Links User Guide Reference Apache Tomcat Development | | Quick Start |
This document describes how to configure Tomcat to support container
managed security, by connecting to an existing "database" of usernames,
passwords, and user roles. You only need to care about this if you are using
a web application that includes one or more
<security-constraint> elements, and a
<login-config> element defining how users are required
to authenticate themselves. If you are not utilizing these features, you can
safely skip this document.
For fundamental background information about container managed security,
see the Servlet
Specification (Version 2.4), Section 12.
For information about utilizing the Single Sign On feature of
Tomcat 5 (allowing a user to authenticate themselves once across the entire
set of web applications associated with a virtual host), see
here.
|
| Overview |
| What is a Realm? |
A Realm is a "database" of usernames and passwords that
identify valid users of a web application (or set of web applications), plus
an enumeration of the list of roles associated with each valid user.
You can think of roles as similar to groups in Unix-like operating
systems, because access to specific web application resources is granted to
all users possessing a particular role (rather than enumerating the list of
associated usernames). A particular user can have any number of roles
associated with their username.
Although the Servlet Specification describes a portable mechanism for
applications to declare their security requirements (in the
web.xml deployment descriptor), there is no portable API
defining the interface between a servlet container and the associated user
and role information. In many cases, however, it is desireable to "connect"
a servlet container to some existing authentication database or mechanism
that already exists in the production environment. Therefore, Tomcat 5
defines a Java interface (org.apache.catalina.Realm) that
can be implemented by "plug in" components to establish this connection.
Five standard plug-ins are provided, supporting connections to various
sources of authentication information:
- JDBCRealm - Accesses authentication information
stored in a relational database, accessed via a JDBC driver.
- DataSourceRealm - Accesses authentication
information stored in a relational database, accessed via a named JNDI
JDBC DataSource.
- JNDIRealm - Accesses authentication information
stored in an LDAP based directory server, accessed via a JNDI provider.
- MemoryRealm - Accesses authentication
information stored in an in-memory object collection, which is initialized
from an XML document (
conf/tomcat-users.xml).
- JAASRealm - Accesses authentication information
through the Java Authentication & Authorization Service (JAAS)
framework.
It is also possible to write your own Realm implementation,
and integrate it with Tomcat 5. To do so, you need to:
- Implement
org.apache.catalina.Realm,
- Place your compiled realm in $CATALINA_HOME/server/lib,
- Declare your realm as described in the "Configuring a Realm" section below,
- Declare your realm to the MBeans Descriptor.
|
|
| Common Features |
| Digested Passwords |
For each of the standard Realm implementations, the
user's password (by default) is stored in clear text. In many
environments, this is undesireable because casual observers of the
authentication data can collect enough information to log on
successfully, and impersonate other users. To avoid this problem, the
standard implementations support the concept of digesting
user passwords. This allows the stored version of the passwords to be
encoded (in a form that is not easily reversible), but that the
Realm implementation can still utilize for
authentication.
When a standard realm authenticates by retrieving the stored
password and comparing it with the value presented by the user, you
can select digested passwords by specifying the digest
attribute on your <Realm> element. The value for
this attribute must be one of the digest algorithms supported by the
java.security.MessageDigest class (SHA, MD2, or MD5).
When you select this option, the contents of the password that is
stored in the Realm must be the cleartext version of the
password, as digested by the specified algorithm.
When the authenticate() method of the Realm is called, the
(cleartext) password specified by the user is itself digested by the same
algorithm, and the result is compared with the value returned by the
Realm. An equal match implies that the cleartext version of the
original password is the same as the one presented by the user, so that this
user should be authorized.
To calculate the digested value of a cleartext password, two convenience
techniques are supported:
- If you are writing an application that needs to calculate digested
passwords dynamically, call the static
Digest() method of the
org.apache.catalina.realm.RealmBase class, passing the
cleartext password and the digest algorithm name as arguments. This
method will return the digested password.
