-Security is a specification that provides a communications protocol for applying security to web services. The security mechanisms implement the specification. Web Services Interoperability Technologies (WSIT) implements WS-Security so as to provide interoperable message content integrity and confidentiality, even when messages pass through intermediary nodes before reaching their destination endpoint. WS-Security as provided by WSIT is in addition to existing transport-level security, which can still be used.

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) layer message security providers installed with GlassFish Server can be used to employ username/password and X.509 certificate security tokens to authenticate and encrypt SOAP web services messages.

• Username Tokens. GlassFish Server uses username tokens in SOAP messages to authenticate the message sender. The recipient of a message containing a username token (within embedded password) validates that the message sender is authorized to act as the user (identified in the token) by confirming that the sender knows the password of the user.

  When using a username token, a valid user database must be configured on GlassFish Server.

• Digital Signatures. GlassFish Server uses XML digital signatures to bind an authentication identity to message content. Clients use digital signatures to establish their caller identity. Digital signatures are verified by the message receiver to authenticate the source of the message content (which might be different from the sender of the message.)

  When using digital signatures, valid keystore and truststore files must be configured on GlassFish Server.

• Encryption. The purpose of encryption is to modify the data so that it can only be understood by its intended audience. This is accomplished by substituting an encrypted element for the original content. When based on public key cryptography, encryption can be used to establish the identity of the parties who are authorized to read a message.

  When using encryption, a Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) provider that supports encryption must be installed.

Authentication Providers

The authentication layer is the message layer on which authentication processing must be performed. GlassFish Server enforces web services message security at the SOAP layer. The types of authentication that are supported include the following:

• Sender authentication, including username-password authentication

• Content authentication, including XML digital signatures

GlassFish Server invokes authentication providers to process SOAP message layer security. The message security providers provide information such as the type of authentication that is required for the request and response messages. The following message security providers are included with GlassFish Server:

• Client-side Provider. A client-side provider establishes (by signature or username/password) the source identity of request messages and/or protects (by encryption) request messages such that they can only be viewed by their intended recipients. A client-side provider also establishes its container as an authorized recipient of a received response (by successfully decrypting it) and validates passwords or signatures in the response to authenticate the source identity associated with the response. Client-side providers configured in GlassFish Server can be used to protect the request messages sent and the response messages received by server-side components (servlets and EJB components) acting as clients of other services.

  The default client provider is used to identify the client—side provider to be invoked for any application for which a specific client provider has not been bound.

• Server-side Provider. A server-side provider establishes its container as an authorized recipient of a received request (by successfully decrypting it), and validates passwords or signatures in the request to authenticate the source identity associated with the request. A server-side provider also establishes (by signature or username/password) the source identity of response messages and/or protects (by encryption) response messages such that they can only be viewed by their intended recipients. Server-side providers are only invoked by server-side containers.

The default server provider is used to identify the server—side provider to be invoked for any application for which a specific server provider has not been bound.

Message Protection Policies

A request policy defines the authentication policy requirements associated with request processing performed by the authentication provider. Policies are expressed in message sender order such that a requirement that encryption occur after content would mean that the message receiver would expect to decrypt the message before validating the signature. The response policy defines the authentication policy requirements associated with response processing performed by the authentication provider.

Message protection policies are defined for request message processing and response message processing. The policies are expressed in terms of requirements for source and/or recipient authentication. The providers apply specific message security mechanisms to cause the message protection policies to be realized in the context of SOAP web services messages.

• Source Authentication Policy. A source authentication policy represents a requirement that the identity of the entity that sent a message or that defined the content of a message be established in the message such that it can be authenticated by the message receiver.

• Recipient Authentication Policy. A recipient authentication policy represents a requirement that the message be sent such that the identity of the entities that can receive the message can be established by the message sender.

Request and response message protection policies are defined when a security provider is configured into a container. Application-specific message protection policies (at the granularity of the web service port or operation) can also be configured within the GlassFish Server deployment descriptors of the application or application client. In any situation where message protection policies are defined, the request and response message protection policies of the client must be equivalent t) the request and response message protection policies of the server. For more information about defining application-specific message protection policies, see "Securing Applications" in Oracle GlassFish Server Application Development Guide.

Application-Specific Web Services Security

Application-specific web services security functionality is configured (at application assembly) by defining the message-security-binding elements in the GlassFish Server deployment descriptors of the application. These message-security-binding elements are used to associate a specific security provider or message protection policy with a web service endpoint or service reference, and might be qualified so that they apply to a specific port or method of the corresponding endpoint or referenced service.

For information about defining application-specific message protection policies, see "Securing Applications" in Oracle GlassFish Server Application Development Guide.

