How to intercept a non SSL connection in onAuthorization method? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am using MVC4, ASP.NET 4.5, C#
I want to add code to my onAuthorization method in global.asa to identify whether the connection is SSL or not, if not then to issue a permanent redirect to a SSL domain. I am using another domain that is SSLed.
In my Login controller I have code along the lines of :
[HttpGet]
public virtual ActionResult LogOn(string Error="")
{
if (Request.IsSecureConnection)
{
return View(viewModel);
}
else
{
return RedirectPermanent("https://www.mysslapp.com/logon");
}
}
I want to add this same functionality to the onAuthorization method so that when actions, covered by the [authorize] filter are called then they must also be accessed by a SSL connection. So I believe my global.asa code needs changing. However it will not accept "Request.IsSecureConnection", as the context is different.
My "pseudo" Global.asa onAuthorization routine is:
public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
{
if (Request.IsSecureConnection)
{
base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);
}
else
{
RedirectPermanent("https://www.mysslapp.com/logon");
}
}
The above will not work, but it describes what I am trying to achieve. I would appreciate help on how I need to change the above code to make it work, such that any "adventurous" use of urls, on a non SSL connection will automatically redirect to the SSL site logon page.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT1
Think I have the first bit:
filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsSecureConnection
EDIT2
if (filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsSecureConnection)
{
base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);
}
else
{
filterContext.Result = new RedirectResult("https://www.mysslapp.com");
}

Answer 1

I think your main issue is that you have 2 separate concerns and you are trying to achieve both in one go. Your 2 concerns are:
Making every URL of domain A 301 redirect to the same URL on domain B
Making domain B redirect all requests to HTTPS
The first one is really easy. Create a new IIS site for domain A, install the IIS rewrite module, add this web.config to the site, and then adjust your DNS (if necessary) to make the site live.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<httpRedirect
enabled="true"
destination="https://www.mysslapp.com$V$Q"
exactDestination="true"
httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
<httpProtocol>
<redirectHeaders>
<!-- This is to ensure that clients don't cache the 301 itself -
this is dangerous because the 301 can't change when put in place
once it is cached -->
<add name="Cache-Control" value="no-cache"/>
</redirectHeaders>
</httpProtocol>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
NOTE: The above configuration is for IIS 7.5. I am not sure if it will work on other versions of IIS.
Now none of the users of domain B will incur the performance hit of the redirect rule, so all is good.
For redirecting your users of domain B to HTTPS, you should not use 301. Why? Because not all browsers respond to 301.
You should also not only allow HTTPS on the domain, but allow both HTTP and HTTPS. Why? Because your users that type myssldomain.com will get an ugly error message instead of a fast redirect to you HTTPS protected site.
So the simple solution to making your whole site redirect to HTTPS is to use the RequireHttps attribute and register it as a global filter. The RequireHttpsAttribute uses a 302 redirect when a request comes in that is not secure.
public class FilterConfig
{
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
{
filters.Add(new RequireHttpsAttribute());
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
}
}
As for the AuthorizeAttribute, you should leave that out of the equation altogether unless you need some customization that deals with authorization.