Web-API, DelegatingHandler and security. Principal is reset in Controller - security

I've a DelegatingHandler in my Web-API service that, based on the headers provided, set a custom IPrincipal (ServicePrincipal) on the Thread.CurrentPrincipal and on the HttpContext.Current.User. This is all done on a call to SendAsync.
However, when the call get's into the Controller, the User property, the HttpContext.User and the Thread.CurrentPrincipal have all been mysteriously set to a RolePrincipal.
Does anyone know either what I'm doing wrong, or how to prevent the additional principal being set?
Thanks,
Kieron

I know this question is old, but I was having a similar issue trying to get the current user from within a function overriding DelegatingHandler.SendAsync(). The IPrincipal object doesn't seem to get initialized until after the call to base.SendAsync(). After that line is called, the IPrincipal object should have the user information.
I used request.GetRequestContext().Principal to retrieve it, but I'm guessing Thread.CurrentPrincipal would work too.

Related

How to access "current logged-in user" in remote methods?

recently in one of my applications I needed to access currently logged-in user data for saving in another model (something like the author of a book or owner of a book). in my googling, I encountered these references but none of them was useful.
https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1495
https://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Using+current+context
...
all of them have this problem about accessing context or req object. after three days I decided to switch to afterRemote remote hook and add Owner or Author on that stage.
but something was wrong with this solution.
in strongloop's documentations (https://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Remote+hooks) there is a variable as ctx.req.accessToken that saves current logged-in user access token. but in the application this variable is undefined.
instead, I found accessToken in ctx.req.query.access_token and it was currently access_token variable that is sent to the server.
here is my problem:
is this variable (ctx.req.query.access_token) always available or
it's just because loopback-explorer send access_token as GET
variable?
in production mode do applications need to send access_token as
GET variable or it should be sent as Authorization in the header?
why ctx.req.accessToken is undefined?
could these things change over time? cause most of users encounter this problem due to deprecation of app.getCurrentContext()
Is this variable (ctx.req.query.access_token) always available or
it's just because loopback-explorer send access_token as GET
variable?
Well if your application always sends in the querystring, then it'll be always available for you, but it also sent in the header, or cookie or in the request body, but I don't suggest using it because it if the user logged in and the access token is valid and ctx.req.accessToken should be available and you can use it.
In production mode do applications need to send access_token as
GET variable or it should be sent as Authorization in the header?
I believe Authorization header is preferred, as if you send it in a GET variable, well it'll be visible in the logs and someone with the access to the logs can access the session(well unless you trust everyone), other than this it's fine to have it in a GET variable. Though I believe loopback client SDKs(Angular, Android, iOS) all send it via Authorization header by default, so you might have to configure them(maybe not possible).
Why ctx.req.accessToken is undefined?
Sometimes the context is lost thanks to the database drivers connection pooling, or the context req is lost(ctx.req) and they are null.
Assuming ctx.req is defined(because sometimes it's not), then probably that means the user is not logged it, or it's access token wasn't valid(expired or not in database). Also it could be a bug(maybe misconfiguration on your side), which also means for you that you will authentication problems.
Could these things change over time? cause most of users encounter this problem due to deprecation of app.getCurrentContext()
app.getCurrentContext is risky to use and I don't suggest unless you have no other solution. If you use it and it works, it might stop working if the database driver changes or in some corner cases that you haven't tested it, it might not work.
In the updated doc https://loopback.io/doc/en/lb3/Using-current-context.html
add this in your remoting metadata
"accepts": [
{"arg": "options", "type": "object", "http": "optionsFromRequest"}
]
then
MyModel.methodName = function(options) {
const token = options && options.accessToken;
const userId = token.userId
}
but it says
In LoopBack 2.x, this feature is disabled by default for compatibility reasons. To enable, add "injectOptionsFromRemoteContext": true to your model JSON file.
so add "injectOptionsFromRemoteContext": true on your model.json file

How do I secure a Symfony2 REST API

I use the security.yml with access_control to secure the API paths based on the user role. This works fine, but how do I secure specific parameters like /api/project/:id?
Different users have access to different project ids. Therefore a database call has to be made to check if this user has access to this project.
I tried to use $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('GET', $projectId, 'Unauthorized access!'); in the ProjectController, which calls a custom Voter to check the database and therefore the access.
public function getProjectAction(Request $request, $id)
{
$this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('GET', $id, 'Unauthorized access!');
This works, but it seems very unpractical to add this code to 10+ actions in the ProjectController alone and also in many parts of the API.
Therefore my question: What is the best pratice to secure a REST api with symfony2, fosUserBundle and fosRestBundle
I would suggest introducing security voters.
http://symfony.com/doc/current/cookbook/security/voters_data_permission.html
Also create some kind of exception handler / listener, to catch your exceptions and make a specific error response.
http://symfony.com/doc/current/cookbook/service_container/event_listener.html

