Author: Stefan Guilhen
Level: Advanced
Technologies: EJB, Security
Summary: The ejb-security-context-propagation
quickstart demonstrates how the security context can be propagated to a remote EJB using a remote outbound connection configuration
Target Product: WildFly
Source: https://github.com/wildfly/quickstart/
The ejb-security-context-propagation
quickstart demonstrates how the security context of an EJB can be propagated to a remote EJB in WildFly Application Server.
The quickstart makes use of two EJBs, SecuredEJB
and IntermediateEJB
, to verify that the security context propagation is correct, and a RemoteClient
standalone client.
The SecuredEJB
has four methods:
String getSecurityInformation();
String guestMethod();
String userMethod();
String adminMethod();
The first method can be called by all users that are created in this quickstart. The purpose of this method is to return a String containing the name of the Principal that called the EJB along with the user's authorized role information, for example:
[Principal=[quickstartUser], In role [guest]=true, In role [user]=true, In role [admin]=false]
The next three methods are annotated to require that the calling user is authorized for roles guest
, user
and admin
respectively.
The IntermediateEJB
contains a single method. Its purpose is to make use of a remote connection and invoke each of the methods on the SecuredEJB
. A summary is then returned with the outcome of the calls.
Finally there is the RemoteClient
stand-alone client. The client makes calls using the identity of the established connection.
In the real world, remote calls between servers in the servers-to-server scenario would truly be remote and separate. For the purpose of this quickstart, we make use of a loopback connection to the same server so we do not need two servers just to run the test.
The application this project produces is designed to be run on WildFly Application Server 11.
All you need to build this project is Java 8.0 (Java SDK 1.8) or later and Maven 3.3.1 or later. See Configure Maven for WildFly 11 to make sure you are configured correctly for testing the quickstarts.
To run these quickstarts with the provided build scripts, you need the WildFly distribution ZIP. For information on how to install and run JBoss, see the WildFly Application Server Documentation Getting Started Guide located on the Customer Portal.
You can also use JBoss Developer Studio or Eclipse to run the quickstarts.
This quickstart uses the default standalone configuration plus the modifications described here.
It is recommended that you test this approach in a separate and clean environment before you attempt to port the changes in your own environment.
In the following instructions, replace WILDFLY_HOME
with the actual path to your WildFly installation. The installation path is described in detail here: Use of WILDFLY_HOME and JBOSS_HOME Variables.
This quickstart uses secured management interfaces and is built around the default ApplicationRealm
as configured in the WildFly distribution. You must create the following application user to access the running application:
UserName | Realm | Password | Roles |
---|---|---|---|
quickstartUser | ApplicationRealm | quickstartPwd1! | guest,user |
superUser | ApplicationRealm | superPwd1! | guest,user,admin |
To add the user, open a command prompt and type the following commands:
For Linux:
WILDFLY_HOME/bin/add-user.sh -a -u 'quickstartUser' -p 'quickstartPwd1!' -g 'guest,user'
WILDFLY_HOME/bin/add-user.sh -a -u 'superUser' -p 'superPwd1!' -g 'guest,user,admin'
For Windows:
WILDFLY_HOME\bin\add-user.bat -a -u 'quickstartUser' -p 'quickstartPwd1!' -g 'guest,user'
WILDFLY_HOME\bin\add-user.bat -a -u 'superUser' -p 'superPwd1!' -g 'guest,user,admin'
The quickstart
user establishes the actual connection to the server.
If you prefer, you can use the add-user utility interactively. For an example of how to use the add-user utility, see the instructions located here: Add an Application User.
These steps assume you are running the server in standalone mode and using the default standalone.xml
supplied with the distribution.
You configure the security domain by running JBoss CLI commands. For your convenience, this quickstart batches the commands into a configure-elytron.cli
script provided in the root directory of this quickstart.
Before you begin, back up your server configuration file
WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml
Start the WildFly server by typing the following:
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.sh
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\standalone.bat
configure-elytron.cli
file in the root of this quickstart directory. This script adds the configuration that enables Elytron security for the quickstart deployment. Comments in the script describe the purpose of each block of commands.Open a new command prompt, navigate to the root directory of this quickstart, and run the following command, replacing WILDFLY_HOME with the path to your server:
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=configure-elytron.cli
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat --connect --file=configure-elytron.cli
You should see the following result when you run the script:
The batch executed successfully
process-state: reload-required
Because this example quickstart demonstrates security, exceptions are thrown when secured EJB access is attempted by an invalid user. If you want to review the security exceptions in the server log, you can skip this step. If you want to suppress these exceptions in the server log, run the following command, replacing WILDFLY_HOME with the path to your server:
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=configure-system-exception.cli
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat --connect --file=configure-system-exception.cli
You should see the following result when you run the script:
The batch executed successfully
After stopping the server, open the WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml
file and review the changes.