Message Security Administration

When GlassFish Server is installed, SOAP layer message security providers are configured in the client and server-side containers of GlassFish Server, where they are available for binding for use by the containers, or by individual applications or clients deployed in the containers. During installation, the default providers are configured with a simple message protection policy that, if bound to a container, or to an application or client in a container, would cause the source of the content in all request and response messages to be authenticated by XML digital signature.

GlassFish Server administrative interfaces can be used as follows:

• To modify the message protection policies enforced by the providers

• To bind the existing providers for use by the server-side containers of GlassFish Server

• To create new security provider configurations with alternative message protection policies

Analogous administrative operations can be performed on the SOAP message layer security configuration of the application client container. If you want web services security to protect all web services applications deployed on GlassFish Server. See Enabling Message Security for Application Clients.

By default, message layer security is disabled on GlassFish Server. To configure message layer security for the GlassFish Server see Enabling Default Message Security Providers for Web Services.

In most cases, you must restart GlassFish Server after performing administrative tasks. This is especially true if you want the effects of the administrative change to be applied to applications that were already deployed on GlassFish Server at the time the operation was performed.

Sample Application for Web Services

GlassFish Server includes a sample application named xms. The xms application features a simple web service that is implemented by both a Java EE EJB endpoint and a Java servlet endpoint. Both endpoints share the same service endpoint interface. The service endpoint interface defines a single operation, sayHello, which takes a string argument, and returns a String composed by pre-pending Hello to the invocation argument.

The xms sample application is provided to demonstrate the use of GlassFish Server WS-Security functionality to secure an existing web services application. The instructions which accompany the sample describe how to enable the WS-Security functionality of GlassFish Server such that it is used to secure the xms application. The sample also demonstrates the binding of WS-Security functionality directly to the application as described in Application-Specific Web Services Security application.

For information about compiling, packaging, and running the xms sample application, "Securing Applications" in Oracle GlassFish Server Application Development Guide.

The xms sample application is installed in the following directory: as-install/samples/webservices/security/ejb/apps/xms/

To Enable a Default Server Provider

To enable message security for web services endpoints deployed in GlassFish Server, you must specify a security provider to be used by default on the server side. If you enable a default provider for message security, you also need to enable providers to be used by clients of the web services deployed in GlassFish Server.

1. Specify the default server provider by using the set subcommand.

   Use the following syntax:

   asadmin set --port admin-port 
   server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   default_provider=ServerProvider
   

2. To apply your changes to applications that are already running, restart GlassFish Server.

   See "To Restart a Domain" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide.

To Enable a Default Client Provider

To enable message security for web service invocations originating from deployed endpoints, you must specify a default client provider. If you enabled a default client provider for GlassFish Server, you must ensure that any services invoked from endpoints deployed in GlassFish Server are compatibly configured for message layer security.

1. Specify the default client provider by using the set subcommand.

   Use the following syntax:

   asadmin set --port admin-port 
   server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   default_client_provider=ClientProvider
   

2. To apply your changes to applications that are already running, restart GlassFish Server.

   See "To Restart a Domain" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide.

Message Protection Policy Mapping

The following table shows message protection policy configurations and the resulting message security operations performed by the WS-Security SOAP message security providers for that configuration.

To Configure the Message Protection Policies for a Provider

Typically, you would not reconfigure a provider. However, if needed for your situation, you can modify a provider's message protection policies by changing provider type, implementation class, and provider-specific configuration properties. To understand the results of different combinations, see Table 3-1.

Use the set subcommand to set the response policy, then replace the word request in the following commands with the word response.

1. Add a request policy to the client and set the authentication source by using the set subcommand.

   For example:

   asadmin> set server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   provider-config.ClientProvider.request-policy.auth_source=[sender | content]
   

2. Add a request policy to the server and set the authentication source by using the set subcommand.

   For example:

   asadmin> set server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   provider-config.ServerProvider.request-policy.auth_source=[sender | content]
   

3. Add a request policy to the client and set the authentication recipient by using the set subcommand:

   For example:

   asadmin> set server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   provider-config.ClientProvider.request-policy.auth_recipient=[before-content | after-content]
   

4. Add a request policy to the server and set the authentication recipient by using the set subcommand:

   For example:

   asadmin> set server-config.security-service.message-security-config.SOAP.
   provider-config.ServerProvider.request-policy.auth_recipient=[before-content | after-content]
   

Setting the Request and Response Policy for the Application Client Configuration

The request and response policies define the authentication policy requirements associated with request and response processing performed by the authentication provider. Policies are expressed in message sender order such that a requirement that encryption occur after content would mean that the message receiver would expect to decrypt the message before validating the signature.

To achieve message security, the request and response policies must be enabled on both the server and client. When configuring the policies on the client and server, make sure that the client policy matches the server policy for request/response protection at application-level message binding.

