The JAAS core classes can be broken down into three categories: common, authentication, and authorization. The following list presents only the common and authentication classes because these are the specific classes used to implement the functionality of JBossSX covered in this chapter.

The are the common classes:

These are the authentication classes:

public Set getPrincipals() {...}
public Set getPrincipals(Class c) {...} 

CallbackHandler handler = new MyHandler();
LoginContext lc = new LoginContext("some-config", handler);

try {
    lc.login();
    Subject subject = lc.getSubject();
} catch(LoginException e) {
    System.out.println("authentication failed");
    e.printStackTrace();
}
                        
// Perform work as authenticated Subject
// ...

// Scope of work complete, logout to remove authentication info
try {
    lc.logout();
} catch(LoginException e) {
    System.out.println("logout failed");
    e.printStackTrace();
}
                        
// A sample MyHandler class
class MyHandler 
    implements CallbackHandler
{
    public void handle(Callback[] callbacks) throws
        IOException, UnsupportedCallbackException
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < callbacks.length; i++) {
            if (callbacks[i] instanceof NameCallback) {
                NameCallback nc = (NameCallback)callbacks[i];
                nc.setName(username);
            } else if (callbacks[i] instanceof PasswordCallback) {
                PasswordCallback pc = (PasswordCallback)callbacks[i];
                pc.setPassword(password);
            } else {
                throw new UnsupportedCallbackException(callbacks[i],
                                                       "Unrecognized Callback");
            }
        }
    }
}

void handle(Callback[] callbacks)
    throws java.io.IOException, 
           UnsupportedCallbackException;

Multiple login modules can be chained together in a stack, with each login module providing both the authentication and authorization components. This works for many use cases, but sometimes authentication and authorization are split across multiple user management stores. A previous example showed how to combine LDAP and a relational database, allowing a user to be authenticated by either system. However, consider the case where users are managed in a central LDAP server but application-specific roles are stored in the application's relational database. The password-stacking module option captures this relationship.

To use password stacking, each login module should set password-stacking to useFirstPass. If a previous module configured for password stacking has authenticated the user, all the other stacking modules will consider the user authenticated and only attempt to provide a set of roles for the authorization step.

The following listing shows how password stacking could be used:

<application-policy name="todo">
    <authentication>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.LdapLoginModule" 
                      flag="required">
            <!-- LDAP configuration -->
            <module-option name="password-stacking">useFirstPass</module-option>
        </login-module>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.DatabaseServerLoginModule" 
                      flag="required">
            <!-- database configuration -->                
            <module-option name="password-stacking">useFirstPass</module-option>
        </login-module>
    </authentication>
</application-policy>

When using password stacking, it is usually appropriate to set all modules to be required to make sure that all modules are considered and have chance to contribute roles to the authorization process.

Most of the login modules need to compare a client-supplied password to a password stored in a user management system. These modules generally work with plain text passwords, but can also be configured to support hashed passwords to prevent plain text passwords from being stored on the server side.

The following is an login module configuration that assigns unauthenticated users the principal name nobody and contains based64-encoded, MD5 hashes of the passwords in a usersb64.properties file.

<policy>
    <application-policy name="testUsersRoles">
        <authentication>
            <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsersRolesLoginModule"
                          flag="required">
                <module-option name="hashAlgorithm">MD5</module-option>
                <module-option name="hashEncoding">base64</module-option>          
            </login-module>
        </authentication>
    </application-policy>
</policy>

If you need to generate passwords in code, the org.jboss.security.Util class provides a static helper method that will hash a password using a given encoding.

String hashedPassword = Util.createPasswordHash("MD5",
                                                Util.BASE64_ENCODING,
                                                null,
                                                null,
                                                "password");   

OpenSSL provides an alternative way to quickly generate hashed passwords.

echo -n password | openssl dgst -md5 -binary | openssl base64

In both cases, the text password should hash to "X03MO1qnZdYdgyfeuILPmQ==". This is the value that would need to be stored in the user store.

Not all requests come in authenticated. The unauthenticated identity is a login module configuration option that assigns a specific identity (guest, for example) to requests that are made with no associated authentication information. This can be used to allow unprotected servlets to invoke methods on EJBs that do not require a specific role. Such a principal has no associated roles and so can only access either unsecured EJBs or EJB methods that are associated with the unchecked permission constraint.

The UsersRolesLoginModule is a simple login module that supports multiple users and user roles loaded from Java properties files. The username-to-password mapping file is called users.properties and the username-to-roles mapping file is called roles.properties. The properties files are loaded during initialization using the initialize method thread context class loader. This means that these files can be placed into the J2EE deployment JAR, the JBoss configuration directory, or any directory on the JBoss server or system classpath. The primary purpose of this login module is to easily test the security settings of multiple users and roles using properties files deployed with the application.

The users.properties file uses a username=password format with each user entry on a separate line as show here:

username1=password1
username2=password2
...

The roles.properties file uses as username=role1,role2,... format with an optional group name value. For example:

username1=role1,role2,...
username1.RoleGroup1=role3,role4,...
username2=role1,role3,...

