I feel a bit overwhelmed right now with how to approach building an SSO solution for a project I'm taking on. I understand that I need a centralized login site, but, I'd like input on what framework I should be using to achieve this. I've been reading a bit about Windows Identity Foundation (WIF), but, the lack of documentation and code samples is quite disappointing. DotNotOpenAuth sounds like it has much more usage by the community than WIF, but, I'm not sure if that's the right framework for me to use given that I am not going to be letting third-party accounts be used for logging in.
There are multiple user data stores to take into account as well; active directory and a SQL Server database.
I really don't care what framework I use so long as it's simple and intuitive; I don't want an overly complex solution. Documentation and samples are also a plus! I already have experience with creating custom role providers and membership providers; those were a breeze and easy to do.
Here is a very quick visual of the structure I'm dealing with:
Refer: Claims Based Identity & Access Control Guide and Identity Developer Training Kit. There's WIF samples there.
In terms of what you want to achieve, ADFS v2.0 will get you most of the way but it can only authenticate against AD. For SQL server, use IdentityServer and then federate ADFS and IdentityServer.
Have a look at SAML. It is designed to address SSO. You may also want to look into OpenID.
There are enterprise products out there, such as CA Site Minder or IBM Tivoli for this kind if thing. They are not cheap because building a custom solution for this will be quite a feat.
If you are .NET based - then .NET 4.5 (which includes WIF) is the way to go.
But the framework will be you simplest problem. Building that kind of security infrastructure is hard. Have a look at both the book and idenitity server from nzpcmad's answer as a starting point.
As far as cross-platform goes, SAML tends to lead the pack. There are many implementations (java, php, perl). As Dominick (#leastprivilege) mentioned, if every application is .Net based, WS-Fed via WIF is the way to go. (btw, Dominick is the man when it comes to WIF - definitely hit his blog and forums up if you plan on exploring that route)
OpenId and OAuth are alternatives that you will hear about. They are somewhat less secure (the trust is in the user, rather than the infrastructure) and you will find that you will have to build a provider in order to support sign-in using your own user store.
Regardless of the route you choose, be prepared to do a lot of reading and learning. Check out the wikipedia articles above for a nice overview of how these technologies work, and don't be afraid to ask questions..
Related
So I have been looking into OAuth lately, I want to authorize another of my domain which has separate database using OAuth. Upon searching I found auth0.com. Which sounded similar to Oauth and I created a sample implementation, it offers support for custom databases also. We have users stored in external api running on .net core, and I learnt that auth0.com is not free after trial expiration. So my efforts kindof got wasted. Now I am looking for authorization method that works for both domains.
Now my question is, does it even make sense to use Oauth for this task? Since I won't be giving it to third party and it's matter of two databases. How should i approach this and what are opensource Oauth services that allow custom database.
I am creating a new React SPA. Users of a legacy app need be able to use the new app without re-authenticating. So I need to support SSO.
It's important to note that it is also required that users of other (currently unspecified) apps should also be able to use the new app without re-authenticating, so whatever approach I take needs to be sufficiently decoupled to potentially allow this.
The legacy app supports authentication via Shibboleth, the new app currently has no authentication method, but uses JWT for authorisation.
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of such a scenario? It seems to me that I probably need to be create an OAuth2 authorisation server for the new app to talk to and I need to somehow bring Shibboleth into the mix for the authentication, maybe with the authorisation service acting as a Shibboleth Service Provider. Googling around hasn't revealed much useful info.
Is what I've described along the right lines? I know it's very high level and woolly, but I'm really not sure of the approach to take. Any advice, information or experience in this area would be gratefully received!
GOALS
It's a little bit of a subjective question, but the main goals are usually as follows:
Focus on building your UI and API security in a future facing manner
Also provide good Login Usability
Also deliver on non functional requirements such as availability / reliability
AUTHORIZATION SERVER
On the first point, the modern option is to integrate UIs and APIs with an Authorization Server - perhaps as in My Tutorial. Your architecture is then good, but the migration is not trivial.
FEDERATING TO SHIBBOLETH
The Authorization Server can then redirect to Shibboleth and talk SAML2.0 to achieve Single Sign On, as you suggest. It is a complex solution though, and may be a backwards step in some ways.
AVAILABILITY
This is usually a big concern, and most companies use a cloud provider such as Azure / AWS due to its high availability / low maintenance / low cost. Would this be a better option for you?
I'm trying to secure my MVC4 Web Api. Actually, I just really need an identity provider with some light security. My service is similar to twitter, from a security standpoint, there's not a lot of private data, but the service does need to know the userid for the caller.
It's also important to know that the web service will only be consumed by mobile devices right now, although a website may accompany it at some future point.
S.O. and the internet have led me to Thinktecture.IdentityModel, but man it seems complex and I can find exactly zero documentation or samples. I also haven't yet had a pleasant experience with claims-based authentication. I don't have a claims server, token provider, or anything like that, and it seems like you would need that to use this method. This all seems far to heavy for my situation.
I've also read about people implementing their own HMAC solution (https://github.com/cuongle/WebAPI.Hmac) or using OAuth (https://github.com/maksymilian-majer/DevDefined.OAuth) but these also seem a bit complex (I've read that OAuth without the helper class is enough to make the best developers cry, and I'm not the best). Janrain looks like it might work, but it looks like you have to pay for more than 2,500 authenticated users per year ...
