Sending Notifications to External PEP Endpoints

You can register external PEP Endpoints in the WSO2 Identity Server. The Identity Server sends cache invalidation notifications (JSON, XML, EMAIL) to the pre-configured external PEP endpoints. Basic authentication will be used as the authentication mechanism.

This topic describes how you can enable the XACML engine to send invalidation notifications to these external PEP endpoints when there is a policy update or a change in user roles, permissions or attributes. This also clears the internal cache when user roles, permissions or attributes are updated.

1. If you are using EMAIL as the notification method, configure email transport details using the axis2.xml file. Follow the steps below to configure this: 
   1. Navigate to the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/axis2/axis2.xml file.

   2. Configure the relevant attributes according to your email account information. The following is a sample configuration.

      <transportSender name="mailto" class="org.apache.axis2.transport.mail.MailTransportSender">
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.from">wso2demomail@gmail.com</parameter>
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.user">wso2demomail</parameter>
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.password">mailpassword</parameter>
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.host">smtp.gmail.com</parameter>	 
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.port">587</parameter>
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.starttls.enable">true</parameter>
      	<parameter name="mail.smtp.auth">true</parameter>
      </transportSender>

2. Create an email template in <carbon-home>/repository/conf/email directory as shown below. Use this template path in the below configurations. Here, entitlement-email-config.xml is a sample template which contains the below code part.

   Hi {username},
   
   XACML PDP policy store has been changed..
   
    Policy Id : {targetId}
    Action : {action}
    Policy : {target}
   
    Best Regards,
    http://xacmlinfo.org

3. Do the following to send notifications to external endpoints when there is a policy change.

   1. Navigate to the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/identity/entitlement.properties file.

   2. Make the following change.

      PAP.Status.Data.Handler.2=org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension

      Here the trailing number that is added after "PAP.Status.Data.Handler" should be the minimum positive number you can add for a new "PAP.Status.Data.Handler".

4. Additionally, add the following to the entitlement.properties file and change accordingly. If you are sending notifications via email, use this and change the recipient email address.

   #org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.1=notificationType,JSON
   #org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.1=notificationType,XML
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.1=notificationType,EMAIL
   
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.2=ignoreServerVerification,true
   
   #org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.3=targetUrl,http://targetUrlAddress;username;password
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.3=emailAddress,wso2demomail@gmail.com
   
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.4=pdpNotificationAction,ENABLE;DISABLE;UPDATE;DELETE
   
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.5=papNotification,true
   
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.6=pdpNotification,true
   
   org.wso2.carbon.identity.entitlement.EntitlementNotificationExtension.9=roleName, admin
   
   

   The following table lists out and describes the above attributes.

   Attribute	Description
   notificationType	This is the type of the notification supported by the module. This can be EMAIL, XML or JSON.
   pdpNotification	This attribute is for PDP notifications. This specifies whether a notification must be sent for PDP policy store changes. By default, this is enabled, but if you want to disable the policy configurations, you can disable it by configuring this property
   pdpNotificationAction	This attribute is for PDP notification actions. This enables notifications for specified actions. There are four actions and you can define multiple actions using the semicolon. For example, ENABLE;DISABLE;UPDATE;DELETE. By default, notifications are sent to all type of changes, but if you want to limit it, you can configure this attribute.
   papNotification	This identifies whether a notification must be sent for PAP policy store changes. By default this is disabled and you can enable it by configuring this property.
   targetUrl	The target URL is written as "target url;username;password". The ";" symbol is used as the separator.
   roleName	This attribute represents the user group. If the EMAIL notification type is used and Target URL is not defined, you can define the user group that the email must be sent to using this attribute. For example, you can use this if you need to send the email to all the members of the Administrator group.
   ignoreServerVerification	This is related to SSL verification configuration. This attribute is responsible for the decision on whether to ignore or validate SSL verification for the endpoint URL, if XML and JSON are the notification types used.
   emailTemplateFile	If the EMAIL notification is used, the subject, body, and footer of the email must be defined. These can be uploaded from a separate file. There is a default format for the email that can be overridden. If you want to override it, you can configure the location to a template file using this. You need to configure the absolute path for the template file.
   emailSubject	This is the subject of the email. This is necessary if you wish to change the default email support used by the module.
   emailAddress	The email address that you want to send the email to.

5. In order to send notifications to external endpoints when a user attribute is updated, update the msg-mgt.properties file in the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/identity/ directory and add the following configurations to it. Change it according to your notification module. The sample below shows how email notification can be configured.

   module.name.1=email
   email.subscription.1=userOperation
   email.subscription.userOperation.template=[IS_HOME]/repository/conf/email/entitlement-email-config.xml
   email.subscription.userOperation.salutation=Admin
   email.subscription.userOperation.subject=User operation change information
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.1=privateMail
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.privateMail.address=wso2demomail@gmail.com
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.privateMail.salutation=wso2demomail@gmail.com
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.privateMail.subject= The User Operation change has occured.
   #
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.2=wso2demomail@gmail.com
   email.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.officeMail.address=wso2demomail@gmail.com
   #
   email.subscription.2=policyUpdate
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.template=<full path to the carbon- home>/repository/conf/email/entitlement-email-config.xml
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.salutation=Admin
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.subject= policy update information mail
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.endpoint.1=privateMail
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.endpoint.privateMail.address=wso2demomail@gmail.com
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.endpoint.privateMail.salutation=Admin 
   email.subscription.policyUpdate.endpoint.privateMail.subject=policy update information to private wso2demomail@gmail.com
   #
   #module.name.2=json
   #json.subscription.1=userOperation
   #json.subscription.userOperation.template=templatePath/jsonTemplate
   #json.subscription.userOperation.jsonId=3232
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.1=pepEndpoint1
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.pepEndpoint1.address=https://localhost:8080/testEndpoint1
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.pepEndpoint1.username=testUsername
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.pepEndpoint2.password=testPW
   #
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.2=pepEndpoint2
   #json.subscription.userOperation.endpoint.pepEndpoint2.address=https://localhost:8080/testEndpoint2
   
   threadPool.size = 10

6. It is recommended to use https to communicate with external endpoints. In that case, import your certificates to client-truststore.jks in the Identity Server. You can use the Java keytool command to do it. The following is a sample command. Note that the default password for client-truststore.jks is "wso2carbon".

   keytool -import -alias wso2 -file <path_to_your_certificate_file>/yourCertificate.crt -keystore <CARBON_SERVER>/repository/resources/security/client-truststore.jks