The username.XXX form of property name is used to assign the username roles to a particular named group of roles where the XXX portion of the property name is the group name. The username=... form is an abbreviation for username.Roles=..., where the Roles group name is the standard name the JaasSecurityManager expects to contain the roles which define the users permissions.

The following would be equivalent definitions for the jduke username:

jduke=TheDuke,AnimatedCharacter
jduke.Roles=TheDuke,AnimatedCharacter

The supported login module configuration options include the following:

This login module supports password stacking, password hashing and unauthenticated identity.

The LdapLoginModule is a LoginModule implementation that authenticates against an LDAP server. You would use the LdapLoginModule if your username and credentials are stored in an LDAP server that is accessible using a JNDI LDAP provider.

The LDAP connectivity information is provided as configuration options that are passed through to the environment object used to create JNDI initial context. The standard LDAP JNDI properties used include the following:

The supported login module configuration options include the following:

The authentication of a user is performed by connecting to the LDAP server based on the login module configuration options. Connecting to the LDAP server is done by creating an InitialLdapContext with an environment composed of the LDAP JNDI properties described previously in this section. The Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL is set to the distinguished name of the user as obtained by the callback handler in combination with the principalDNPrefix and principalDNSuffix option values, and the Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS property is either set to the String password or the Object credential depending on the useObjectCredential option.

Once authentication has succeeded by virtue of being able to create an InitialLdapContext instance, the user's roles are queried by performing a search on the rolesCtxDN location with search attributes set to the roleAttributeName and uidAttributeName option values. The roles names are obtaining by invoking the toString method on the role attributes in the search result set.

The following is a sample login-config.xml entry.

    <application-policy name="testLDAP">
        <authentication>
            <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.LdapLoginModule"
                          flag="required">
                <module-option name="java.naming.factory.initial"> 
                    com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory
                    </module-option>
                <module-option name="java.naming.provider.url">
                    ldap://ldaphost.jboss.org:1389/
                </module-option>
                <module-option name="java.naming.security.authentication">
                    simple
                </module-option>
                <module-option name="principalDNPrefix">uid=</module-option>                    
                <module-option name="principalDNSuffix">
                    ,ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org
                </module-option>

                <module-option name="rolesCtxDN">
                    ou=Roles,dc=jboss,dc=org
                </module-option>
                <module-option name="uidAttributeID">member</module-option>
                <module-option name="matchOnUserDN">true</module-option>

                <module-option name="roleAttributeID">cn</module-option>
                <module-option name="roleAttributeIsDN">false </module-option>
            </login-module>
        </authentication>
    </application-policy>

An LDIF file representing the structure of the directory this data operates against is shown below.

dn: dc=jboss,dc=org
objectclass: top
objectclass: dcObject
objectclass: organization
dc: jboss
o: JBoss

dn: ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org
objectclass: top
objectclass: organizationalUnit
ou: People

dn: uid=jduke,ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org
objectclass: top
objectclass: uidObject
objectclass: person
uid: jduke
cn: Java Duke
sn: Duke
userPassword: theduke

dn: ou=Roles,dc=jboss,dc=org
objectclass: top
objectclass: organizationalUnit
ou: Roles

dn: cn=JBossAdmin,ou=Roles,dc=jboss,dc=org
objectclass: top
objectclass: groupOfNames
cn: JBossAdmin
member: uid=jduke,ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org
description: the JBossAdmin group

Looking back at the testLDAP login module configuration, the java.naming.factory.initial, java.naming.factory.url and java.naming.security options indicate the Sun LDAP JNDI provider implementation will be used, the LDAP server is located on host ldaphost.jboss.org on port 1389, and that the LDAP simple authentication method will be use to connect to the LDAP server.

The login module attempts to connect to the LDAP server using a DN representing the user it is trying to authenticate. This DN is constructed from the principalDNPrefix, passed in, the username of the user and the principalDNSuffix as described above. In this example, the username jduke would map to uid=jduke,ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org. We've assumed the LDAP server authenticates users using the userPassword attribute of the user's entry (theduke in this example). This is the way most LDAP servers work, however, if your LDAP server handles authentication differently you will need to set the authentication credentials in a way that makes sense for your server.

Once authentication succeeds, the roles on which authorization will be based are retrieved by performing a subtree search of the rolesCtxDN for entries whose uidAttributeID match the user. If matchOnUserDN is true the search will be based on the full DN of the user. Otherwise the search will be based on the actual user name entered. In this example, the search is under ou=Roles,dc=jboss,dc=org for any entries that have a member attribute equal to uid=jduke,ou=People,dc=jboss,dc=org. The search would locate cn=JBossAdmin under the roles entry.

The search returns the attribute specified in the roleAttributeID option. In this example, the attribute is cn. The value returned would be JBossAdmin, so the jduke user is assigned to the JBossAdmin role.