application-security-domain
was added to the ejb3
subsystem:
<application-security-domains>
<application-security-domain name="quickstart-domain" security-domain="ApplicationDomain"/>
</application-security-domains>
The application-security-domain
essentially enables Elytron security for the quickstart EJBs. It maps the quickstart-domain
that was set in the EJBs via annotation to the Elytron ApplicationDomain
that will be responsible for authenticating and authorizing access to the EJBs.
ejb-outbound-configuration
authentication configuration and ejb-outbound-context
authentication context were added to the elytron
subsystem:
<authentication-configuration name="ejb-outbound-configuration" security-domain="ApplicationDomain" sasl-mechanism-selector="PLAIN"/>
<authentication-context name="ejb-outbound-context">
<match-rule authentication-configuration="ejb-outbound-configuration"/>
</authentication-context>
The ejb-outbound-configuration
contains the authentication configuration that will be used when invoking a method on a remote EJB, for example when IntermediateEJB
calls the methods on the SecuredEJB
. The above configuration specifies that the identity that is currently authenticated to the ApplicationDomain
will be used to establish the connection to the remote EJB. The sasl-mechanism-selector
defines the SASL mechanisms that should be tried. In this quickstart the PLAIN
mechanism has been chosen because other challenge-response mechanisms such as DIGEST-MD5
can't provide the original credential to establish the connection to the remote EJB.
The ejb-outbound-context
is the authentication context that is used by the remote outbound connection and it automatically selects the ejb-outbound-configuration
.
The following ejb-outbound
outbound-socket-binding connection was created within the standard-sockets
socket-binding-group:
<outbound-socket-binding name="ejb-outbound">
<remote-destination host="localhost" port="8080"/>
</outbound-socket-binding>
For the purpose of the quickstart we just need an outbound connection that loops back to the same server. This will be sufficient to demonstrate the server-to-server capabilities.
ejb-outbound-connection
remote-outbound-connection was added to the outbound-connections within the remoting
subsytem:
<outbound-connections>
<remote-outbound-connection name="ejb-outbound-connection" outbound-socket-binding-ref="ejb-outbound" authentication-context="ejb-outbound-context"/>
</outbound-connections>
http-connector
in the remoting
subsystem was updated to use the application-sasl-authentication
authentication factory. It allows for the identity that was established in the connection authentication to be propagated to the components.
<http-connector name="http-remoting-connector" connector-ref="default" security-realm="ApplicationRealm" sasl-authentication-factory="application-sasl-authentication"/>
Finally, the application-sasl-authentication
factory was updated in the elytron
subsystem to include the PLAIN
mechanism:
<sasl-authentication-factory name="application-sasl-authentication" sasl-server-factory="configured" security-domain="ApplicationDomain">
<mechanism-configuration>
<mechanism mechanism-name="PLAIN"/>
<mechanism mechanism-name="JBOSS-LOCAL-USER" realm-mapper="local"/>
<mechanism mechanism-name="DIGEST-MD5">
<mechanism-realm realm-name="ApplicationRealm"/>
</mechanism>
</mechanism-configuration>
</sasl-authentication-factory>
If you chose to run the script to suppress system exceptions, you should see the following configuration in the ejb3
subsystem.
<log-system-exceptions value="false"/>
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.sh
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\standalone.bat
mvn clean package wildfly:deploy
This will deploy target/ejb-security-context-propagation.jar
to the running instance of the server.
Before you run the client, make sure you have already successfully deployed the EJBs to the server in the previous step and that your command prompt is still in the same folder.
Type this command to execute the client:
mvn exec:exec
When you run the mvn exec:exec
command, you see the following output. Note there may be other log messages interspersed between these.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * IntermediateEJB - Begin Testing with principal quickstartUser * *
Remote Security Information: [Principal=[quickstartUser], In role [guest]=true, In role [user]=true, In role [admin]=false]
Can invoke guestMethod? true
Can invoke userMethod? true
Can invoke adminMethod? false
* * IntermediateEJB - End Testing * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * IntermediateEJB - Begin Testing with principal superUser * *
Remote Security Information: [Principal=[superUser], In role [guest]=true, In role [user]=true, In role [admin]=true]
Can invoke guestMethod? true
Can invoke userMethod? true
Can invoke adminMethod? true
* * IntermediateEJB - End Testing * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As can be seen from the output the identities authenticated to the intermediate EJB were propagated all the way to the remote secured EJB and their roles have been correctly evaluated.