- If you want to execute a command line utility to calculate the digested
password, simply execute
 | | | |
java org.apache.catalina.realm.RealmBase \
-a {algorithm} {cleartext-password}
| | | | |
If using digested passwords with DIGEST authentication, the cleartext used
to generate the digest is different. In the examples above
{cleartext-password} must be replaced with
{username}:{realm}:{cleartext-password}. For example, in a
development environment this might take the form
testUser:localhost:8080:testPassword.
To use either of the above techniques, the
$CATALINA_HOME/server/lib/catalina.jar file will need to be
on your class path to make the RealmBase class available. In
addition, you will need the JMX jar and the commons-logging jar (either
commons-logging-api.jar or commons-logging.jar). Both of these are included
with the Tomcat distribution.
Non-ASCII usernames and/or passwords are supported using
| | | | java org.apache.catalina.realm.RealmBase \
-a {algorithm} -e {encoding} {input}
| | | | |
{input}:{digest}. If the input appears
corrupted in the return, the digest will be invalid.
|
| Manager Application |
If you wish to use the Manager Application
to deploy and undeploy applications in a running Tomcat 5 installation, you
MUST add the "manager" role to at least one username in your selected Realm
implementation. This is because the manager web application itself uses a
security constraint that requires role "manager" to access ANY request URI
within that application.
For security reasons, no username in the default Realm (i.e. using
conf/tomcat-users.xml is assigned the "manager" role. Therfore,
no one will be able to utilize the features of this application until the
Tomcat administrator specifically assigns this role to one or more users.
|
| Realm Logging |
Debugging and exception messages logged by a Realm will
be recorded by the logging configuration associated with the container
for the realm: its surrounding Context,
Host, or
Engine.
|
|
| Standard Realm Implementations |
| JDBCRealm |
Introduction
JDBCRealm is an implementation of the Tomcat 5
Realm interface that looks up users in a relational database
accessed via a JDBC driver. There is substantial configuration flexibility
that lets you adapt to existing table and column names, as long as your
database structure conforms to the following requirements:
- There must be a table, referenced below as the users table,
that contains one row for every valid user that this
Realm
should recognize.
- The users table must contain at least two columns (it may
contain more if your existing applications required it):
- Username to be recognized by Tomcat when the user logs in.
- Password to be recognized by Tomcat when the user logs in.
This value may in cleartext or digested - see below for more
information.
- There must be a table, referenced below as the user roles table,
that contains one row for every valid role that is assigned to a
particular user. It is legal for a user to have zero, one, or more than
one valid role.
- The user roles table must contain at least two columns (it may
contain more if your existing applications required it):
- Username to be recognized by Tomcat (same value as is specified
in the users table).
- Role name of a valid role associated with this user.
Quick Start
To set up Tomcat to use JDBCRealm, you will need to follow these steps:
- If you have not yet done so, create tables and columns in your database
that conform to the requirements described above.
- Configure a database username and password for use by Tomcat, that has
at least read only access to the tables described above. (Tomcat will
never attempt to write to these tables.)
- Place a copy of the JDBC driver you will be using inside the
$CATALINA_HOME/server/lib directory (if you do not need it
visible to web applications) or $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib
(if it will be used both by Tomcat 5 and by your apps).
Note that only JAR files are recognized!
- Set up a
<Realm> element, as described below, in your
$CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file.
- Restart Tomcat 5 if it is already running.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a JDBCRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
Example
An example SQL script to create the needed tables might look something
like this (adapt the syntax as required for your particular database):
| | | |
create table users (
user_name varchar(15) not null primary key,
user_pass varchar(15) not null
);
create table user_roles (
user_name varchar(15) not null,
role_name varchar(15) not null,
primary key (user_name, role_name)
);
| | | | |
Example Realm elements are included (commented out) in the
default $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file. Here's an example
for using a MySQL database called "authority", configured with the tables
described above, and accessed with username "dbuser" and password "dbpass":
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.JDBCRealm" debug="99"
driverName="org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver"
connectionURL="jdbc:mysql://localhost/authority?user=dbuser&password=dbpass"
userTable="users" userNameCol="user_name" userCredCol="user_pass"
userRoleTable="user_roles" roleNameCol="role_name"/>
| | | | |
Additional Notes
JDBCRealm operates according to the following rules:
- When a user attempts to access a protected resource for the first time,
Tomcat 5 will call the
authenticate() method of this
Realm. Thus, any changes you have made to the database
directly (new users, changed passwords or roles, etc.) will be immediately
reflected.