It's often the case that a local LDAP server provides identity and authentication services but is unable to use the authorization services. This is because application roles don't always map well onto LDAP groups, and LDAP administrators are often hesitant to allow external application-specific data in central LDAP servers. For this reason, the LDAP authentication module is often paired with another login module, such as the database login module, that can provide roles more suitable to the application being developed.

This login module also supports unauthenticated identity and password stacking.

The DatabaseServerLoginModule is a JDBC based login module that supports authentication and role mapping. You would use this login module if you have your username, password and role information relational database. The DatabaseServerLoginModule is based on two logical tables:

Table Principals(PrincipalID text, Password text)
Table Roles(PrincipalID text, Role text, RoleGroup text)

The Principals table associates the user PrincipalID with the valid password and the Roles table associates the user PrincipalID with its role sets. The roles used for user permissions must be contained in rows with a RoleGroup column value of Roles. The tables are logical in that you can specify the SQL query that the login module uses. All that is required is that the java.sql.ResultSet has the same logical structure as the Principals and Roles tables described previously. The actual names of the tables and columns are not relevant as the results are accessed based on the column index. To clarify this notion, consider a database with two tables, Principals and Roles, as already declared. The following statements build the tables to contain a PrincipalID java with a Password of echoman in the Principals table, a PrincipalID java with a role named Echo in the Roles RoleGroup in the Roles table, and a PrincipalID java with a role named caller_java in the CallerPrincipal RoleGroup in the Roles table:

INSERT INTO Principals VALUES('java', 'echoman')
INSERT INTO Roles VALUES('java', 'Echo', 'Roles')
INSERT INTO Roles VALUES('java', 'caller_java', 'CallerPrincipal')

The supported login module configuration options include the following:

As an example DatabaseServerLoginModule configuration, consider a custom table schema like the following:

CREATE TABLE Users(username VARCHAR(64) PRIMARY KEY, passwd VARCHAR(64))
CREATE TABLE UserRoles(username VARCHAR(64), userRoles VARCHAR(32))

A corresponding login-config.xml entry would be:

<policy>
    <application-policy name="testDB">
        <authentication>
            <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.DatabaseServerLoginModule"
                             flag="required">
                <module-option name="dsJndiName">java:/MyDatabaseDS</module-option>
                <module-option name="principalsQuery">
                    select passwd from Users username where username=?</module-option>
                <module-option name="rolesQuery">
                    select userRoles, 'Roles' from UserRoles where username=?</module-option>
            </login-module>
        </authentication>
    </application-policy>
</policy>

This module supports password stacking, password hashing and unathenticated identity.

This is a login module which authenticates users based on X509 certificates. A typical use case for this login module is CLIENT-CERT authentication in the web tier. This login module only performs authentication. You need to combine it with another login module capable of acquiring the authorization roles to completely define access to a secured web or EJB component. Two subclasses of this login module, CertRolesLoginModule and DatabaseCertLoginModule extend the behavior to obtain the authorization roles from either a properties file or database.

The BaseCertLoginModule needs a KeyStore to perform user validation. This is obtained through a org.jboss.security.SecurityDomain implementation. Typically, the SecurityDomain implementation is configured using the org.jboss.security.plugins.JaasSecurityDomain MBean as shown in this jboss-service.xml configuration fragment:

<mbean code="org.jboss.security.plugins.JaasSecurityDomain"
       name="jboss.ch8:service=SecurityDomain">
    <constructor>
        <arg type="java.lang.String" value="jmx-console"/>
    </constructor>
    <attribute name="KeyStoreURL">resource:localhost.keystore</attribute>
    <attribute name="KeyStorePass">unit-tests-server</attribute>
</mbean>

This creates a security domain with the name jmx-console whose SecurityDomain implementation is available via JNDI under the name java:/jaas/jmx-console following the JBossSX security domain naming pattern. To secure a web application such as the jmx-console.war using client certs and role based authorization, one would first modify the web.xml to declare the resources to be secured, along with the allowed roles and security domain to be used for authentication and authorization.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
                  "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
                  "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">
<web-app> 
    ... 
    <security-constraint>
        <web-resource-collection>
            <web-resource-name>HtmlAdaptor</web-resource-name>
            <description>An example security config that only allows users with
                the role JBossAdmin to access the HTML JMX console web
                application </description>
            <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
            <http-method>GET</http-method>
            <http-method>POST</http-method>
        </web-resource-collection>
        <auth-constraint>
            <role-name>JBossAdmin</role-name>
        </auth-constraint>
    </security-constraint>
    <login-config>
        <auth-method>CLIENT-CERT</auth-method>
        <realm-name>JBoss JMX Console</realm-name>
    </login-config>
    <security-role>
        <role-name>JBossAdmin</role-name>
    </security-role>
</web-app>

Next we, need to specify the JBoss security domain in jboss-web.xml:

<jboss-web>
    <security-domain>java:/jaas/jmx-console</security-domain>
</jboss-web>

Finally, you need to define the login module configuration for the jmx-console security domain you just specified. This is done in the conf/login-config.xml file.

