Configuring Inbound Authentication for a Service Provider

The responsibility of the inbound authenticators component is to identify and parse all the incoming authentication requests and then build the corresponding response. A given inbound authenticator has two parts.

• Request Processor
• Response Builder

For each protocol supported by the WSO2 Identity Server, there should be an inbound authenticator. The Identity Server includes inbound authenticators for SAML 2.0, OpenID, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, Kerberos KDC, WS-Trust STS and WS-Federation (passive). The responsibility of the SAML 2.0 request processor is to accept a SAML request from a service provider, validate the SAML request and then build a common object model understood by the authentication framework and handover the request to it. The responsibility of the SAML response builder is to accept a common object model from the authentication framework and build a SAML response out of it.

Both the request processors and the response builders are protocol aware, while the authentication framework is not coupled to any protocol. See Architecture for more information on the complete flow where inbound authenticators come into play.

You can configure the following for inbound authentication.

Configuring SAML2 web single-sign-on

1. Expand the SAML2 Web SSO Configuration and click Configure.
2. Fill in the form that appears.
   
3. Click Register.

The following points should be taken into consideration when filling the above New Service Provider form.

Configuring WS-Trust Security Token Service

This requires registration of relying party endpoint addresses and their corresponding public certificates. In this scenario, STS generates a symmetric key and encrypts it with the public key of the relying party. This is included in the subject confirmation section of the SAML token, which is validated at the relying party end.

Follow the instructions below to configure STS for obtaining tokens.

1. Expand the WS-Trust Security Token Service Configuration and click Configure.
2. Specify the required information in the form that appears.
   
   • Endpoint Address - Relying party service endpoint where the token is being delivered to. This is a required field.
   • Certificate Alias - Corresponding public certificate for the service endpoint.
3. Click Apply. The following information is added to your service provider.
    

Configuring WS-Federation (Passive) or OpenID

1. Expand the WS-Federation (Passive) Configuration or OpenID Configuration.

2. Enter the identifier for the Passive STS Realm and the OpenID Realm. These identifiers need to be specified as identification when the service provider reaches out to the Identity Server. For WS-Federation (Passive), you can also specify the endpoint of the realm in Passive STS WReply URL.

   Tip: When WS-Federation Passive request comes from a relying party, it checks whether there is a Passive STS WReply URL defined for the service provider. If there is a Passive STS WReply URL defined, it sets the replyTo URL as the one given in service provider configurations (this may override the replyTo parameter given in the request). If there is no Passive STS WReply URL defined in the service provider configuration, the replyTo URL given in the request is used. If there is no replyTo URL given in the request, wtrealm is used for as the replyTo URL.

Configuring Kerberos KDC

Kerberos is an authentication protocol which can be used to secure communications in web services. Kerberos enables you to exchange user credentials securely. Thus, it also provides mutual authentication in which the server can also authenticate itself to the client.

The Kerberos protocol uses a trusted third party called “Key Distribution Center” (KDC). KDC consists of two logical parts. They are:

• Authentication Server
• Ticket Granting Server

The actual user credentials are stored within the Authentication Server. The communicating parties will retrieve a Kerberos ticket from the Ticket Granting Server. TGS validates the ticket-requesting users' credentials with the Authentication Server.

Kerberos Security within WSO2 Identity Server

WSO2 Identity Server uses an ApacheDS-based LDAP server user store. It also has an ApacheDS based on KDC implementation. Users can use WSO2 Identity Server as a KDC and implement Kerberos security to secure communications between services and clients.
Enable KDC within WSO2 Identity Server.

To use KDC in Identity Server, you need to use the embedded LDAP which ships with WSO2 Identity Server. Thus, by default, the KDC server is disabled. To enable the KDC server, go to the Identity Server home directory and navigate to the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf folder. There you will find a file named embedded-ldap.xml. Open embedded-ldap.xml and find the <KDCServer/> XML tag. You will configure the XML element named enabled. Set its value to true. After modifying it, the XML configuration should look like this:

<KDCServer>
<Property name="name">defaultKDC</Property>
<Property name="enabled">true</Property>
<Property name="protocol">UDP</Property>
<Property name="host">localhost</Property>
<Property name="port">${Ports.EmbeddedLDAP.KDCServerPort}</Property>
<Property name="maximumTicketLifeTime">8640000</Property>
<Property name="maximumRenewableLifeTime">604800000</Property>
<Property name="preAuthenticationTimeStampEnabled">true</Property>
</KDCServer>

Service Principals

The KDC Server issues tickets to access a particular service. Thus, each type of service is associated with a particular service name. In the case of Kerbero, we call the service name “Service Principal Name” (SPN). Before we assign an SPN to a service, we need to define the “Service Principal Name” in KDC.

Users can use this screen to perform operations on service principals.

1. Expand the Inbound Authentication Configuration section and click Configure under Kerberos KDC.
2. Specify the required information on the "Service Principal Management" page.
   
   • Service Principal Name – Name of the service principal. This usually takes following format: <Service Name>/<Host where service is running>. This field is mandatory.
   • Password – The password given to the service principal. You would use this password in the appropriate service's rampart configuration. Thus, the appropriate service will provide a password, given in rampart configuration, to KDC when it needs to authenticate itself to KDC. This field is mandatory.
   • Re-Type Password – Re-type password provided in the "Password" section to make sure the given password is accurate. This field is mandatory.
   • Description – Brief description of the service principal. This field is not mandatory.
     
3. Click on the Finish button.
4. Your service principal is added to a list. You can change the password or delete the service principal using the associated links.