- Once a user has been authenticated, the user (and his or her associated
roles) are cached within Tomcat for the duration of the user's login.
(For FORM-based authentication, that means until the session times out or
is invalidated; for BASIC authentication, that means until the user
closes their browser). The cached user is not saved and
restored across sessions serialisations. Any changes to the database
information for an already authenticated user will not be
reflected until the next time that user logs on again.
- Administering the information in the users and user roles
table is the responsibility of your own applications. Tomcat does not
provide any built-in capabilities to maintain users and roles.
|
| DataSourceRealm |
Introduction
DataSourceRealm is an implementation of the Tomcat 5
Realm interface that looks up users in a relational database
accessed via a JNDI named JDBC DataSource. There is substantial configuration
flexibility that lets you adapt to existing table and column names, as long
as your database structure conforms to the following requirements:
- There must be a table, referenced below as the users table,
that contains one row for every valid user that this
Realm
should recognize.
- The users table must contain at least two columns (it may
contain more if your existing applications required it):
- Username to be recognized by Tomcat when the user logs in.
- Password to be recognized by Tomcat when the user logs in.
This value may in cleartext or digested - see below for more
information.
- There must be a table, referenced below as the user roles table,
that contains one row for every valid role that is assigned to a
particular user. It is legal for a user to have zero, one, or more than
one valid role.
- The user roles table must contain at least two columns (it may
contain more if your existing applications required it):
- Username to be recognized by Tomcat (same value as is specified
in the users table).
- Role name of a valid role associated with this user.
Quick Start
To set up Tomcat to use DataSourceRealm, you will need to follow these steps:
- If you have not yet done so, create tables and columns in your database
that conform to the requirements described above.
- Configure a database username and password for use by Tomcat, that has
at least read only access to the tables described above. (Tomcat will
never attempt to write to these tables.)
- Configure a JNDI named JDBC DataSource for your database. Refer to the
JNDI DataSource Example HOW-TO
for information on how to configure a JNDI named JDBC DataSource.
- Set up a
<Realm> element, as described below, in your
$CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file.
- Restart Tomcat 5 if it is already running.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a DataSourceRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
Example
An example SQL script to create the needed tables might look something
like this (adapt the syntax as required for your particular database):
| | | |
create table users (
user_name varchar(15) not null primary key,
user_pass varchar(15) not null
);
create table user_roles (
user_name varchar(15) not null,
role_name varchar(15) not null,
primary key (user_name, role_name)
);
| | | | |
Here is an example for using a MySQL database called "authority", configured
with the tables described above, and accessed with the JNDI JDBC DataSource with
name "java:/comp/env/jdbc/authority".
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.DataSourceRealm" debug="99"
dataSourceName="jdbc/authority"
userTable="users" userNameCol="user_name" userCredCol="user_pass"
userRoleTable="user_roles" roleNameCol="role_name"/>
| | | | |
Additional Notes
DataSourceRealm operates according to the following rules:
- When a user attempts to access a protected resource for the first time,
Tomcat 5 will call the
authenticate() method of this
Realm. Thus, any changes you have made to the database
directly (new users, changed passwords or roles, etc.) will be immediately
reflected.
- Once a user has been authenticated, the user (and his or her associated
roles) are cached within Tomcat for the duration of the user's login.
(For FORM-based authentication, that means until the session times out or
is invalidated; for BASIC authentication, that means until the user
closes their browser). The cached user is not saved and
restored across sessions serialisations. Any changes to the database
information for an already authenticated user will not be
reflected until the next time that user logs on again.