<application-policy name="jmx-console">
    <authentication>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.BaseCertLoginModule" 
                      flag="required">
            <module-option name="password-stacking">useFirstPass</module-option>
            <module-option name="securityDomain">java:/jaas/jmx-console</module-option>
        </login-module>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsersRolesLoginModule" 
                      flag="required">
            <module-option name="password-stacking">useFirstPass</module-option>
            <module-option name="usersProperties">jmx-console-users.properties</module-option>
            <module-option name="rolesProperties">jmx-console-roles.properties</module-option>
        </login-module>
    </authentication>
</application-policy>

Here the BaseCertLoginModule is used for authentication of the client cert, and the UsersRolesLoginModule is only used for authorization due to the password-stacking=useFirstPass option. Both the localhost.keystore and the jmx-console-roles.properties need an entry that maps to the principal associated with the client cert. By default, the principal is created using the client certificate distinguished name. Consider the following certificate:

[starksm@banshee9100 conf]$ keytool -printcert -file unit-tests-client.export
Owner: CN=unit-tests-client, OU=JBoss Inc., O=JBoss Inc., ST=Washington, C=US
Issuer: CN=jboss.com, C=US, ST=Washington, L=Snoqualmie Pass, EMAILADDRESS=admin
@jboss.com, OU=QA, O=JBoss Inc.
Serial number: 100103
Valid from: Wed May 26 07:34:34 PDT 2004 until: Thu May 26 07:34:34 PDT 2005
Certificate fingerprints:
         MD5:  4A:9C:2B:CD:1B:50:AA:85:DD:89:F6:1D:F5:AF:9E:AB
         SHA1: DE:DE:86:59:05:6C:00:E8:CC:C0:16:D3:C2:68:BF:95:B8:83:E9:58

The localhost.keystore would need this cert stored with an alias of CN=unit-tests-client, OU=JBoss Inc., O=JBoss Inc., ST=Washington, C=US and the jmx-console-roles.properties would also need an entry for the same entry. Since the DN contains many characters that are normally treated as delimiters, you will need to escape the problem characters using a backslash ('\') as shown here:

# A sample roles.properties file for use with the UsersRolesLoginModule
CN\=unit-tests-client,\ OU\=JBoss\ Inc.,\ O\=JBoss\ Inc.,\ ST\=Washington,\ C\=US=JBossAdmin
admin=JBossAdmin

The IdentityLoginModule is a simple login module that associates a hard-coded user name a to any subject authenticated against the module. It creates a SimplePrincipal instance using the name specified by the principal option. This login module is useful when you need to provide a fixed identity to a service and in development environments when you want to test the security associated with a given principal and associated roles.

The supported login module configuration options include:

A sample XMLLoginConfig configuration entry that would authenticate all users as the principal named jduke and assign role names of TheDuke, and AnimatedCharacter is:

<policy>
    <application-policy name="testIdentity">
        <authentication>
            <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.IdentityLoginModule"
                         flag="required">
                <module-option name="principal">jduke</module-option>
                <module-option name="roles">TheDuke,AnimatedCharater</module-option>
            </login-module>
        </authentication>
    </application-policy>
</policy> 

This module supports password stacking.

JBoss has a helper login module called RunAsLoginModule that pushes a run as role for the duration of the login phase of authentication, and pops the run as role in either the commit or abort phase. The purpose of this login module is to provide a role for other login modules that need to access secured resources in order to perform their authentication. An example would be a login module that accesses an secured EJB. This login module must be configured ahead of the login module(s) that need a run as role established.

The only login module configuration option is:

The ClientLoginModule is an implementation of LoginModule for use by JBoss clients for the establishment of the caller identity and credentials. This simply sets the org.jboss.security.SecurityAssociation.principal to the value of the NameCallback filled in by the callbackhandler, and the org.jboss.security.SecurityAssociation.credential to the value of the PasswordCallback filled in by the callbackhandler. This is the only supported mechanism for a client to establish the current thread's caller. Both stand-alone client applications and server environments, acting as JBoss EJB clients where the security environment has not been configured to use JBossSX transparently, need to use the ClientLoginModule. Of course, you could always set the org.jboss.security.SecurityAssociation information directly, but this is considered an internal API that is subject to change without notice.

Note that this login module does not perform any authentication. It merely copies the login information provided to it into the JBoss server EJB invocation layer for subsequent authentication on the server. If you need to perform client-side authentication of users you would need to configure another login module in addition to the ClientLoginModule.

