I am trying to learn the concepts of Java EE (EJB,JSF...) and therefore I am working on an example application.
Unfortunately I have problems to understand how some concepts should work together and if I am doing it in an correct professional manner. At this point, I am really confused about all these different methods and hope someone can help me out.
The core functionality of my application consists of a document server where registered users can upload documents and describe it with useful information.
The Documents should simply be saved on the Server and all Information should be stored in a MySQL Database.
I created three Projects with Netbeans.
Enterprise Application Project (DocApp)
EJB Module (DocApp-ejb)
and a Web Application Project (DocApp-war).
The main things work fine like
accessing the database with JPA
uploading files with primefaces FileUploader
injecting JSF with EJB
and even the user authorization with JDBC-Realm as shown in this tutorial
http://jugojava.blogspot.de/2011/02/jdbc-security-realm-with-glassfish-and.html
My Problem now is, that all pages in a specific subdirectory should only be accessible by registered users.
The only way i see is to use one SessionScoped ManagedBean, instead of using multiple RequestScoped ManagedBeans .
This seems to be a bad practice but I have no Idea how to handle this otherwise.
The way i understand it, there should be one ManagedBeand for every JSF Page (xhtml).
Is there a good way to handle this or am i doing anything wrong?
The default mechanism to give access to a whole sub directory is adding a security constraint in web.xml for the URL pattern representing that directory.
Every registered user should get a role that represents being registered, eg "REGISTERED"
This role is then added to the security constraint in web.xml.
The interaction between JSF and the Servlet container managed security is a little awkward, but it does work.
Related
Currently, I am working on a web project using JSF 2.0, Tomcat 7 and MongoDB. I have a big question of how to handle the session management and authentication/authorization with users in a database.
The structure I want is as follows: only logged in users can create events and everyone can see the created events.
create.xhtml --> only for logged in users.
events.xhtml --> public for everyone.
The basic structure I'm planning is:
Check if the page requires logged in user (e.g. create.xhtml)
If yes, check if user is logged in
If user is not logged in, go to login.xhtml
If successfully logged in, come back to requested page
Keep the "User is logged in" information unless user clicks log out
button. (there I guess #SessionScoped gets into play)
The question is:
What is the less complicated way of doing this?
Where should I use the #SessionScoped annotation? In Create.java or
LoginManager.java?
Spring security looks kind of complicated for my issue, do I really
need it? if yes, can you explain a little bit of how the implementation works together with JSF 2.0 and Mongo DB?
There are several options. Which to choose is fully up to you. Just objectively weigh the concrete advantages and disadvantages conform your own situation.
1. Use Java EE provided container managed authentication
Just declare a <security-constraint> in web.xml which refers a security realm which is configured in servletcontainer. You can for your webapp specify URL pattern(s) which should be checked for login and/or role(s), e.g. /secured/*, /app/*, /private/*, etc.
Before Java EE 8, you unfortunately still need to configure a security realm in a servletcontainer-specific way. It's usually described in servletconainer-specific documentation. In case of Tomcat 8, that's the Realm HOW-TO. For example, a database based realm based on users/roles tables is described in section "JDBCRealm".
Since Java EE 8, there will finally be a standard API based on JSR-375.
Advantages:
Relatively quick and easy to setup and use.
Since Java EE 8 there's finally a robust and flexible standard API.
Disadvantages:
Before Java EE 8, realm configuration is container-specific. In Java EE 8, the new JSR-375 Security Spec should solve that with help of JASPIC.
Before Java EE 8, , there is no fine grained control.
Before Java EE 8, it's very spartan; no "remember me", poor error handling, no permission based restriction.
See also:
Performing user authentication in Java EE / JSF using j_security_check - contains complete code examples
Java EE kickoff application - example web application (developed by me) which also demonstrates Java EE 8 authentication with Soteria (the JSR-375 RI).
2. Homegrow a servlet filter
This allows for much more fine grained control, but you're going to need to write all the code yourself and you should really know/understand how you should implement such a filter to avoid potential security holes. In JSF side, you could for example just put the logged-in user as a session attribute by sessionMap.put("user", user) and check in the filter if session.getAttribute("user") is not null.
Advantages:
Fine grained control.
Completely container independent.
Disadvantages:
Reinvention of the wheel; new features require a lot of code.
As starter, you're never sure if your code is 100% robust.