- Administering the information in the users and user roles
table is the responsibility of your own applications. Tomcat does not
provide any built-in capabilities to maintain users and roles.
|
| JNDIRealm |
Introduction
JNDIRealm is an implementation of the Tomcat 5
Realm interface that looks up users in an LDAP directory
server accessed by a JNDI provider (typically, the standard LDAP
provider that is available with the JNDI API classes). The realm
supports a variety of approaches to using a directory for
authentication.
Connecting to the directory
The realm's connection to the directory is defined by the
connectionURL configuration attribute. This is a URL
whose format is defined by the JNDI provider. It is usually an LDAP
URL that specifies the domain name of the directory server to connect
to, and optionally the port number and distinguished name (DN) of the
required root naming context.
If you have more than one provider you can configure an
alternateURL. If a socket connection can not be
made to the provider at the connectionURL an
attempt will be made to use the alternateURL.
When making a connection in order to search the directory and
retrieve user and role information, the realm authenticates itself to
the directory with the username and password specified by the
connectionName and
connectionPassword properties. If these properties
are not specified the connection is anonymous. This is sufficient in
many cases.
Selecting the user's directory entry
Each user that can be authenticated must be represented in the
directory by an individual entry that corresponds to an element in the
initial DirContext defined by the
connectionURL attribute. This user entry must have an
attribute containing the username that is presented for
authentication.
Often the distinguished name of the user's entry contains the
username presented for authentication but is otherwise the same for
all users. In this case the userPattern attribute may
be used to specify the DN, with "{0}" marking where
the username should be substituted.
Otherwise the realm must search the directory to find a unique entry
containing the username. The following attributes configure this
search:
- userBase - the entry that is the base of
the subtree containing users. If not specified, the search
base is the top-level context.
- userSubtree - the search scope. Set to
true if you wish to search the entire subtree
rooted at the userBase entry. The default value
of false requests a single-level search
including only the top level.
- userSearch - pattern specifying the LDAP
search filter to use after substitution of the username.
Authenticating the user
-
Bind mode
By default the realm authenticates a user by binding to
the directory with the DN of the entry for that user and the password
presented by the user. If this simple bind succeeds the user is considered to
be authenticated.
For security reasons a directory may store a digest of the user's
password rather than the clear text version (see Digested Passwords for more information). In that case,
as part of the simple bind operation the directory automatically
computes the correct digest of the plaintext password presented by the
user before validating it against the stored value. In bind mode,
therefore, the realm is not involved in digest processing. The
digest attribute is not used, and will be ignored if
set.
-
Comparison mode
Alternatively, the realm may retrieve the stored
password from the directory and compare it explicitly with the value
presented by the user. This mode is configured by setting the
userPassword attribute to the name of a directory
attribute in the user's entry that contains the password.
Comparison mode has some disadvantages. First, the
connectionName and
connectionPassword attributes must be configured to
allow the realm to read users' passwords in the directory. For
security reasons this is generally undesirable; indeed many directory
implementations will not allow even the directory manager to read
these passwords. In addition, the realm must handle password digests
itself, including variations in the algorithms used and ways of
representing password hashes in the directory. However, the realm may
sometimes need access to the stored password, for example to support
HTTP Digest Access Authentication (RFC 2069). (Note that HTTP digest
authentication is different from the storage of password digests in
the repository for user information as discussed above).
Assigning roles to the user
The directory realm supports two approaches to the representation
of roles in the directory:
-
Roles as explicit directory entries
Roles may be represented by explicit directory entries. A role
entry is usually an LDAP group entry with one attribute
containing the name of the role and another whose values are the
distinguished names or usernames of the users in that role. The
following attributes configure a directory search to
find the names of roles associated with the authenticated user:
- roleBase - the base entry for the role search.
If not specified, the search base is the top-level directory
context.
- roleSubtree - the search
scope. Set to
true if you wish to search the entire
subtree rooted at the roleBase entry. The default
value of false requests a single-level search
including the top level only.
- roleSearch - the LDAP search filter for
selecting role entries. It optionally includes pattern
replacements "{0}" for the distinguished name and/or "{1}" for the
username of the authenticated user.
