[security-dev] PicketLink Usecase: SAML/GWT/REST Authentication

[Anil Saldhana]

* SAML tokens can contain information about the subject, issuer, 
authentication, authorization decisions and attributes (that can be 
roles). It is just a rich XML token.
* PicketLink SAML stuff is deeply integrated with Wildfly App Server via 
the JBossWeb authenticators/valves.  We have not looked at Undertow yet.

On 06/27/2013 10:23 AM, Bill Burke wrote:
> I don't think the SAML token includes role information.  Also, I don't
> believe the Picketlink SAML stuff is integrated with the app server,
> correct?  meaning you can't get integrated Java EE security.
>
> On 6/27/2013 11:15 AM, Anil Saldhana wrote:
>> Eric,  semantics is close to the SAML OAuth2 Bearer Token Profile.
>> http://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-oauth-saml2-bearer-16.txt
>>
>> Maybe in the future there may be opportunities to replace SAML SSO in GWT UI
>> by lightweight JSON based SSO probably involving JSON Web Token (JWT).
>>
>> On 06/27/2013 06:59 AM, Eric Wittmann wrote:
>>> Right - I think OAuth2 is likely the proper way to go about solving
>>> this.  The only reason I didn't go down that road was that I wanted to
>>> align with the version of picketlink included in EAP.  In a future
>>> version of Overlord (next product cycle) I'm guessing we'll switch from
>>> SAML to OAuth2.  Assuming the proper functionality is available out of
>>> the box in whatever version of EAP is available at that time.
>>>
>>> -Eric
>>>
>>> On 06/26/2013 04:42 PM, Bill Burke wrote:
>>>> Resteasy has already implemented something like this, but not SAML based:
>>>>
>>>> http://docs.jboss.org/resteasy/docs/3.0.1.Final/userguide/html/oauth2.html
>>>>
>>>> On 6/26/2013 2:45 PM, Eric Wittmann wrote:
>>>>> Everyone,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll just add a few more details to (hopefully) help add context.
>>>>>
>>>>> We have multiple UI applications in the Overlord world, and we wanted
>>>>> them all to be secured using SSO.  PicketLink/SAML worked very well to
>>>>> accomplish this, and it was trivial to get all of the UI WARs protected.
>>>>>
>>>>> Once the GWT apps themselves are protected, the browser can make RPC
>>>>> calls to the originating context for free, and the servlets being
>>>>> invoked will have a JAAS authenticated user.
>>>>>
>>>>> The last piece is then making REST calls to some *other* web context on
>>>>> behalf of the JAAS user.  The REST services might be hosted in some
>>>>> other context on the same server or even on some other server.
>>>>>
>>>>> So the approach is to issue a SAML token that contains the principal and
>>>>> all its roles, then pass that in an HTTP header when invoking the remote
>>>>> REST services.  The REST services are protected by two login modules - a
>>>>> standard BASIC auth login module and another one that can consume a SAML
>>>>> token.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a vital piece still missing, which is to actually sign the SAML
>>>>> token when sending, and verifying the signature when consuming.  If
>>>>> anyone would like to help with that it'd be super helpful!  :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Lastly - I'm certainly not a security expert, and am happy to be shown a
>>>>> better way to solve this use case going forward (note: we needed to use
>>>>> the version of picketlink that comes with EAP 6.1 - fwiw).
>>>>>
>>>>> -Eric
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 06/26/2013 02:18 PM, Anil Saldhana wrote:
>>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>>          this is a use case solved by Eric Wittman of Project Overlord using
>>>>>> PicketLink.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Final Solution in Eric's words:
>>>>>> Use-case is:  GWT UI app is protected by SAML SSO.  The UI makes GWT RPC
>>>>>> calls back to itself.  The UI RPC servlets (server-side) then make REST
>>>>>> calls to a set of REST services hosted in another web application, using
>>>>>> SAML tokens for authentication.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JIRA: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/DTGOV-11
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Background:
>>>>>> Eric had gotten his GWT UI App to use SAML SSO using PicketLink. He was
>>>>>> looking for ways to now make calls from the GWT app to REST services on
>>>>>> RESTEasy without re-authentication.He needed to get this usecase working
>>>>>> with PicketLink and RESTEasy bundled in EAP6. During discussions and
>>>>>> future plan, it was decided to use OAuth for REST services and look at
>>>>>> SAML Bearer Token Profile for guidance.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Solution:
>>>>>> Since RESTEasy authentication can use JAAS authentication,  Eric wrote a
>>>>>> login module for SAML bearer tokens.
>>>>>> https://github.com/Governance/overlord-commons/blob/master/overlord-commons-auth/src/main/java/org/overlord/commons/auth/jboss7/SAMLBearerTokenLoginModule.java
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I created a JIRA issue in PicketLink to migrate this login module:
>>>>>> https://issues.jboss.org/browse/PLINK-165
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This login module will be available in PicketLink v2.5.0
>>>>>> https://github.com/anilsaldhana/picketlink-bindings/blob/0808a9916093af6095430447e6899172fe19e86a/picketlink-jbas-common/src/main/java/org/picketlink/trust/jbossws/jaas/SAMLBearerTokenLoginModule.java
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I wanted to open a thread for discussion on this. I am unsure if other
>>>>>> projects have similar needs but this use case is pretty awesome to share
>>>>>> here.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> Anil
>>>>>>