[security-dev] Credential validation and storage

Hi guys, I'd like to simplify the Identity Management API a bit where credentials are concerned. At the moment we have the following methods defined by the IdentityManager interface: // Password Management boolean validatePassword(User user, String password); void updatePassword(User user, String password); void setPasswordEncoder(PasswordEncoder encoder); // Certificate Management boolean validateCertificate(User user, X509Certificate certificate); boolean updateCertificate(User user, X509Certificate certificate); Furthermore, in IdentityStore we have these methods which are essentially identical: boolean validatePassword(User user, String password); void updatePassword(User user, String password); // Certificate Management boolean validateCertificate(User user, X509Certificate certificate); boolean updateCertificate(User user, X509Certificate certificate); What I'd like to do is make this a little more abstract (and more future proof) by replacing these methods (in both interfaces) with the following two methods: boolean validateCredential(User user, Credential credential); void updateCredential(User user, Credential credential); Once the method invocation hits the IdentityStore implementation, we have a choice as to what we want to do here. I think the best option is to go with a credential encoding API based on the work that Pedro has already done (see [1] and [2]). My only suggestion would be to: a) make it a little more generic (we should use a factory object or something to provide the IdentityStore implementation with the correct encoder based on the type of credential) b) provide the encoder implementation with an invocation context containing a reference back to the calling IdentityStore to allow access to its internal methods and/or other state, and c) provide pluggable access to the encoding process, to allow the developer to provide custom behaviour for the encoding. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts on this? Shane [1] https://github.com/picketlink/picketlink/blob/master/idm/api/src/main/jav... [2] https://github.com/picketlink/picketlink/blob/master/idm/impl/src/main/ja...