- roleName - the attribute in a role entry
containing the name of that role.
A combination of both approaches to role representation may be used.
Quick Start
To set up Tomcat to use JNDIRealm, you will need to follow these steps:
- Make sure your directory server is configured with a schema that matches
the requirements listed above.
- If required, configure a username and password for use by Tomcat, that has
read only access to the information described above. (Tomcat will
never attempt to modify this information.)
- Place a copy of the JNDI driver you will be using (typically
ldap.jar available with JNDI) inside the
$CATALINA_HOME/server/lib directory (if you do not need it
visible to web applications) or $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib
(if it will be used both by Tomcat 5 and by your apps).
- Set up a
<Realm> element, as described below, in your
$CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file.
- Restart Tomcat 5 if it is already running.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a JNDIRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
Example
Creation of the appropriate schema in your directory server is beyond the
scope of this document, because it is unique to each directory server
implementation. In the examples below, we will assume that you are using a
distribution of the OpenLDAP directory server (version 2.0.11 or later), which
can be downloaded from
http://www.openldap.org. Assume that
your slapd.conf file contains the following settings
(among others):
| | | |
database ldbm
suffix dc="mycompany",dc="com"
rootdn "cn=Manager,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
rootpw secret
| | | | |
We will assume for connectionURL that the directory
server runs on the same machine as Tomcat. See http://java.sun.com/products/jndi/docs.html
for more information about configuring and using the JNDI LDAP
provider.
Next, assume that this directory server has been populated with elements
as shown below (in LDIF format):
| | | |
# Define top-level entry
dn: dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: dcObject
dc:mycompany
# Define an entry to contain people
# searches for users are based on this entry
dn: ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: people
# Define a user entry for Janet Jones
dn: uid=jjones,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
uid: jjones
sn: jones
cn: janet jones
mail: j.jones@mycompany.com
userPassword: janet
# Define a user entry for Fred Bloggs
dn: uid=fbloggs,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
uid: fbloggs
sn: bloggs
cn: fred bloggs
mail: f.bloggs@mycompany.com
userPassword: fred
# Define an entry to contain LDAP groups
# searches for roles are based on this entry
dn: ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: groups
# Define an entry for the "tomcat" role
dn: cn=tomcat,ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames
cn: tomcat
uniqueMember: uid=jjones,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
uniqueMember: uid=fbloggs,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
# Define an entry for the "role1" role
dn: cn=role1,ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames
cn: role1
uniqueMember: uid=fbloggs,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
| | | | |
An example Realm element for the OpenLDAP directory
server configured as described above might look like this, assuming
that users use their uid (e.g. jjones) to login to the
application and that an anonymous connection is sufficient to search
the directory and retrieve role information:
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.JNDIRealm" debug="99"
connectionURL="ldap://localhost:389"
userPattern="uid={0},ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
roleBase="ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
roleName="cn"
roleSearch="(uniqueMember={0})"
/>
| | | | |
With this configuration, the realm will determine the user's
distinguished name by substituting the username into the
userPattern, authenticate by binding to the directory
with this DN and the password received from the user, and search the
directory to find the user's roles.
Now suppose that users are expected to enter their email address
rather than their userid when logging in. In this case the realm must
search the directory for the user's entry. (A search is also necessary
when user entries are held in multiple subtrees corresponding perhaps
to different organizational units or company locations).
Further, suppose that in addition to the group entries you want to
use an attribute of the user's entry to hold roles. Now the entry for
Janet Jones might read as follows:
| | | |
dn: uid=jjones,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
uid: jjones
sn: jones
cn: janet jones
mail: j.jones@mycompany.com
memberOf: role2
memberOf: role3
userPassword: janet
| | | | |
This realm configuration would satisfy the new requirements:
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.JNDIRealm" debug="99"
connectionURL="ldap://localhost:389"
userBase="ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
userSearch="(mail={0})"
userRoleName="memberOf"
roleBase="ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
roleName="cn"
roleSearch="(uniqueMember={0})"
/>
| | | | |
Now when Janet Jones logs in as "j.jones@mycompany.com", the realm
searches the directory for a unique entry with that value as its mail
attribute and attempts to bind to the directory as
uid=jjones,ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com with the given
password. If authentication succeeds, she is assigned three roles:
"role2" and "role3", the values of the "memberOf" attribute in her
directory entry, and "tomcat", the value of the "cn" attribute in the
only group entry of which she is a member.
