Apache CXF Authentication and Authorization test-cases II

In a previous blog post, I covered a number of Apache CXF-based authentication and authorization testcases I uploaded to github. The testcases showed how to authenticate and authorize a SOAP request containing either a SOAP UsernameToken or HTTP Basic Authentication. The options for authentication/authorization backends included Apache DS (ldap), Apache Syncope, Apache Shiro, and Spring Security. In this post, I will cover a number of more advanced authentication and authorization testcases for JAX-WS services using Apache CXF.

The new projects are as follows:

• cxf-x509: This shows how to use X.509 tokens for authentication and authorization. The service has a TransportBinding policy with an EndorsingSupportingToken X509Token policy. The roles of the authenticated client are mocked by a WSS4J Validator for this demo, but could be retrieved from (e.g) an ldap backend in a real-world demo.
• cxf-sts: The service in this demo has a TransportBinding policy with an EndorsingSupportingToken IssuedToken policy, requiring a SAML 2.0 token in a client request. The client obtains a SAML token from the CXF SecurityTokenService (STS) and includes it in the service request (also signing the request using the private key which corresponds to the certificate in the SAML token). An Authorization test is also available which uses Claims in the policy to tell the STS to add the roles of the client in the SAML token, which are then used for RBAC on the service side.
• cxf-sts-xacml: Similar to the cxf-sts demo, this testcase requires a SAML 2.0 token from the STS with the roles of the client embedded in the token. The service is then configured to create a XACML request and dispatch it to a Policy Decision Point (PDP) for authorization. The service endpoint then enforces the authorization decision of the PDP. This demo ships with a mocked PDP implementation. For an enterprise-grade PDP which works with CXF, please see Talend ESB.
• cxf-kerberos: The service in this demo requires a Kerberos token over TLS. A Kerberos KDC is started as part of the demo, and a CXF JAX-WS client obtains a token and sends it across to the service for authentication. Spnego is also demonstrated as part of this test-case.

These demos build on the first set of demos, which gave different ways to authentication/authorize Username+Password based requests. They show how to authenticate requests using X.509 Tokens, Kerberos tokens and SAML tokens, as well as how to retrieve SAML tokens from an STS, and how to authorize requests using XACML. Please feel free to download + play around with the testcases.

Apache CXF 3.0.0 released

Apache CXF 3.0.0 has been released. CXF 3.0.0 picks up Apache Santuario 2.0.0 and WSS4J 2.0.0, and hence all of the new streaming XML/WS-Security functionality available in those releases. Please see the CXF 3.0.0 migration guide for more details about upgrading from an older release. I've also updated the CXF Authentication and Authorization tests in my github repo to use CXF 3.0.0.

Apache WSS4J 2.0.0 released

Apache WSS4J 2.0.0 has been released. This major new release features a new StAX-based implementation of WS-Security, as well as a whole host of other changes and features. I've collected a lot of the information on this blog and created a User Guide for WSS4J as a result, so this is a good place to start to learn about the project and the new features of the release.

Apache Santuario - XML Security for Java 2.0.0

Apache Santuario - XML Security for Java 2.0.0 has been released, after many months of development work. The main new feature of this release is a new StAX-based API for XML Signature and Encryption. Please see the following page for an overview of this functionality, with some links back to this blog containing configuration and samples. In addition to this new API, the other changes of note in this release are that the JSR-105 API has been removed, and instead will be picked up from the JDK. This simplifies deployment in OSGi containers. In addition, the minimum supported JDK version for this release is now Java 6.

Apache WSS4J 2.0.0 - part VIII

This is the eight and final article on Apache WSS4J 2.0.0. In the previous post, I discussed how to use the new streaming WS-Security functionality of Apache WSS4J 2.0.0 via the "action" based configuration approach. In this post, I will show how the new streaming functionality can be used with Apache CXF when using WS-SecurityPolicy. I will also discuss the limitations of the streaming code compared to the older DOM implementation of WS-Security.