The supported login module configuration options include the following:

A sample login configuration for ClientLoginModule is the default configuration entry found in the JBoss distribution client/auth.conf file. The configuration is:

other {
    // Put your login modules that work without jBoss here
                
    // jBoss LoginModule
    org.jboss.security.ClientLoginModule required;
               
    // Put your login modules that need jBoss here
};  

To simplify correct implementation of the Subject usage patterns described in the preceding section, JBossSX includes two abstract login modules that handle the population of the authenticated Subject with a template pattern that enforces correct Subject usage. The most generic of the two is the org.jboss.security.auth.spi.AbstractServerLoginModule class. It provides a concrete implementation of the javax.security.auth.spi.LoginModule interface and offers abstract methods for the key tasks specific to an operation environment security infrastructure. The key details of the class are highlighted in the following class fragment. The JavaDoc comments detail the responsibilities of subclasses.

package org.jboss.security.auth.spi;
/**
 *  This class implements the common functionality required for a JAAS
 *  server-side LoginModule and implements the JBossSX standard
 *  Subject usage pattern of storing identities and roles. Subclass
 *  this module to create your own custom LoginModule and override the
 *  login(), getRoleSets(), and getIdentity() methods.
 */
public abstract class AbstractServerLoginModule
    implements javax.security.auth.spi.LoginModule
{
    protected Subject subject;
    protected CallbackHandler callbackHandler;
    protected Map sharedState;
    protected Map options;
    protected Logger log;

    /** Flag indicating if the shared credential should be used */
    protected boolean useFirstPass;
    /** 
     * Flag indicating if the login phase succeeded. Subclasses that
     * override the login method must set this to true on successful
     * completion of login
     */
    protected boolean loginOk;
                
    // ...
    /**
     * Initialize the login module. This stores the subject,
     * callbackHandler and sharedState and options for the login
     * session. Subclasses should override if they need to process
     * their own options. A call to super.initialize(...)  must be
     * made in the case of an override.
     *
     * <p>
     * The options are checked for the  <em>password-stacking</em> parameter.
     * If this is set to "useFirstPass", the login identity will be taken from the
     * <code>javax.security.auth.login.name</code> value of the sharedState map,
     * and the proof of identity from the
     * <code>javax.security.auth.login.password</code> value of the sharedState map.
     *
     * @param subject the Subject to update after a successful login.
     * @param callbackHandler the CallbackHandler that will be used to obtain the
     * the user identity and credentials.
     * @param sharedState a Map shared between all configured login module instances
     * @param options the parameters passed to the login module.
     */
    public void initialize(Subject subject,
                           CallbackHandler callbackHandler,
                           Map sharedState,
                           Map options)
    {
        // ...
    }
    

    /**
     *  Looks for javax.security.auth.login.name and
     *  javax.security.auth.login.password values in the sharedState
     *  map if the useFirstPass option was true and returns true if
     *  they exist. If they do not or are null this method returns
     *  false.  
     *  Note that subclasses that override the login method
     *  must set the loginOk var to true if the login succeeds in
     *  order for the commit phase to populate the Subject. This
     *  implementation sets loginOk to true if the login() method
     *  returns true, otherwise, it sets loginOk to false.
     */
    public boolean login() 
        throws LoginException
    {
        // ...
    }
    
    /**
     *  Overridden by subclasses to return the Principal that
     *  corresponds to the user primary identity.
     */
    abstract protected Principal getIdentity();
                
    /**
     *  Overridden by subclasses to return the Groups that correspond
     *  to the role sets assigned to the user. Subclasses should
     *  create at least a Group named "Roles" that contains the roles
     *  assigned to the user.  A second common group is
     *  "CallerPrincipal," which provides the application identity of
     *  the user rather than the security domain identity.
     * 
     *  @return Group[] containing the sets of roles
     */
    abstract protected Group[] getRoleSets() throws LoginException;
}

You'll need to pay attention to the loginOk instance variable. This must be set to true if the login succeeds, false otherwise by any subclasses that override the login method. Failure to set this variable correctly will result in the commit method either not updating the subject when it should, or updating the subject when it should not. Tracking the outcome of the login phase was added to allow login modules to be chained together with control flags that do not require that the login module succeed in order for the overall login to succeed.

The second abstract base login module suitable for custom login modules is the org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsernamePasswordLoginModule. This login module further simplifies custom login module implementation by enforcing a string-based username as the user identity and a char[] password as the authentication credentials. It also supports the mapping of anonymous users (indicated by a null username and password) to a principal with no roles. The key details of the class are highlighted in the following class fragment. The JavaDoc comments detail the responsibilities of subclasses.

package org.jboss.security.auth.spi;

/**
 *  An abstract subclass of AbstractServerLoginModule that imposes a
 *  an identity == String username, credentials == String password
 *  view on the login process. Subclasses override the
 *  getUsersPassword() and getUsersRoles() methods to return the
 *  expected password and roles for the user.
 */
public abstract class UsernamePasswordLoginModule
    extends AbstractServerLoginModule
{
    /** The login identity */
    private Principal identity;
    /** The proof of login identity */
    private char[] credential;
    /** The principal to use when a null username and password are seen */
    private Principal unauthenticatedIdentity;

    /**
     * The message digest algorithm used to hash passwords. If null then
     * plain passwords will be used. */
    private String hashAlgorithm = null;

    /**
     *  The name of the charset/encoding to use when converting the
     * password String to a byte array. Default is the platform's
     * default encoding.
     */
     private String hashCharset = null;

    /** The string encoding format to use. Defaults to base64. */
    private String hashEncoding = null;
                
    // ...
                
