Securing Portlets With Spring Security

Securing Portlets With Spring Security John A. Lewis Chief Software Architect Unicon, Inc. JA-SIG Spring 2008 Conference 28 April 2008 © Copyright Unicon, Inc., 2007. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Agenda JSR 168 Portlet Security Spring Security (aka “Acegi”) Spring Portlet Security Applying Portlet Security Resources Questions & Answers

JSR 168 Portlet Security What does the spec give us to work with?

Portal Authentication The portal is completely responsible for authentication This means we just use what it gives us – we don't redirect for authentication purpose The JSR 168 PortletRequest class provides two methods for getting user identity (the same ones as the Servlet spec) String getRemoteUser() Principal getUserPrincipal()

Portal Authorization Portals generally provide the ability to assign a set of “Roles” to the User The JSR 168 PortletRequest class provides a method for getting at these roles (the same ones as the Servlet spec) boolean isUserInRole(String)

Declaring Portal Roles Same as declaring roles for Servlet container-based security Include all portal roles that may be used in web.xml : ... <security-role> <role-name>manager</role-name> </security-role> ...

Mapping Portal Roles To Portlet Roles In portlet.xml : <portlet> <portlet-name>books</portlet-name> ... <security-role-ref> <role-name>ADMINISTRATOR</role-name> <role-link>manager</role-link> </security-role-ref> </portlet> Portlet Role Portal Role Warning! If you are storing your SecurityContext in the PortletSession with APPLICATION_SCOPE (more on this later) , make sure these are the same in all your <portlet> declarations – the first one to be invoked on a page will determine the mapping for all portlets in your webapp.

Security Constraints Require a secure transport in portlet.xml : <portlet-app> ... <portlet> <portlet-name>accountSummary</portlet-name> ... </portlet> ... <security-constraint> <display-name>Secure Portlets</display-name> <portlet-collection> <portlet-name>accountSummary</portlet-name> </portlet-collection> <user-data-constraint/> <transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee> </user-data-constraint> </security-constraint> ... </portlet-app>

Other Portlet Security Info PortletRequest has a couple other key security-related methods: String getAuthType() Returns name of authentication scheme used (BASIC_AUTH, CLIENT_CERT_AUTH, custom) or null if user is not authenticated. boolean isSecure() Returns true if the request was made over a secure channel (such as HTTPS) String getAuthType() boolean isSecure()

Portlet User Attributes Can also use the USER_INFO Map available as a PortletRequest attribute. May contain arbitrary user information: user.name.given user.bdate user.gender etc. Some portals expose security-related information here, but this mechanism should be avoided if possible

Spring Security a.k.a Acegi Security A quick overview

What Is Spring Security? Powerful, flexible security framework for enterprise software Emphasis on applications using Spring Comprehensive authentication, authorization, and instance-based access control Avoids security code in your business logic – treats security as a cross-cutting concern Built-in support for a wide variety of authentication and integration standards

Spring Security Releases Acegi Security (the old name) Current Version: 1.0.7 Initial GA Release: May 2006 Portlet support in Sandbox Spring Security (the new name) Current Version: 2.0.0 Initial GA Release: April 2008 Portlet support Included Changes packaging from org.acegisecurity to org.springframework.security

Applications Are Like Onions Spring Security can be applied at multiple layers in your application: Apply security as markup is constructed in the Rendering Layer using the supplied JSP taglib Restrict access to areas of web application in the Dispatch Layer based on URL pattern-matching Secure method invocation on the Service Layer to ensure calls are from properly authorized user Provide Access Control Lists (ACLs) for individual objects in the Domain Layer

Spring Portlet Security Applying Spring Security to Portlets

Portlet Challenges Portlets have some key differences from Servlets: No Filters Can't treat URLs like Paths Multiple Request Phases These create some challenges in applying the normal Spring Security patterns So we need some different infrastructure for wiring Spring Security into our portlet application

Six Main Portlet Security Beans PortletProcessingInterceptor AuthenticationManager AuthenticationDetailsSource AuthenticationProvider UserDetailsService PortletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor

PortletProcessingInterceptor <bean id="portletProcessingInterceptor" class="org.springframework.security.ui.portlet. PortletProcessingInterceptor"> <property name="authenticationManager" ref="authenticationManager" /> <property name="authenticationDetailsSource" ref="portletAuthenticationDetailsSource" / > </bean> Interceptor that processes portlet requests for authentication by invoking the configured AuthenticationManager Creates the initial AuthenticationToken from the PortletRequest security methods Portlet equivalent of AuthenticationProcessingFilter used for traditional servlet web applications