To set the request policy for the application client configuration, modify the GlassFish Server-specific configuration for the application client container as described in Enabling Message Security for Application Clients.

<client-container>
  <target-server name="your-host" address="your-host"
      port="your-port"/>
  <log-service file="" level="WARNING"/>
  <message-security-config auth-layer="SOAP"
      default-client-provider="ClientProvider">
    <provider-config
        class-name="com.sun.enterprise.security.jauth.ClientAuthModule"
        provider-id="clientprovider" provider-type="client">
      <request-policy auth-source="sender | content"
        auth-recipient="after-content | before-content"/>
      <response-policy auth-source="sender | content"
        auth-recipient="after-content | before-content"/>
       <property name="security.config"
           value="as-install/lib/appclient/wss-client-config.xml"/>
    </provider-config>
  </message-security-config>
</client-container>

Valid values for auth-source include sender and content. Valid values for auth-recipient include before-content and after-content. A table describing the results of various combinations of these values can be found in Configuring Message Protection Policies.

To not specify a request or response policy, leave the element blank, for example:

<response-policy/>

To Create a Message Security Provider

Use the create-message-security-provider subcommand in remote mode to create a new message provider for the security service. If the message layer does not exist, the message layer is created, and the provider is created under it.

1. Ensure that the server is running.

   Remote subcommands require a running server.

2. Create the message security provider by using the create-message-security-provider subcommand.

   Information about properties for this subcommand is included in the help page.

3. If needed, restart the server.

   Some properties require server restart. See "Configuration Changes That Require Restart" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide. If your server needs to be restarted, see "To Restart a Domain" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide.

asadmin> create-message-security-provider 
--classname com.sun.enterprise.security.jauth.ClientAuthModule
--providertype client mySecurityProvider
Command create-message-security-provider executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help create-message-security-provider at the command line.

To List Message Security Providers

Use the list-message-security-providers subcommand in remote mode to list the message providers for the security layer.

1. Ensure that the server is running.

   Remote subcommands require a running server.

2. List the message security providers by using the list-message-security-providers subcommand.

asadmin> list-message-security-providers --layer SOAP
XWS_ClientProvider 
ClientProvider
XWS_ServerProvider
ServerProvider
Command list-message-security-providers executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help list-message-security-providers at the command line.

To Update a Message Security Provider

1. Ensure that the server is running.

   Remote subcommands require a running server.

2. List the message security providers by using the list-message-security-providers subcommand.

3. Modify the values for the specified message security provider by using the set subcommand.

   The message security provider is identified by its dotted name.

To Delete a Message Security Provider

Use the delete-message-security-provider subcommand in remote mode to remove a message security provider.

1. Ensure that the server is running.

   Remote subcommands require a running server.

2. List the message security providers by using the list-message-security-providers subcommand.

3. Delete the message security provider by using the delete-message-security-provider subcommand.

asadmin> delete-message-security-provider --layer SOAP myServerityProvider
Command delete-message-security-provider executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help delete-message-security-provider at the command line.

To Configure a Servlet Layer Server Authentication Module (SAM)

You configure a JSR 196 Server Authentication Module (SAM) as an HttpServlet-layer message security provider, either through the Administration Console or with the create-message-security-provider subcommand.

1. Ensure that the server is running.

   Remote subcommands require a running server.

2. Create the message security provider by using the create-message-security-provider subcommand.

   Information about properties for this subcommand is included in the help page.

3. Bind the message security provider for use with your application.

   You do this by defining the httpservlet-security-provider attribute in the glassfish-web.xml file corresponding to your application. Set the value of the attribute to the provider name you assigned to the message security provider. For example, if you use MySAM when you create the message security provider the entry would be httpservlet-security-provider="MySAM".

4. If needed, restart the server.

   Some properties require server restart. See "Configuration Changes That Require Restart" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide. If your server needs to be restarted, see "To Restart a Domain" in Oracle GlassFish Server Administration Guide.

asadmin> create-message-security-provider --layer=HttpServlet
--classname com.sun.glassfish.oamsam.OAMAuthenticatorSAM
--providertype server
--property oam.resource.hostid.variation="your-host-system.com" mySAM
Creation of message security provider named mySAM completed successfully
Command create-message-security-provider executed successfully.

<message-security-config auth-layer="HttpServlet">
<provider-config provider-type="server" provider-id="mysam" 
class-name="com.sun.glassfish.oamsam.OAMAuthenticatorSAM">
            <property name="oam.resource.hostid.variation" value="your-host-system.com"></property>
            <request-policy></request-policy>
            <response-policy></response-policy>
          </provider-config>
</message-security-config>

asadmin> list-message-security-providers --layer HttpServlet
list-message-security-providers successful
GFConsoleAuthModule
mySAM
Command list-message-security-providers executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help create-message-security-provider at the command line.