    /** 
     *  Override the superclass method to look for an
     *  unauthenticatedIdentity property. This method first invokes
     *  the super version.
     *
     *  @param options,
     *  @option unauthenticatedIdentity: the name of the principal to
     *  assign and authenticate when a null username and password are
     *  seen.
     */
    public void initialize(Subject subject,
                           CallbackHandler callbackHandler,
                           Map sharedState,
                           Map options)
    {
        super.initialize(subject, callbackHandler, sharedState,
                         options);
        // Check for unauthenticatedIdentity option.
        Object option = options.get("unauthenticatedIdentity");
        String name = (String) option;
        if (name != null) {
            unauthenticatedIdentity = new SimplePrincipal(name);
        }
    }
                
    // ...
                
    /**
     *  A hook that allows subclasses to change the validation of the
     *  input password against the expected password. This version
     *  checks that neither inputPassword or expectedPassword are null
     *  and that inputPassword.equals(expectedPassword) is true;
     *
     *  @return true if the inputPassword is valid, false otherwise.
     */
    protected boolean validatePassword(String inputPassword,
                                       String expectedPassword)
    {
        if (inputPassword == null || expectedPassword == null) {
            return false;
        }
        return inputPassword.equals(expectedPassword);
    }
    
    /**
     *  Get the expected password for the current username available
     * via the getUsername() method. This is called from within the
     * login() method after the CallbackHandler has returned the
     * username and candidate password.
     *
     * @return the valid password String
     */
    abstract protected String getUsersPassword()
        throws LoginException;
}

The choice of subclassing the AbstractServerLoginModule versus UsernamePasswordLoginModule is simply based on whether a string-based username and credentials are usable for the authentication technology you are writing the login module for. If the string-based semantic is valid, then subclass UsernamePasswordLoginModule, otherwise subclass AbstractServerLoginModule.

The steps you are required to perform when writing a custom login module are summarized in the following depending on which base login module class you choose. When writing a custom login module that integrates with your security infrastructure, you should start by subclassing AbstractServerLoginModule or UsernamePasswordLoginModule to ensure that your login module provides the authenticated Principal information in the form expected by the JBossSX security manager.

When subclassing the AbstractServerLoginModule, you need to override the following:

When subclassing the UsernamePasswordLoginModule, you need to override the following:

In this section we will develop a custom login module example. It will extend the UsernamePasswordLoginModule and obtains a user's password and role names from a JNDI lookup. The idea is that there is a JNDI context that will return a user's password if you perform a lookup on the context using a name of the form password/<username> where <username> is the current user being authenticated. Similarly, a lookup of the form roles/<username> returns the requested user's roles.

The source code for the example is located in the src/main/org/jboss/chap8/ex2 directory of the book examples. Example 8.9, “ A JndiUserAndPass custom login module” shows the source code for the JndiUserAndPass custom login module. Note that because this extends the JBoss UsernamePasswordLoginModule, all the JndiUserAndPass does is obtain the user's password and roles from the JNDI store. The JndiUserAndPass does not concern itself with the JAAS LoginModule operations.

package org.jboss.chap8.ex2;
                    
import java.security.acl.Group;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;
import javax.security.auth.Subject;
import javax.security.auth.callback.CallbackHandler;
import javax.security.auth.login.LoginException;

import org.jboss.security.SimpleGroup;
import org.jboss.security.SimplePrincipal;
import org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsernamePasswordLoginModule;

/** 
 *  An example custom login module that obtains passwords and roles
 *  for a user from a JNDI lookup.
 *     
 *  @author [email protected]
 *  @version $Revision: 1.16 $
*/
public class JndiUserAndPass 
    extends UsernamePasswordLoginModule
{
    /** The JNDI name to the context that handles the password/username lookup */
    private String userPathPrefix;
    /** The JNDI name to the context that handles the roles/ username lookup */
    private String rolesPathPrefix;
    
    /**
     * Override to obtain the userPathPrefix and rolesPathPrefix options.
     */
    public void initialize(Subject subject, CallbackHandler callbackHandler,
                           Map sharedState, Map options)
    {
        super.initialize(subject, callbackHandler, sharedState, options);
        userPathPrefix = (String) options.get("userPathPrefix");
        rolesPathPrefix = (String) options.get("rolesPathPrefix");
    }
    
    /**
     *  Get the roles the current user belongs to by querying the
     * rolesPathPrefix + '/' + super.getUsername() JNDI location.
     */
    protected Group[] getRoleSets() throws LoginException
    {
        try {
            InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
            String rolesPath = rolesPathPrefix + '/' + super.getUsername();

            String[] roles = (String[]) ctx.lookup(rolesPath);
            Group[] groups = {new SimpleGroup("Roles")};
            log.info("Getting roles for user="+super.getUsername());
            for(int r = 0; r < roles.length; r ++) {
                SimplePrincipal role = new SimplePrincipal(roles[r]);
                log.info("Found role="+roles[r]);
                groups[0].addMember(role);
            }
            return groups;
        } catch(NamingException e) {
            log.error("Failed to obtain groups for
                        user="+super.getUsername(), e);
            throw new LoginException(e.toString(true));
        }
    }
                    
