Categories
Security

Release of JSR-375 extension for JWT based authentication/authorization with JAX-RS

Introduction

Since the release of Java EE Security API (JSR-375) specification, there is an easy, uniform API to define authentication and to some extend authorization.

With this specification inplace, there will be no need anymore to change Application server specific configuration files within any Java EE 8 compliant server.

Another good thing is that Soteria, the RI of this JSR-375 specification can also be used on most of the Java EE 7 servers.

The downside is that only the ‘classic’ mechanisms using Basic, Digest and Form authentication using LDAP or Database based validation is standardized.
The reasons for this were time (specification was under time pressure since it needed to be included in Java EE 8) and usage of external libraries (and license issues)

The usage of tokens is not standardized but can be created since the API is already available within the specification.

JWT based extension

The above observations lead me to create such an extension which is able to retrieve a JWT from the header within a JAX-RS call and authenticate/authorize the ‘remote user’ using the JSR-375 defined APIs.

If you want to skip the (longer) explanation in this blog entry, you can go straight to the GitHub repository with the compact instructions to get started.

When you are not familiar with JSON Web Tokens (JWT), have a look at the site jwt.io which explains it to you very nicely.

Since the JWT specification only defines the ‘structure’, as a developer, you are free to specify the content of the JWT Payload.

This variability leads to the following implemented flow:

– Extension is responsible for retrieving the token defined with the authorization header (through a custom HttpAuthenticationMechanism)
– Control is handed over to a JWTTokenHandler which needs to be implemented by the developer to verify if the JWT is valid (signature, timings, … check) and extract authentication and authorization information.
– This information is communicated to the low-level layers of the security API so that ‘request’ is now considered as authenticated and that roles can be verified.

JWT payload structure

The JWT token is expected as part of the authorization header with the bearer marker as in the following example:

Authorization:Bearer eyJraWQiOiI3NGYyNDYxOS1kNzIwLTQ1YWQtOTk2Yy0zNWNkNzNiNDdmZmQiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJSUzUxMiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJTb3RlcmlhIFJJIiwicmVhbG1fYWNjZXNzIjp7InJvbGVzIjpbInVzZXIiLCJtYW5hZ2VyIl19LCJleHAiOjE1MTAzNDgxMTMsImlhdCI6MTUxMDM0ODA4M30.Bk37fPLgymuLZfLq_hdxt94PDRwNAkPkoajegaLLMrsuCCeKEb5DRXcpT9kUyrwEzSFamg_19Y7IT-0utDw4yd_rEzq7lIG8UFc8qnoYi9692Es_sqzwu64x0dM1ODOAHYEPFhIXPo2-nxquYyayMJI5PN4WlTPrRgoFCkY6saxJGzAGlfQIqH3ozaMvEJn1GK3uj1_zglv2HHK1t8lliazRkmRI-p1k9A_HCnnpChb9czpUP_wXRN4HxbADldS5sM7lgsFeLZDB4oewAh9sTXiseH7HnbPfmQKF18vb9Vejc9XzIGf0CrSOf6yVTyYDChYhI1eB5z6Wv33ofFgbPg

If you decode the payload from the above example (yes payload is unprotected but safe due to the signature) you have the following information:

{"sub":"Soteria RI",
"realm_access":{"roles":["user","manager"]},
"exp":1510348113,
"iat":1510348083
}

The sub claim defines the authentication information (who is it), the realm_access defines the groups/roles the ‘user’ has (what is he allowed) and exp and iat can be used to have a token which expires and thus replay attacks are excluded.

As I already mentioned, the payload structure is not defined by JWT, nor by Java EE Security API (as tokens are not tackled yet).

But another organization, Eclipse MicroProfile, also created their specification around authentication within micro-services. Have a look at this post which goes deeper into the subject.

So why not using their recommended claims as it will become probably the (defacto) standard.

The example in the GitHub repository implements such an MP JWT payload (also using RSA keys as mentioned within the specification).

Setup

Have a look at the readme  for all the details on how you can use the extension.

