Weblogic Cluster Security

Overview of Weblogic Security
• ··Introduction to the WebLogic Security Service
• ··Features of the WebLogic Security Service
• ··Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS)
• ··Balancing Ease of Use and Customizability
• ··New and Changed Features in This Release

Introduction to the WebLogic
Security Service
● Deploying, managing, and maintaining security is a huge challenge for an
information technology (IT) organization that is providing new and expanded
services to customers using the Web. To serve a worldwide network of Web-based
users, an IT organization must address the fundamental issues of maintaining the
confidentiality, integrity and availability of the system and its data. Challenges to
security involve every component of the system, from the network itself to the
individual client machines. Security across the infrastructure is a complex business
that requires vigilance as well as established and well-communicated security
policies and procedures.
● WebLogic Server includes a security architecture that provides a unique and secure
foundation for applications that are available via the Web. By taking advantage of
the security features in WebLogic Server, enterprises benefit from a comprehensive,
flexible security infrastructure designed to address the security challenges of making
applications available on the Web. WebLogic security can be used standalone to
secure WebLogic Server applications or as part of an enterprise-wide, security
management system that represents a best-in-breed, security management solution.

Features of the WebLogic Security
Service
● A comprehensive and standards-based design.
● End-to-end security for WebLogic Server-hosted applications, from the mainframe
to the Web browser.
● Legacy security schemes that integrate with WebLogic Server security, allowing
companies to leverage existing investments.
● Security tools that are integrated into a flexible, unified system to ease security
management across the enterprise.
● Easy customization of application security to business requirements through
mapping of company business rules to security policies.
● A consistent model for applying security policies to Java EE and application-defined
resources.
● Easy updates to security policies. This release includes usability enhancements to
the process of creating security policies as well as additional expressions that
control access to WebLogic resources.
● Easy adaptability for customized security solutions.

Service
● A modularized architecture, so that security infrastructures can change over time to
meet the requirements of a particular company.
● Support for configuring multiple security providers, as part of a transition scheme or
upgrade path.
● A separation between security details and application infrastructure, making security
easier to deploy, manage, maintain, and modify as requirements change.
● Default WebLogic security providers that provide you with a working security
scheme out of the box. This release supports additional authentication stores such as
databases, and gives the option to configure an external RDBMS system as a
datastore to be used by select security providers.
● Customization of security schemes using custom security providers
● Unified management of security rules, security policies, and security providers
through the WebLogic Server Administration Console.

Service
• Support for standard Java EE security technologies such as the Java
Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS), Java Secure Sockets
Extensions (JSSE), Java Cryptography Extensions (JCE), and Java
Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC).
• A foundation for Web services security including support for Security
Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 1.1 and 2.0.
• Capabilities which allow WebLogic Server to participate in single sign-on
(SSO) with web sites, web applications, and desktop clients.
• A framework for managing public keys which includes certificate lookup,
verification, validation, and revocation as well as a certificate registry.

Oracle Platform Security Services
(OPSS)
● Oracle Platform Security Services (OPSS) provides enterprise product
development teams, systems integrators (SIs), and independent
software vendors (ISVs) with a standards-based, portable, integrated,
enterprise-grade security framework for Java Standard Edition (Java
SE) and Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications.
● OPSS provides an abstraction layer in the form of standards-based
application programming interfaces (APIs) that insulates developers
from security and identity management implementation details. With
OPSS, developers don't need to know the details of cryptographic key
management or interfaces with user repositories and other identity
management infrastructures. With OPSS, in-house developed
applications, third-party applications, and integrated applications all
benefit from the same uniform security, identity management, and
audit services across the enterprise. OPSS is available as part of
WebLogic Server.

Balancing Ease of Use and
Customizability
● Easy to use: WebLogic Server provides a Domain Configuration Wizard to help
with the creation of new domains with an administration server, managed servers,
and optionally, a cluster, or with extending existing domains by adding individual
severs. The Domain Configuration Wizard also automatically generates a
config.xml file and start scripts for the servers you choose to add to the new domain.
● Manageable: Administrators who configure and deploy applications in the
WebLogic Server environment can use the WebLogic security providers included
with the product. These default providers support all required security functions, out
of the box. An administrator can store security data in the WebLogic Server-
supplied, security store (an embedded, special-purpose, LDAP directory server) or
use an external LDAP server, database, or user source. To simplify the
configuration and management of security in WebLogic Server, a robust, default
security configuration is provided.
● Customizable: For application developers, WebLogic Server supports the WebLogic
security API and Java EE security standards such as JAAS, JSS, JCE, and JACC.
Using these APIs and standards, you can create a fine-grained and customized
security environment for applications that connect to WebLogic Server.