1) Streaming WS-Security functionality via WS-SecurityPolicy

As stated in the previous article, WSS4J must be used with a SOAP stack such as Apache CXF, Axis, etc. to secure messages via WS-Security. Both CXF and Axis support WS-SecurityPolicy, which means that you can use a standard WS-Policy expression to configure the security requirements for your service, and CXF/Axis/etc. will parse the policy and set up WSS4J appropriately. The user only has to configure things like usernames, keystores, etc. Apache CXF 3.0.0 supports using the new streaming functionality of Apache WSS4J 2.0.0, via the new boolean JAX-WS property:

• SecurityConstants.ENABLE_STREAMING_SECURITY ("ws-security.enable.streaming") - whether to use the new streaming WS-Security implementation with WS-SecurityPolicy, or the older DOM implementation. The default is "false".

So switching to use the new streaming implementation is as simple as setting a boolean configuration property on your CXF client/endpoint.

2) Limitations of the streaming WS-Security implementation in WSS4J 2.0.0

WS-Security (and WS-SecurityPolicy) covers a wide area in terms of requirements and features. The new streaming implementation in WSS4J 2.0.0 meets 90%+ of the most common use-cases. However, some things are not implemented, and the user will have to use the DOM implementation instead for these requirements. The limitations are:

• XPath evaluation is not supported apart from certain simple expressions. XPath evaluations are used with WS-SecurityPolicy RequiredElements, SignedElements, (Content)EncryptedElements. XPath expressions that point directly to the element are supported, e.g. /soap:Envelope/soap:Header/wsa:To.
• WS-SecurityPolicy "Strict" Layout validation is not enforced. This includes enforcing whether a Timestamp is first or last.
• A SymmetricBinding policy with a ProtectTokens assertion is not supported.
• The combination of EncryptBeforeSigning + EncryptSignature policies are not supported.
• Deriving keys from Username Tokens (Endorsing Username Tokens) are not supported.
• Endorsing tokens don't work with Symmetric + Asymmetric binding on the client side, unless the endorsing token is a SAML or IssuedToken.
• Derived Endorsing Tokens are not supported on the client side.

Apache WSS4J 2.0.0 - part VII

This is the seventh in a series of articles on Apache WSS4J 2.0.0. Up to now I've discussed the new features and changes for the older DOM implementation of WS-Security in WSS4J 2.0.0. This post will look at using the new streaming WS-Security functionality available in WSS4J 2.0.0, when security is configured via the "action"-based approach (as opposed to using WS-SecurityPolicy).

The WSS4J user guide has an article about the different ways to use WSS4J. The "action" based approach is when you specify a series of security actions to be performed on the outbound side. On the inbound side, the actions are used to verify that the security requirements you were expecting in the message were enforced. Aside from specifying actions, you also need to configure WSS4J with keystore information, usernames, CallbackHandler implementations to retrieve passwords, algorithms to use, etc. See the WSS4J user guide for more information on the configuration options for WSS4J.

1) Streaming WS-Security functionality via the "action" approach

WSS4J must be used with a SOAP stack such as Apache CXF, Axis, etc. to secure messages via WS-Security. For example, Apache CXF has two interceptors WSS4JOutInterceptor and WSS4JInInterceptor that use WSS4J under the hood to apply WS-Security to an outbound + inbound message. Both classes take a Map<String, Object> constructor argument, which is the set of WSS4J configuration options. So how do we switch over to use the new streaming WS-Security implementation in CXF 3.0.0? Easy, simply change the interceptors to WSS4JStaxOutInterceptor and WSS4JStaxInInterceptor! Both of these interceptors also take the same Map<String, Object> as constructor arguments.

2) Configuration differences between the DOM + StAX implementations

The new StAX functionality in WSS4J was designed to be configured in an almost identical way to the DOM code. For the vast majority of use-cases, the configuration will be exactly the same, meaning that you only need to change the interceptor names to pick up the new functionality. Both stacks share the same ConfigurationConstants class. The only substantive difference is that the StAX implementation supports two actions, that the DOM implementation does not:

• SIGNATURE_WITH_KERBEROS_TOKEN - Perform a Signature action with a kerberos token.
• ENCRYPT_WITH_KERBEROS_TOKEN - Perform a Encryption action with a kerberos token.

In conclusion, a user of Apache CXF should find migrating to use the new streaming implementation of WSS4J 2.0.0 as simple as changing the interceptor names (with the caveat that WSS4J 2.0.0 requires some configuration changes for both the DOM + StAX implementations, as covered in previous blog entries).