In short, this is all that you need to do

Add the dependency

You need to add the Maven dependency to include the code for the JWT extension for jsr375

<dependency>
   <groupId>be.atbash.ee.security.jsr375</groupId>
   <artifactId>soteria-jwt</artifactId>
   <version>0.9</version>
</dependency>

Implement the be.atbash.ee.security.soteria.jwt.JWTTokenHandler.

It is responsible for loading the RSA keys and verifying if the JWT is valid (Signing and time restriction for example)
The implementation is also responsible for retrieving the user name and the groups from the JWT payload and supply them to the system. They are used to construct the required principal and role info.

Conclusion

Usage of tokens, like JWT and OAuth2 tokens, is not included in the Java EE Security API specification for the moment. But the interfaces are already in place to extend to the system in any way you like. Those are used to create these extensions so that you can start using them already today, On Java EE 8 and Java EE 7!

Have fun.

Categories
Architecture

How small are micro-services?

Introduction

Sometimes you see heated discussions about the size of a micro-service. After all, they should be small as you can read from the definition. But small is a subjective concept and in the end, size doesn’t have the do anything with micro-services.

This is part of my monolith, micro-service and self-contained systems comparison blog series.

Single responsibility or Domain Driven Design (DDD)

Some people are so focused on the size (lines of code or number of classes) of their micro-service that they split up a micro-service or create some kind of strange construct.

But the single responsibility principle of a micro-service is much more important. The services are created to handle the logic of a domain.

In an online webshop, you could have some micro-services related to the order, product or payment management for example. And when there is some part of your application that needs the logic of that domain, it can call that micro-service.

Pizza someone?

Other people try to control the size of the micro-service by defining the number of people who are working in the team creating it.

Since each micro-service is ‘owned’ by a team, they define the team size as the number of people who has enough with 2 pizzas. The so-called pizza team.

But if you have ‘big eaters’ your team has then 3 persons, 1 analyst, 1 developer and 1 tester? The pizza team as a metric for the size of a micro-service doesn’t make any sense.

How small is small?

Well, as small or big as needed to create the logic around the domain for which the micro-service is designed. And in the case it happens to be 1 million lines of code, so be it. Ok, you should try to split your micro service then into different parts, each related to a subdomain in that case. But in a sense, there nothing wrong with bigger micro-services.

The lines of code is not an issue as long as it isn’t blocking the continuous delivery to production. When it tends to become a monolith where the development of a feature blocks the release of the micro-service to production, then you have an issue.

Conclusion

Forget about the lines of code or the number of people in the team which is creating the micro-service as a metric. That is not a good way to handle your micro-service architecture.

The main reason why you should do micro-services is that you have separate services, one for each domain of your application. And keep in mind that you should be able to go into production at any time with your micro-service. Don’t let a big feature block you to release some small updates you have done in your code.

Have fun.

Categories
Security

Session Hijacking protection with Octopus framework

Session Hijacking

What is Session Hijacking? Most Web applications store information of the user ( the classic example is the shopping basket) in the HTTP session. But also the basic user information. So, whenever someone else knows the ID of the session, he can impersonate the victim and act on behalf of him/her.

The following image shows the attack (image by A. Mitra)

Octopus protects

But there exist a few techniques to identify if such an attack is in progress for a certain session. And this technique is implemented within the Octopus framework (from v0.9.7 on)

You don’t have to do anything specific to activate this features, it is on by default.

When such an attack is detected, the attacker gets a blank page with the message that access was denied due to a Session Hijacking attack detection. But also the actual victim can be informed of the attempt to take over his/her session.

See the following short video to see the feature in action.

Youtube video

The code used to create the video is on GitHub.

Have a look at the parameter session.hijacking.level to configure the feature in case you have issues or want to deactivate it.

Conclusion

With the Session Hijacking protection, Octopus tries to make the applications as safe as possible. It is only one of the security features it has. You saw also in the video that the session ids are changed when the user logs on and logs off, just as OWASP recommends it.

Have fun.

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