Security Fundamentals
• ··Auditing
• ··Authentication
• ··Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
• ··Single Sign-On (SSO)
• ··Authorization
• ··Identity and Trust
• ··Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• ··Firewalls

Auditing
● Auditing is the process whereby information about operating requests and
the outcome of those requests are collected, stored, and distributed for the
purposes of non-repudiation. In other words, auditing provides an electronic
trail of computer activity. In the WebLogic Server security architecture, an
Auditing provider is used to provide auditing services.
● If configured, the WebLogic Security Framework will call through to an
Auditing provider before and after security operations (such as
authentication or authorization) have been performed, when changes to the
domain configuration are made, or when management operations on any
resources in the domain are invoked. The decision to audit a particular event
is made by the Auditing provider itself and can be based on specific audit
criteria and/or severity levels. The records containing the audit information
may be written to output repositories such as an LDAP server, database, and
a simple file.

Authentication
Authentication is the mechanism by which callers prove that they are acting on
behalf of specific users or systems. Authentication answers the question, "Who
are you?" using credentials such as username/password combinations.
In WebLogic Server, Authentication providers are used to prove the identity of
users or system processes. Authentication providers also remember, transport,
and make identity information available to various components of a system (via
subjects) when needed. During the authentication process, a Principal Validation
provider provides additional security protections for the principals (users and
groups) contained within the subject by signing and verifying the authenticity of
those principals.

Authentication
– Subjects and Principals
Subjects and principals are closely related.
A principal is an identity assigned to a user or group as a result of authentication.
Both users and groups can be used as principals by application servers such as
WebLogic Server. The Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS)
requires that subjects be used as containers for authentication information,
including principals.
As part of a successful authentication, principals are signed and stored in a
subject for future use. A Principal Validation provider signs principals, and an
Authentication provider's LoginModule actually stores the principals in the
subject. Later, when a caller attempts to access a principal stored within a
subject, a Principal Validation provider verifies that the principal has not been
altered since it was signed, and the principal is returned to the caller (assuming
all other security conditions are met).
Any principal that is going to represent a WebLogic Server user or group needs
to implement the WLSUser and WLSGroup interfaces, which are available in

Authentication
– Java Authentication and Authorization Service
(JAAS)
Whether the client is an application, applet, Enterprise JavaBean (EJB), or servlet that
requires authentication, WebLogic Server uses the Java Authentication and
Authorization Service (JAAS) classes to reliably and securely authenticate to the client.
JAAS implements a Java version of the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)
framework, which permits applications to remain independent from underlying
authentication technologies. Therefore, the PAM framework allows the use of new or
updated authentication technologies without requiring modifications to your application.
WebLogic Server uses JAAS for remote fat-client authentication, and internally for
authentication. Therefore, only developers of custom Authentication providers and
developers of remote fat client applications need to be involved with JAAS directly.
Users of thin clients or developers of within-container fat client applications (for
example, those calling an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) from a servlet) do not require the
direct use or knowledge of JAAS.

Authentication
– CallbackHandlers
● A CallbackHandler is a highly-flexible JAAS standard that allows a variable number of arguments to be
passed as complex objects to a method. There are three types of CallbackHandlers: NameCallback,
PasswordCallback, and TextInputCallback, all of which are part of the
javax.security.auth.callback package. The NameCallback and PasswordCallback
return the username and password, respectively. TextInputCallback can be used to access the data
users enter into any additional fields on a login form (that is, fields other than those for obtaining the
username and password). When used, there should be one TextInputCallback per additional form
field, and the prompt string of each TextInputCallback must match the field name in the form.
WebLogic Server only uses the TextInputCallback for form-based Web application login.
● An application implements a CallbackHandler and passes it to underlying security services so that
they may interact with the application to retrieve specific authentication data, such as usernames and
passwords, or to display certain information, such as error and warning messages.
● CallbackHandlers are implemented in an application-dependent fashion. For example,
implementations for an application with a graphical user interface (GUI) may pop up windows to prompt
for requested information or to display error messages. An implementation may also choose to obtain
requested information from an alternate source without asking the user.
● Underlying security services make requests for different types of information by passing individual
Callbacks to the CallbackHandler. The CallbackHandler implementation decides how to
retrieve and display information depending on the Callbacks passed to it. For example, if the
underlying service needs a username and password to authenticate a user, it uses a NameCallback and
PasswordCallback. The CallbackHandler can then choose to prompt for a username and

Authentication
– Mutual Authentication
With mutual authentication, both the client and the
server are required to authenticate themselves to each
other. This can be done by means of certificates or
other forms of proof material. WebLogic Server
supports two-way SSL authentication, which is a form
of mutual authentication. However, by strict definition,
mutual authentication takes place at higher layers in
the protocol stack then does SSL authentication.