Finally, to authenticate the user by retrieving
the password from the directory and making a local comparison in the
realm, you might use a realm configuration like this:
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.JNDIRealm" debug="99"
connectionName="cn=Manager,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
connectionPassword="secret"
connectionURL="ldap://localhost:389"
userPassword="userPassword"
userPattern="uid={0},ou=people,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
roleBase="ou=groups,dc=mycompany,dc=com"
roleName="cn"
roleSearch="(uniqueMember={0})"
/>
| | | | |
However, as discussed above, the default bind mode for
authentication is usually to be preferred.
Additional Notes
JNDIRealm operates according to the following rules:
- When a user attempts to access a protected resource for the first time,
Tomcat 5 will call the
authenticate() method of this
Realm. Thus, any changes you have made to the directory
(new users, changed passwords or roles, etc.) will be immediately
reflected.
- Once a user has been authenticated, the user (and his or her associated
roles) are cached within Tomcat for the duration of the user's login.
(For FORM-based authentication, that means until the session times out or
is invalidated; for BASIC authentication, that means until the user
closes their browser). The cached user is not saved and
restored across sessions serialisations. Any changes to the directory
information for an already authenticated user will not be
reflected until the next time that user logs on again.
- Administering the information in the directory server
is the responsibility of your own applications. Tomcat does not
provide any built-in capabilities to maintain users and roles.
|
| MemoryRealm |
Introduction
MemoryRealm is a simple demonstration implementation of the
Tomcat 5 Realm interface. It is not designed for production use.
At startup time, MemoryRealm loads information about all users, and their
corresponding roles, from an XML document (by default, this document is loaded from $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml). Changes to the data
in this file are not recognized until Tomcat is restarted.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a MemoryRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
User File Format
The users file (by default, conf/tomcat-users.xml must be an
XML document, with a root element <tomcat-users>. Nested
inside the root element will be a <user> element for each
valid user, consisting of the following attributes:
- name - Username this user must log on with.
- password - Password this user must log on with (in
clear text if the
digest attribute was not set on the
<Realm> element, or digested appropriately as
described here otherwise).
- roles - Comma-delimited list of the role names
associated with this user.
Example
The default contents of the
conf/tomcat-users.xml file is:
| | | |
<tomcat-users>
<user name="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat" />
<user name="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1" />
<user name="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1" />
</tomcat-users>
| | | | |
Additional Notes
MemoryRealm operates according to the following rules:
- When Tomcat first starts up, it loads all defined users and their
associated information from the users file. Changes to the data in
this file will not be recognized until Tomcat is
restarted.
- When a user attempts to access a protected resource for the first time,
Tomcat 5 will call the
authenticate() method of this
Realm.
- Once a user has been authenticated, the user (and his or her associated
roles) are cached within Tomcat for the duration of the user's login.
(For FORM-based authentication, that means until the session times out or
is invalidated; for BASIC authentication, that means until the user
closes their browser). The cached user is not saved and
restored across sessions serialisations.
- Administering the information in the users file is the responsibility
of your application. Tomcat does not
provide any built-in capabilities to maintain users and roles.
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| UserDatabaseRealm |
Introduction
UserDatabaseRealm is an implementation of the
Tomcat Realm interface. Information about all users, and their
corresponding roles, is obtained from a JNDI resource that implements the
UserDatabase interface.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a UserDatabaseRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
Example
The default installation of Tomcat 5 is configured with a
UserDatabaseRealm nested inside the <Engine> element, so that
it applies to all virtual hosts and web applications. This realm uses the
same tomcat-users.xml as the MemoryRealm.