If you chose not to run the script to suppress system exceptions, you should see the following exceptions in the WildFly server console or log. The exceptions are logged for each of the tests where a request is rejected because the user is not authorized.
12:26:06,556 ERROR [org.jboss.as.ejb3.invocation] (default task-57) WFLYEJB0034: EJB Invocation failed on component SecuredEJB for method public abstract java.lang.String org.jboss.as.quickstarts.ejb_security_context_propagation.SecuredEJBRemote.adminMethod(): javax.ejb.EJBAccessException: WFLYEJB0364: Invocation on method: public abstract java.lang.String org.jboss.as.quickstarts.ejb_security_context_propagation.SecuredEJBRemote.adminMethod() of bean: SecuredEJB is not allowed
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.security.RolesAllowedInterceptor.processInvocation(RolesAllowedInterceptor.java:67)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.security.SecurityDomainInterceptor.processInvocation(SecurityDomainInterceptor.java:44)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.StartupAwaitInterceptor.processInvocation(StartupAwaitInterceptor.java:22)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.component.interceptors.ShutDownInterceptorFactory$1.processInvocation(ShutDownInterceptorFactory.java:64)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.EjbSuspendInterceptor.processInvocation(EjbSuspendInterceptor.java:57)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.component.interceptors.LoggingInterceptor.processInvocation(LoggingInterceptor.java:67)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ee.component.NamespaceContextInterceptor.processInvocation(NamespaceContextInterceptor.java:50)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.component.interceptors.AdditionalSetupInterceptor.processInvocation(AdditionalSetupInterceptor.java:54)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.invocation.ContextClassLoaderInterceptor.processInvocation(ContextClassLoaderInterceptor.java:60)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.run(InterceptorContext.java:438)
at org.wildfly.security.manager.WildFlySecurityManager.doChecked(WildFlySecurityManager.java:609)
at org.jboss.invocation.AccessCheckingInterceptor.processInvocation(AccessCheckingInterceptor.java:57)
at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:422)
at org.jboss.invocation.ChainedInterceptor.processInvocation(ChainedInterceptor.java:53)
at org.jboss.as.ee.component.ViewService$View.invoke(ViewService.java:198)
at org.wildfly.security.auth.server.SecurityIdentity.runAsFunctionEx(SecurityIdentity.java:380)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.remote.AssociationImpl.invokeWithIdentity(AssociationImpl.java:492)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.remote.AssociationImpl.invokeMethod(AssociationImpl.java:487)
at org.jboss.as.ejb3.remote.AssociationImpl.lambda$receiveInvocationRequest$0(AssociationImpl.java:188)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
mvn wildfly:undeploy
You can restore the original server configuration by running the restore-configuration.cli
script provided in the root directory of this quickstart or by manually restoring the backup copy the configuration file.
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.sh
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\standalone.bat
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=restore-configuration.cli
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat --connect --file=restore-configuration.cli
This script reverts the changes made to the ejb3
, elytron
and remoting
subsystems. You should see the following result when you run the script:
The batch executed successfully
process-state: reload-required
For Linux: WILDFLY_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --connect --file=restore-system-exception.cli
For Windows: WILDFLY_HOME\bin\jboss-cli.bat --connect --file=restore-system-exception.cli
You should see the following result when you run the script:
The batch executed successfully
WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml
file with the backup copy of the file.You can also start the server and deploy the quickstarts or run the Arquillian tests from Eclipse using JBoss tools. For general information about how to import a quickstart, add a WildFly server, and build and deploy a quickstart, see Use JBoss Developer Studio or Eclipse to Run the Quickstarts.
This quickstart requires additional configuration and deploys and runs differently in JBoss Developer Studio than the other quickstarts.
ejb-security-context-propagation
project and choose Run As
--> Run on Server
.ejb-security-context-propagation
project and choose Run As
--> Java Application
.RemoteClient - org.jboss.as.quickstarts.ejb_security_context_propagation
and click OK
.ejb-security-context-propagation
project and choose Run As
--> Maven build
. Enter wildfly:undeploy
for the Goals
and click Run
.If you want to debug the source code of any library in the project, run the following command to pull the source into your local repository. The IDE should then detect it.
mvn dependency:sources