AuthenticationManager <sec:authentication-manager alias="authenticationManager" /> Use normal provider-based AuthenticationManager bean Declared via special namespace schema: Can use multiple providers if you are authenticating from Portlets and Servlets

AuthenticationDetailsSource <bean name=” portletAuthenticationDetailsSource” class="org.springframework.security.ui.portlet. PortletPreAuthenticatedAuthenticationDetailsSource"> <property name="mappableRolesRetriever"> <bean class="org.springframework.security. authoritymapping.SimpleMappableAttributesRetriever"> <property name="mappableAttributes"> <list> <value>ADMIN</value> </list> </property> </bean> </property> </bean> Can be used to check isUserInRole(...) to get list of Portal Roles into the Authentication Request: Only needed if we are using Portal Roles for our security decisions

AuthenticationProvider <bean id="portletAuthenticationProvider" class="org.springframework.security.providers.preauth. PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationProvider"> <sec:custom-authentication-provider /> <property name="preAuthenticatedUserDetailsService" ref=" preAuthenticatedUserDetailsService " /> </bean> PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationProvider processes pre-authenticated authentication request (from PortletProcessingInterceptor ) A valid PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationToken with non-null principal & credentials will succeed

UserDetailsService <bean name="preAuthenticatedUserDetailsService" class="org.springframework.security.providers.preauth. PreAuthenticatedGrantedAuthoritiesUserDetailsService" /> Bean that knows how to populate user details (including GrantedAuthorities ) for the authenticated user PreAuthenticatedGrantedAuthoritiesUserDetailsService will use purely data contained in the PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationToken Can also use any other UserDetailsService that can populate UserDetails by username, such as JdbcUserDetailsManager or LdapUserDetailsManager

PortletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor <bean id="portletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor" class="org.springframework.security.context. PortletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor" /> Interceptor that retrieves/stores the contents of the SecurityContextHolder in the active PortletSession Without this, every request would trigger a full authentication cycle Default is to use APPLICATION_SCOPE Portlet equivalent of HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter, used for traditional servlet web applications

Using The Two Interceptors <bean id="portletModeHandlerMapping" class="org.springframework.web.portlet.handler. PortletModeHandlerMapping"> <property name="interceptors"> <list> <ref bean=" portletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor "/> <ref bean=" portletProcessingInterceptor "/> </list> </property> <property name="portletModeMap"> <map> <entry key="view"><ref bean="viewController"/></entry> <entry key="edit"><ref bean="editController"/></entry> <entry key="help"><ref bean="helpController"/></entry> </map> </property> </bean> Add them to our Portlet's HandlerMapping : Warning! This ordering is critical – they will not work correctly if they are reversed!

Applying Portlet Security To The Rendering Layer Customizing our markup based on security information

Spring Security JSP TagLib <%@ taglib prefix="sec" uri="http://www.springframework.org/security/tags" %> Username: <sec:authentication property="principal.username"/> < sec :authorize ifAllGranted="ROLE_USER"> You are an authorized user of this system. </ sec :authorize> <sec:authorize ifAllGranted="ROLE_ADMINISTRATOR"> You are an administrator of this system. </sec:authorize> Allows us to access authentication information and to check authorizations Useful for showing/hiding information or navigation controls based on security info Warning: Don't rely on this to restrict access to areas of the application. Just because navigation doesn't appear in the markup doesn't mean a clever hacker can't generate a GET/POST that will still get there.

Applying Portlet Security To The Dispatch Layer Controlling where users can go in the application

Secure Portlet Request Dispatching Portlet Requests don't have a path structure, so we can't use the path-based patterns of FilterSecurityInterceptor to control access Something standard may be added in the future – perhaps a ConfigAttributeDefinition for various aspects of Portlet Requests that we can use as an ObjectDefinitionSource

Using a HandlerInterceptor Best practice in Spring 2.0 is to build a custom HandlerInterceptor for your Portlet Compare contents of SecurityContextHolder. getContext(). getAuthentication() with Portlet Mode, Window State, Render Parameters – whatever you want to use to determine permission Throw a PortletSecurityException if access is not permitted, otherwise allow processing to proceed

Using Annotations If using Spring 2.5 Annotation-based Dispatching, use Security Annotations as well ApplicationContext entry: Annotated method: <sec:global-method-security secured-annotations="enabled" /> import org.springframework.security.annotation.Secured; ... @Secured({"ROLE_ADMIN"}) @RequestMapping(params="action=view") public String deleteItems(RequestParam("item") int itemId) { ...