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| JAASRealm |
Introduction
JAASRealm is an implementation of the Tomcat
4 Realm interface that authenticates users through the Java
Authentication & Authorization Service (JAAS) framework, a Java
package that is available as an optional package in Java 2 SDK 1.3 and
is fully integrated as of SDK 1.4 .
Using JAASRealm gives the developer the ability to combine
practically any conceivable security realm with Tomcat's CMA.
JAASRealm is prototype for Tomcat of the proposed JAAS-based
J2EE authentication framework for J2EE v1.4, based on the JCP Specification
Request 196 to enhance container-managed security and promote
'pluggable' authentication mechanisms whose implementations would be
container-independent.
Based on the JAAS login module and principal (see javax.security.auth.spi.LoginModule
and javax.security.Principal), you can develop your own
security mechanism or wrap another third-party mechanism for
integration with the CMA as implemented by Tomcat.
Quick Start
To set up Tomcat to use JAASRealm with your own JAAS login module,
you will need to follow these steps:
- Write your own LoginModule, User and Role classes based
on JAAS (see
the
JAAS Authentication Tutorial and
the JAAS Login Module
Developer's Guide) to be managed by the JAAS Login
Context (
javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext)
When developing your LoginModule, note that JAASRealm's built-in CallbackHandler
+only recognizes the NameCallback and PasswordCallback at present.
- Although not specified in JAAS, you should create
seperate classes to distinguish between users and roles, extending
javax.security.Principal,
so that Tomcat can tell which Principals returned from your login
module are users and which are roles (see org.apache.catalina.realm.JAASRealm).
Regardless, the first Principal returned is always treated as the user Principal.
- Place the compiled classes on Tomcat's classpath
- Set up a login.config file for Java (see JAAS
LoginConfig file) and tell Tomcat where to find it by specifying
its location to the JVM, for instance by setting the environment
variable:
JAVA_OPTS=-DJAVA_OPTS=-Djava.security.auth.login.config==$CATALINA_HOME/conf/jaas.config
- Configure your security-constraints in your web.xml for
the resources you want to protect
- Configure the JAASRealm module in your server.xml
- Restart Tomcat 5 if it is already running.
Realm Element Attributes
To configure a JAASRealm, you must create a <Realm>
element and nest it in your $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml file,
as described above. The attributes supported
by this Realm are listed in the Realm configuration
documentation.
Example
Here is an example of how your server.xml snippet should look.
| | | |
<Realm className="org.apache.catalina.realm.JAASRealm"
appName="MyFooRealm"
userClassNames="org.foobar.realm.FooUser"
roleClassNames="org.foobar.realm.FooRole"
debug="99"/>
| | | | |
It is the responsibility of your login module to create and save User and
Role objects representing Principals for the user
(javax.security.auth.Subject). If your login module doesn't
create a user object but also doesn't throw a login exception, then the
Tomcat CMA will break and you will be left at the
http://localhost:8080/myapp/j_security_check URI or at some other
unspecified location.
The flexibility of the JAAS approach is two-fold:
- you can carry out whatever processing you require behind
the scenes in your own login module.
- you can plug in a completely different LoginModule by changing the configuration
and restarting the server, without any code changes to your application.
Additional Notes
- When a user attempts to access a protected resource for
the first time, Tomcat 5 will call the
authenticate()
method of this Realm. Thus, any changes you have made in
the security mechanism directly (new users, changed passwords or
roles, etc.) will be immediately reflected.
- Once a user has been authenticated, the user (and his or
her associated roles) are cached within Tomcat for the duration of
the user's login. For FORM-based authentication, that means until
the session times out or is invalidated; for BASIC authentication,
that means until the user closes their browser. Any changes to the
security information for an already authenticated user will not
be reflected until the next time that user logs on again.
- As with other
Realm implementations, digested passwords
are supported if the <Realm> element in server.xml
contains a digest attribute; JAASRealm's CallbackHandler
will digest the password prior to passing it back to the LoginModule
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