Logout on ServiceStack v4

I have ServiceStack v4 service but when I call the auth/logout route (using either POST or GET) to logout the currently logged-in user, I get an error:
400 Not Empty
User Name cannot be empty
Password Cannot be empty
As I wouldn't expect users to enter credentials when logging out, I am surely missing something?
I have the AuthFeature registered during host initialisation, and I am using CredentialsAuthProvider. I have taken the code from Github so I can see how it works.
My Client Code:
var rest = Restangular.one('auth/logout').get();
//var result = rest.post({userName: userName});
this.requestTracker.addPromise(rest);
return rest;
After a lot of digging, this happens when you are using CredentialsAuthProvider. Within this class, a validator is defined that validates all instances of the Authenticate request. As the logout route uses the Authenticate request, this validator is fired.
I got round it by modifying the validator to:
RuleFor(x => x.UserName).NotEmpty().When(d => d.provider != "logout");
RuleFor(x => x.Password).NotEmpty().When(d => d.provider != "logout");
This is probably not the most elegant way of fixing long term, but got me up and running.
I know this question is old, but I recently have been struggling with the same thing. What occurs is that before the Authenticate.Post function is called, the validation cache is checked and the CredentialsAuthProvider which has the mentioned validator fails unless username and password are not empty.
Now, i'm not sure if it makes a difference if you only have that provider enabled or not - I've not tested. I actually have my own custom provider that subclasses CredentialsAuthProvider and it's the only one I register.
The only way currently is to either pass a non-empty (but useless) password and username, or modify your own custom provider, overriding the Authenticate function and using a modified version of the validator as mentioned above.

UserAuthName in ServiceStack is null

At which point does session.UserAuthName gets set? I am playing around with the SocialBoostrapApi and login in successfully through Google which calls the OnAuthenticated method. However, UserAuthName is always null. I also don't see a field for it in the Auth tables.

Occasionally disabling Pyramid middleware

Note: If it's any help, I'm using Pyramid 1.3.2. I know it's a little out of date, I would prefer not to update right away, but I might be able to force an update if the latest version provides better support for this use case.
The Pyramid-based application I'm working on has a strict authorization policy: all calls must be authenticated. Since 1) it's tedious to add this manually on every request handelr; and 2) we don't want anybody to "forget" adding authentication, we enforce this server-wide using a simple Pyramid middleware (tween) that verifies all incoming requests.
Recently, this restriction has been slightly relaxed: occasionally, some resources should support (safe & idempotent) GET without authentication.
It seems this is directly opposed to the usual design ideas behind authentication in most web frameworks (optional authentication), so I can't get it to work quite as expected.
QUESTION: What is the correct approach to implementing an authorization middleware that authenticates & verifies authorization by default, but can be disabled on a view-by-view basis?
So far, I've tried adding a simple decorator like so:
def allows_anonymous_access(f):
f.allows_anonymous_access = True; return f
#allows_anonymous_access
def my_pyramid_view(request):
# ...
In my middleware, I would like to use it like this:
def authorization_middleware(handler, registry):
def verify_authorization(request):
# Identify the user making the request. Make sure we get the
# user's identify if provided, even when the request handler
# allows anonymous access.
try:
request.principal = extract_user(request)
except InvalidCredentials, error:
if getattr(handler, 'allows_anonymous_access', False):
request.principal = AnonymousUser()
else:
raise HTTPUnauthorized(...)
# Invoke the handler.
return handler(request)
# Middleware that will pre/post-process the request.
return authorization_middleware
However, when the middleware executes, handler is not my view. It happens to be a bound method (pyramid.router.Router.handle_request) which does not provide me access to the view callable, meaning I cannot access the flag set by the middleware.
You probably want pyramid.config.set_default_permission(permission). From docs:
Adding a default permission makes it unnecessary to protect each view
configuration with an explicit permission, unless your application
policy requires some exception for a particular view.
If a default permission is in effect, view configurations meant to
create a truly anonymously accessible view (even exception view views)
must use the value of the permission importable as
pyramid.security.NO_PERMISSION_REQUIRED. When this string is used as
the permission for a view configuration, the default permission is
ignored, and the view is registered, making it available to all
callers regardless of their credentials.
Answer provided by raydeo_ on #pyramid freenode IRC channel.

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