Applying Portlet Security To The Service Layer Making sure Services are invoked by only by user with proper permissions

AccessDecisionManager <bean id="accessDecisionManager" class="org.springframework.security.vote. AffirmativeBased"> <property name="decisionVoters"> <list> <bean class="org.springframework.security. vote.RoleVoter" /> <bean class="org.springframework.security. vote.AuthenticatedVoter" /> </list> </property> </bean> Standard Spring Security bean for making decisions about access to resources

MethodSecurityInterceptor <bean id="myService" class="sample.service.MyService"> <sec:intercept-methods access-decision-manager-ref="accessDecisionManager"> <sec:protect method="sample.service.MyService.*" access="IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY" /> <sec:protect method="sample.service.MyService.add*" access="ROLE_ADMINISTRATOR" /> <sec:protect method="sample.service.MyService.del*" access="ROLE_ADMINISTRATOR" /> <sec:protect method="sample.service.MyService.save*" access="ROLE_ADMINISTRATOR" /> </sec:intercept-methods> </bean>

Applying Portlet Security To Servlets Using the whole web/portlet application as one secure bundle

Bridging The Gap We can reuse the Portlet SecurityContext in getting resources from Servlets in the same web application Useful for securing: AJAX Calls Dynamic Images PDF Reports Need to get Portlets and Servlets to share session data to do this

Portlets & Servlets Sharing Session Possible according to JSR 168 (PLT 15.4) Must be in the same webapp Portlet must use APPLICATION_SCOPE Sometime tricky in practice Portlet requests go thru Portal webapp URL Servlet requests go thru Portlet webapp URL Session tracking via JSESSIONID Cookie usually uses URL path to webapp – not shared! Tomcat 5.5.4 + On <Connector> element set emptySessionPath=true

Apply Servlet Filter Chain In web.xml : <filter> <filter-name>securityFilterChainProxy</filter-name> <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter. DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class> </filter> <filter-mapping> <filter-name>securityFilterChainProxy</filter-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </filter-mapping>

FilterChainProxy Since the portal handles authentication, you only need a few entries in this bean : <bean id="servletSecurityFilterChainProxy" class="org.springframework.security.util. FilterChainProxy"> <sec:filter-chain-map path-type="ant"> <sec:filter-chain pattern="/**" filters="httpSessionContextIntegrationFilter, exceptionTranslationFilter, filterSecurityInterceptor" /> </sec:filter-chain-map> </bean>

HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter If session sharing is working properly, it will populate the SecurityContextHolder using the same SecurityContext as the Portlet side <bean id="httpSessionContextIntegrationFilter" class="org.springframework.security.context. HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter" /> This will only work if PortletSessionContextIntegrationInterceptor is storing in the APPLICATION_SCOPE of the PortletSession (which is the default)

ExceptionTranslationFilter Since we are relying on the Portal for authentication, then an Exception means that authentication has already failed PreAuthenticatedProcessingFilterEntryPoint returns SC_FORBIDDEN (HTTP 403 error) <bean id="exceptionTranslationFilter" class="org.springframework.security.ui. ExceptionTranslationFilter"> <property name="authenticationEntryPoint"> <bean class="org.springframework.security.ui.preauth. PreAuthenticatedProcessingFilterEntryPoint" /> </property> </bean>

FilterSecurityInterceptor Secure resource URLs accordingly Use the same AuthenticationManager and AccessDecisionManager as in the portlet <bean id="filterSecurityInterceptor" class="org.springframework.security.intercept.web. FilterSecurityInterceptor"> <property name="authenticationManager" ref="authenticationManager" /> <property name="accessDecisionManager" ref="accessDecisionManager" /> <property name="objectDefinitionSource"> <sec:filter-invocation-definition-source> <sec:intercept-url pattern="/resources/**" access="IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY" /> </sec:filter-invocation-definition-source> </property> </bean>

Resources Places to go to actually use this stuff!

Resources Spring Security 2.0 Website http://static.springframework.org/spring-security/site/ Sample Applications Small sample included in Spring Security distro Bigger sample on the Spring Portlet Wiki http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/spring/display/JSR168/

Questions & Answers John A. Lewis Chief Software Architect Unicon, Inc. [email_address] www.unicon.net

Securing Portlets With Spring Security

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