    /** 
     * Get the password of the current user by querying the
     * userPathPrefix + '/' + super.getUsername() JNDI location.
     */
    protected String getUsersPassword() 
        throws LoginException
    {
        try {
            InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
            String userPath = userPathPrefix + '/' + super.getUsername();
            log.info("Getting password for user="+super.getUsername());
            String passwd = (String) ctx.lookup(userPath);
            log.info("Found password="+passwd);
            return passwd;
        } catch(NamingException e) {
            log.error("Failed to obtain password for
                        user="+super.getUsername(), e);
            throw new LoginException(e.toString(true));
        }
    }   
}

The details of the JNDI store are found in the org.jboss.chap8.ex2.service.JndiStore MBean. This service binds an ObjectFactory that returns a javax.naming.Context proxy into JNDI. The proxy handles lookup operations done against it by checking the prefix of the lookup name against password and roles. When the name begins with password, a user's password is being requested. When the name begins with roles the user's roles are being requested. The example implementation always returns a password of theduke and an array of roles names equal to {"TheDuke", "Echo"} regardless of what the username is. You can experiment with other implementations as you wish.

The example code includes a simple session bean for testing the custom login module. To build, deploy and run the example, execute the following command in the examples directory.

[examples]$ ant -Dchap=chap8 -Dex=2 run-example
...
run-example2:
     [copy] Copying 1 file to /tmp/jboss-4.0.1/server/default/deploy
     [echo] Waiting for 5 seconds for deploy...
     [java] [INFO,ExClient] Login with username=jduke, password=theduke
     [java] [INFO,ExClient] Looking up EchoBean2
     [java] [INFO,ExClient] Created Echo
     [java] [INFO,ExClient] Echo.echo('Hello') = Hello

19:06:13,266 INFO  [EjbModule] Deploying EchoBean2
19:06:13,482 INFO  [JndiStore] Start, bound security/store
19:06:13,486 INFO  [SecurityConfig] Using JAAS AuthConfig: jar:file:/private/tmp/jboss-4.0.1/
server/default/tmp/deploy/tmp23012chap8-ex2.jar-contents/chap8-ex2.sar!/META-INF/login-config
.xml
19:06:13,654 INFO  [EJBDeployer] Deployed: file:/private/tmp/jboss-4.0.1/server/default/deplo
y/chap8-ex2.jar

The choice of using the JndiUserAndPass custom login module for the server side authentication of the user is determined by the login configuration for the example security domain. The EJB JAR META-INF/jboss.xml descriptor sets the security domain

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<jboss>
    <security-domain>java:/jaas/chap8-ex2</security-domain>
</jboss>

The SAR META-INF/login-config.xml descriptor defines the login module configuration.

<application-policy name = "chap8-ex2">
    <authentication>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.chap8.ex2.JndiUserAndPass"
                      flag="required">
            <module-option name = "userPathPrefix">/security/store/password</module-option>
            <module-option name = "rolesPathPrefix">/security/store/roles</module-option>
        </login-module>
    </authentication>
</application-policy>

We have covered quite a bit of material on SRP and now its time to demonstrate SRP in practice with an example. The example demonstrates client side authentication of the user via SRP as well as subsequent secured access to a simple EJB using the SRP session challenge as the user credential. The test code deploys an EJB JAR that includes a SAR for the configuration of the server side login module configuration and SRP services. As in the previous examples we will dynamically install the server side login module configuration using the SecurityConfig MBean. In this example we also use a custom implementation of the SRPVerifierStore interface that uses an in memory store that is seeded from a Java properties file rather than a serialized object store as used by the SRPVerifierStoreService. This custom service is org.jboss.chap8.ex3.service.PropertiesVerifierStore. The following shows the contents of the JAR that contains the example EJB and SRP services.

[examples]$ java -cp output/classes ListJar output/chap8/chap8-ex3.jar
output/chap8/chap8-ex3.jar
+- META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
+- META-INF/ejb-jar.xml
+- META-INF/jboss.xml
+- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/Echo.class
+- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/EchoBean.class
+- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/EchoHome.class
+- roles.properties
+- users.properties
+- chap8-ex3.sar (archive)
| +- META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
| +- META-INF/jboss-service.xml
| +- META-INF/login-config.xml
| +- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/service/PropertiesVerifierStore$1.class
| +- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/service/PropertiesVerifierStore.class
| +- org/jboss/chap8/ex3/service/PropertiesVerifierStoreMBean.class
| +- org/jboss/chap8/service/SecurityConfig.class
| +- org/jboss/chap8/service/SecurityConfigMBean.class

The key SRP related items in this example are the SRP MBean services configuration, and the SRP login module configurations. The jboss-service.xml descriptor of the chap8-ex3.sar is given in Example 8.11, “The chap8-ex3.sar jboss-service.xml descriptor for the SRP services”, while Example 8.12, “The client side standard JAAS configuration” and Example 8.13, “The server side XMLLoginConfig configuration” give the example client side and server side login module configurations.