What is the best way to implement a simple identity provider and security for Web Api?
Thanks!
I have attempted to answer a similar question to this before Create an OAuth 2.0 service provider using DotNetOpenAuth where I highlighted the Thinkecture Identity Server. The Setup instructions not too difficult (IMHO) The installation video is here and should help a lot.
I have updated my older answer with this too but there is also a fairly lightweight O-Auth 2.0 implementation example here Sample code here http://code.google.com/p/codesmith/downloads/detail?name=OAuth2.zip&can=2&q=#makechanges
Have you also read this well articulated question here Authenticating requests from mobile (iPhone) app to ASP.Net Web API (Feedback requested on my design)
Well, security is hard :)
As for Thinktecture.IdentityModel -- this is a token processing library (among other things) that you'd use in your WebAPI application. You'd use this so you don't need to do the logic to accept tokens (basic auth, SAML, SWT, JWT). Claims are just a side-effect.
If you're looking for an identity provider, then the sister open source project Thinktecture.IdentityServer is in beta for version 2. It's an identity provider that supports a custom database and issues tokens. The project URL is:
http://thinktecture.github.com/Thinktecture.IdentityServer.v2/
In response to the problem of finding example code as documentation, consider the samples folder in the Thinktecture github repo: https://github.com/thinktecture/Thinktecture.IdentityModel.45/tree/master/Samples
(Why do you need more reputation to comment on SO than to answer?)
I need to add social media login capabilities to a site and got stuck a bit, mostly because of the, more or less, non existing beginner documentation regarding these two.
I grasped the basics of DotNetOpenAuth by checking nerddinner but some here suggest WIF so I started looking into it. I realized quickly that just getting clear info explaining if this is feasible at all on shared hosting was not easy. I don't really want to pump through all reference knowledge, technical overviews (checked some out anyway), but just to be able to see the basic functionality.
So my questions are:
Where can I find any tutorials showing the basics and bare minimums needed for WIF to function in an explanatory manner? Preferably setting up WIF in a single MVC site combined with local authorization. Is there any step-by-step documentation at all?
Is WIF feasible, at all, on a single site or would the best option be to find other solutions like DotNetOpenAuth or use the separate APIs? When trying to get to the bottom of this, I have only found information regarding the value of WIF in large, multi-application, and platform environments combined with AD / ADFSv2. Which is completely outisde the bounds of what I need.
When I look at information on WIF, it's mostly linked to ADFSv2 and STS. Is this possible to implement at all for deployment on shared hosting for example?
Any input on the matter is appreciated.
WIF - see the How-to section here.
Also Get Started with Windows Identity Foundation (WIF).
Your best bet is probably to use WIF / ACS. Good link here or look at Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) and Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS) Content Map.
The other way is to add OAuth2 to a custom STS. Refer Identity Server for a really good example of this.
DotNetOpenAuth definitely works on shared hosting, and requires no set up on the web server at all (it's just a .dll in your web site's Bin folder). Depending on the social networking sites in particular that you want to hook up to, it can be just a few lines of code to wire everything up if you're hooking up to OpenID enabled sites.
If the sites you're hooking to use OAuth or OAuth 2, there is more code to write for each individual site to work against their particular proprietary API, but that would also be true for WIF unless they have code to support specific web sites that happen to align with your own.
I've been research WIF a lot recently and am still quite a bit confused about some of the specifics. I understand that if you're using ADFS that it's great, but that is not my scenario. Within my organization there are at least 3 main security systems. I have tried to get the company to use AD for all internal uses, but it's just not going to happen. In order to create a unified programming model, I've contemplated building add'l STS's for authenticating/authorizing.
Is this really wise? Most of the stuff I've read says just use ADFS. If not, then don't bother. Is it worth using WIF for the unified claims model when the process of creating custom STS's can be difficult?
What do you do in a case where not every user has an AD login to map to. For example, we have many seasonal employees that never actually log in to a machine with a personal account. The machine is logged in in the morning by a supervisor and the employee scans his/her badge and the employee id is used.
We are creating a new application whose code base will be accessed by at least three different sets of users. One group is internal (using AD) the other two would probably use asp.net default membership (okay, so two different sets of user stores). I'd love to be able to use WIF to unify authorization/auth, but with WIF it seems to want to go in the opposite direction. It de-emphasizes authentication and just kind of assumes it's all good when in many case that is the main concern. How could I leverage WIF in this scenario, if at all?
I've tried reading this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff359105.aspx
and I read up on StarterSTS which I still need to read up on a bit more. I've also watched the videos by the author of StarterSTS. I'm failing to really put everything together. It feels like WIF won't be useful for me, but I feel like it should since all I'm really after is a unified model of authentication and authorization. Thanks
What you want is similar to the Federated Identity model. You can build a Federated STS (like StarterSTS) that would normalize your claims for your application. You can then use something like ACS / AD FS V2 to federate these Identity Providers. Reading the Claims Based Identity Guide is a good start as well. When you Claims enable your application you can add more and more Identity Providers and use the Federation Provider to control the claims and set rules.
We just released a new version of the guide on CodePlex (the docs and code) while it goes through the production process.