Authentication
– Servlet Authentication Filters
As defined by the Java Servlet API 2.3 specification, filters are objects that can modify a request
or response. Filters are preprocessors of the request before it reaches the servlet, and/or
postprocessors of the response leaving the servlet. Filters provide the ability to encapsulate
recurring tasks in reusable units.
Filters can be used as a substitute for container-based authentication but there are some drawbacks
to this design:
• As specified by the Java Servlet API 2.3 specification, filters are run after authentication and
authorization. If filters are used for authentication, they must also be used for authorization
thereby preventing container-managed authorization from being used. Most use cases that require
extensions to the authentication process in the Servlet container do not require extensions to the
authorization process. Having to implement the authorization process in a filter is awkward, time
consuming, and error-prone.
• J2EE filters are defined per Web application. Code for a filter must reside in the WAR file
for the Web application and the configuration must be defined in the web.xml file. An
authentication mechanism is typically determined by the system administrator after an application
is written (not by the programmer who created the WAR file). The mechanism can be changed
during the lifetime of an application, and is desired for all (or at least most) applications in a site.

Authentication
– Identity Assertion Providers and LoginModules
When used with a LoginModule, Identity Assertion providers support single sign-on.
For example, an Identity Assertion provider can process a SAML assertion so that users
are not asked to sign on more than once.
The LoginModule that an Identity Assertion provider uses can be:
• Part of a custom Authentication provider you develop.
• Part of the WebLogic Authentication provider that Oracle developed and packaged
with WebLogic Server.
• Part of a third-party security vendor's Authentication provider.
Unlike in a simple authentication situation, the LoginModules that Identity Assertion
providers use do not verify proof material such as usernames and passwords; they
simply verify that the user exists.

Authentication
– Identity Assertion and Tokens
Identity Assertion providers support user name mappers, which map a
valid token to a WebLogic Server user. You develop Identity Assertion
providers to support the specific types of tokens that you will be using to
assert the identities of users or system processes. You can develop an
Identity Assertion provider to support multiple token types, but the
WebLogic Server administrator must configure the Identity Assertion
provider so that it validates only one "active" token type. While you can
have multiple Identity Assertion providers in a security realm with the
ability to validate the same token type, only one Identity Assertion
provider can actually perform this validation.

Authentication
– Challenge Identity Assertion
Challenge identity assertion schemes provide for
multiple challenges, responses messages, and state. A
WebLogic Server security realm can include security
providers that support authentication protocols such as
Microsoft's Windows NT Challenge/Response
(NTLM), Simple and Protected GSS-API Negotiation
Mechanism (SPNEGO), and other challenge/response
authentication mechanisms. WebLogic Server includes
a SPNEGO security provider, named the Negotiate
Identity Assertion provider. You can develop and
deploy security providers that implement NTLM or
other challenge/response authentication mechanisms.

Authentication
– Servlet Authentication Filters
As defined by the Java Servlet API 2.3 specification, filters are objects that can modify a
request or response. Filters are preprocessors of the request before it reaches the servlet,
and/or postprocessors of the response leaving the servlet. Filters provide the ability to
encapsulate recurring tasks in reusable units.
Filters can be used as a substitute for container-based authentication but there are some
drawbacks to this design:
• As specified by the Java Servlet API 2.3 specification, filters are run after
authentication and authorization. If filters are used for authentication, they must also be
used for authorization thereby preventing container-managed authorization from being
used. Most use cases that require extensions to the authentication process in the Servlet
container do not require extensions to the authorization process. Having to implement
the authorization process in a filter is awkward, time consuming, and error-prone.
• J2EE filters are defined per Web application. Code for a filter must reside in the
WAR file for the Web application and the configuration must be defined in the
web.xml file. An authentication mechanism is typically determined by the system
administrator after an application is written (not by the programmer who created the
WAR file). The mechanism can be changed during the lifetime of an application, and is