<server>
    <!-- The custom JAAS login configuration that installs
         a Configuration capable of dynamically updating the
         config settings -->

    <mbean code="org.jboss.chap8.service.SecurityConfig" 
           name="jboss.docs.chap8:service=LoginConfig-EX3">
        <attribute name="AuthConfig">META-INF/login-config.xml</attribute>
        <attribute name="SecurityConfigName">jboss.security:name=SecurityConfig</attribute>
    </mbean>

    <!-- The SRP service that provides the SRP RMI server and server side
         authentication cache -->
    <mbean code="org.jboss.security.srp.SRPService" 
           name="jboss.docs.chap8:service=SRPService">
        <attribute name="VerifierSourceJndiName">srp-test/chap8-ex3</attribute>
        <attribute name="JndiName">srp-test/SRPServerInterface</attribute>
        <attribute name="AuthenticationCacheJndiName">srp-test/AuthenticationCache</attribute>
        <attribute name="ServerPort">0</attribute>
        <depends>jboss.docs.chap8:service=PropertiesVerifierStore</depends>
    </mbean>

    <!-- The SRP store handler service that provides the user password verifier
         information -->
    <mbean code="org.jboss.chap8.ex3.service.PropertiesVerifierStore"
           name="jboss.docs.chap8:service=PropertiesVerifierStore">
        <attribute name="JndiName">srp-test/chap8-ex3</attribute>
    </mbean>
</server>

srp {
    org.jboss.security.srp.jaas.SRPLoginModule required
    srpServerJndiName="srp-test/SRPServerInterface"
    ;
                    
    org.jboss.security.ClientLoginModule required
    password-stacking="useFirstPass"
    ;
}; 

<application-policy name="chap8-ex3">
    <authentication>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.srp.jaas.SRPCacheLoginModule"
                      flag = "required">
            <module-option name="cacheJndiName">srp-test/AuthenticationCache</module-option>
        </login-module>
        <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsersRolesLoginModule"
                      flag = "required">
            <module-option name="password-stacking">useFirstPass</module-option>
        </login-module>
    </authentication>
</application-policy>           

The example services are the ServiceConfig and the PropertiesVerifierStore and SRPService MBeans. Note that the JndiName attribute of the PropertiesVerifierStore is equal to the VerifierSourceJndiName attribute of the SRPService, and that the SRPService depends on the PropertiesVerifierStore. This is required because the SRPService needs an implementation of the SRPVerifierStore interface for accessing user password verification information.

The client side login module configuration makes use of the SRPLoginModule with a srpServerJndiName option value that corresponds to the JBoss server component SRPService JndiName attribute value(srp-test/SRPServerInterface). Also needed is the ClientLoginModule configured with the password-stacking="useFirstPass" value to propagate the user authentication credentials generated by the SRPLoginModule to the EJB invocation layer.

There are two issues to note about the server side login module configuration. First, note the cacheJndiName=srp-test/AuthenticationCache configuration option tells the SRPCacheLoginModule the location of the CachePolicy that contains the SRPServerSession for users who have authenticated against the SRPService. This value corresponds to the SRPService AuthenticationCacheJndiName attribute value. Second, the configuration includes a UsersRolesLoginModule with the password-stacking=useFirstPass configuration option. It is required to use a second login module with the SRPCacheLoginModule because SRP is only an authentication technology. A second login module needs to be configured that accepts the authentication credentials validated by the SRPCacheLoginModule to set the principal's roles that determines the principal's permissions. The UsersRolesLoginModule is augmenting the SRP authentication with properties file based authorization. The user's roles are coming the roles.properties file included in the EJB JAR.

Now, run the example 3 client by executing the following command from the book examples directory:

[examples]$ ant -Dchap=chap8 -Dex=3 run-example
...
run-example3:
     [copy] Copying 1 file to /tmp/jboss-4.0.1/server/default/deploy
     [echo] Waiting for 5 seconds for deploy...
     [java] Logging in using the 'srp' configuration
     [java] Created Echo
     [java] Echo.echo()#1 = This is call 1
     [java] Echo.echo()#2 = This is call 2

In the examples/logs directory you will find a file called ex3-trace.log. This is a detailed trace of the client side of the SRP algorithm. The traces show step-by-step the construction of the public keys, challenges, session key and verification.

Note that the client has taken a long time to run relative to the other simple examples. The reason for this is the construction of the client's public key. This involves the creation of a cryptographically strong random number, and this process takes quite a bit of time the first time it occurs. If you were to log out and log in again within the same VM, the process would be much faster. Also note that Echo.echo()#2 fails with an authentication exception. The client code sleeps for 15 seconds after making the first call to demonstrate the behavior of the SRPService cache expiration. The SRPService cache policy timeout has been set to a mere 10 seconds to force this issue. As stated earlier, you need to make the cache timeout very long, or handle re-authentication on failure.