SAML
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
The SAML standard defines a common XML framework for creating, requesting, and
exchanging security assertions between software entities on the Web. This framework
specifies how SAML assertions and protocols may be used to provide the following:
• Browser-based single sign-on (SSO) between online business partners
• The exchange of identity information in web services security

SAML
SAML was developed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS), and this release of WebLogic Server includes broad
support for SAML 1.1 and 2.0, including support for the following:
• SAML Web SSO profile
The SAML Web SSO profile specifies how SAML assertions and protocols should be
used to provide browser-based single sign-on between an Identity Provider (a producer
of assertions) and a Service Provider (a consumer of assertions).
In the SAML 2.0 Web SSO profile, a web user either invokes a resource hosted by a
Service Provider site, or accesses an Identity Provider site in a way that results in an
invocation on a resource hosted by the Service Provider. In either case, the web user is
authenticated by the Identity Provider, which in turn generates an assertion on behalf of
that user that contains information about the user's identity. The Identity Provider sends
the assertion to the Service Provider, which consumes the assertion by extracting
identity information about the user that is mapped to a Subject in the local security
realm.

SAML
• Web Services Security (WS-Security) SAML Token profile 1.1
The SAML Token profile is part of the core set of WS-Security standards, and specifies
how SAML assertions can be used for Web services security. WebLogic Server supports
SAML Token Profile 1.1, including support for SAML 2.0 and SAML 1.1 assertions.
SAML Token Profile 1.1 is backwards compatible with SAML Token Profile 1.0.

Single Siggn On (SSO)
Single Sign-On is the ability to require a user to sign
on to an application only once and gain access to many
different application components, even though these
components may have their own authentication
schemes. Single sign-on enables users to login securely
to all their applications, web sites and mainframe
sessions with just one identity. WebLogic Server
provides single sign-on (SSO) with the following
environments:
• ··Web Browsers and HTTP Clients via SAML
• ··Desktop Clients

Authorization
Authorization is the process whereby the interactions between users and WebLogic
resources are controlled, based on user identity or other information. In other words,
authorization answers the question, "What can you access?" In WebLogic Server, an
Authorization provider is used to limit the interactions between users and WebLogic
resources to ensure integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
The following sections describe authorization concepts and functionality:
• ··WebLogic Resources
• ··Security Policies
• ··ContextHandlers
• ··Access Decisions
• ··Adjudication
• ··Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC)

Identity and Trust
Private keys, digital certificates, and trusted certificate authority certificates establish
and verify identity and trust in the WebLogic Server environment.
The public key is embedded into a digital certificate. A private key and digital certificate
provide identity. The trusted certificate authority (CA) certificate establishes trust for a
certificate. Certificates and certificate chains need to be validated before a trust
relationship is established.
This topic details the concepts associated with identity and trust. For more information,
see:
• ··Private Keys
• ··Digital Certificates
• ··Certificate Authorities
• ··Certificate Lookup and Validation

Secure Sockets Layer(SSL)
WebLogic Server fully supports SSL communication,
which enables secure communication between
applications connected through the Web. This release
of WebLogic Server includes support for using the
Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) as the SSL stack
for the following:
• Incoming SSL connections.
• Outgoing SSL connections that use the WebLogic
SSL APIs (it has always been possible for applications
to call JSSE directly for outbound SSL connections).

Firewall
A firewall limits traffic between two networks. Firewalls can be a combination of software and
hardware, including routers and dedicated gateway machines. They employ filters that allow or
disallow traffic to pass based on the protocol, the service requested, routing information, and the
origin and destination hosts or networks. They may also allow access for authenticated users.
You can use the following features in WebLogic Server in conjunction with firewalls:
• ··Connection Filters
• ··Perimeter Authentication

Java EE and Weblogic Security
For implementation and use of user authentication and authorization, WebLogic Server
utilizes the security services of the JDK version 6.0. Like the other Java EE components,
the security services are based on standardized, modular components. WebLogic Server
implements these Java security service methods according to the standard, and adds
extensions that handle many details of application behavior automatically, without
requiring additional programming.
WebLogic Server's support for Java EE 6.0 security means that application developers
can take advantage of Sun Microsystems' latest enhancements and developments in the
area of security, thus leveraging a company's investment in Java programming expertise.
By following the defined and documented Java standard, WebLogic Server's security
support has a common baseline for Java developers. The innovations that WebLogic
Server provides rest on the baseline support for J2SE 5.0.
The following topics are discussed in this section:
• ··Java EE 6.0 Security Packages
• ··Common Secure Interoperability Version 2 (CSIv2)

Weblogic Cluster Security

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