See also:
Is there any easy way to preprocess and redirect GET requests? - contains introducory explanation and kickoff example for authentication
Authorization redirect on session expiration does not work on submitting a JSF form, page stays the same - contains more extended kickoff example for authentication which also covers ajax requests
How control access and rights in JSF? - contains kickoff example for authorization
3. Adapt a 3rd party framework
For example, Apache Shiro, Spring Security, etc. This offers usually much more fine grained configuration options than standard container managed authentication and you don't need to write any code for this yourself, expect of the login page and some (XML) configuration of course.
Advantages:
Fine grained control.
Completely container independent.
No reinvention of the wheel; minimum of own code.
Thoroughly developed and tested by lot of users, so most likely 100% robust.
Disadvantages:
Some learning curve.
See also:
JSF2 - Shiro tutorial - an extensive tutorial on integrating Shiro in JSF2 webapp
I am trying to follow http://liferaysatish.blogspot.de/2011/11/permissionchecker.html (which is basically a repost of another blog post).
I need to implement my own PermissionChecker to be able to support an SSO server (check if the user has been authenticated). However, there article mentions com.liferay.portal.security.permission.PermissionCheckerImpl, but there is no such class in whatever jars I was looking for it.
What I am trying to achive is to tie liferay's internal security to an external SSO Server (wso2). If there is another way to achieve this, I would love to try it.
I was trying with AdvancedPermissionChecker and SimplePermissionChecker, but I become endless redirects using them.
regards and thanks
Leon
I need to implement my own PermissionChecker
I don't believe so. At least you can make your life easier if you integrate your SSO just like any of the already integrated 6 (or so) SSO systems, authenticating the current user to Liferay and then leaving the actual permission check to Liferay.
SSO is typically used for making sure the user is who they are, then redirecting to the application they're providing their services to. If you want to maintain permissions externally to Liferay, you're best of to use an LDAP and group your users there. On the Liferay side, map those LDAP users/groups to Lifeary-usergroup-memberships. Provide the required permissions/memberships for those usergroups and you're set. Implementing your own permission checking (which will also be used internal to Liferay) is one of the least maintainable ideas that I've ever heard of.
I believe the latest Liferay does not have this file anymore. You should search for it in the 5.0 version. And the JAR itself is in \ROOT\WEB-INF\lib\portal-impl.jar
http://docs.liferay.com/portal/5.0/javadocs/portal-impl/com/liferay/portal/security/permission/PermissionCheckerImpl.java.html
Both files seem very similar, subsequently I'm struggling to understand their purposes.
I have seen faces-config referred to as a plain JSF controller, while adfc-config is an extended ADF controller.
Some clarification would be good, as right now I can't see why you would have both in an ADF application if that is the case, so I must be missing something.
adfc-config is different from faces-config
Faces Config is the controller of your application, it's what make JSF based frameworks work effectively, and it's where you will need to define your own customization like view handlers, converters, validators, etc...
adfc-config is just the main application unbounded Task Flow, which make it a little easier for developers to define their pages and main navigation root inside of it instead of doing it the JSF way and define them in faces config, it also provide additional functionality like defining managed beans which will have much more scopes than the original JSF given the ADF Framework additions, but still at the end it's just an Unbounded Task Flow. Here is the documentation reference about adfc-config.xml
adfc-config is used by the ADF Faces framework, when task flows are in the picture.
More information at: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/web.1111/b31974/taskflows.htm
Yes, you are right when you say that the functionality looks similar. Things like pageFlowScope / backingBeanScope / task flows / etc. are extensions to the standard JSF framework and require a custom configuration file.
So, if you create a project based on the Fusion WebApplication template, then you will see a default adfc-config.xml file entry.
Hope that helps.
We are using JavaServer Faces 2.2 (Mojarra 2.2.1) in our project. I noticed something odd. On a page called reporting.xhtml where I use f:metadata with the new f:viewAction my browser, Safari in this case, shows the following query string:
reporting.jsf?jftfdi=&jffi=reporting%3Ffaces-redirect%3Dtrue
What wizardry is this? What are the parameters jftfdi and jiffi doing? What is their purpose?
It's part of the new JSF 2.2 feature as described by spec issue 949. Basically, it enables JSF to identify the client window. It's basically the same as cid in CDI's #ConversationScoped and windowId in CODI's #ViewScoped/#ViewAccessScoped. This client window ID is in turn used by among others the new JSF 2.2 #FlowScoped scope as described by spec issue 730.
The "What's new in JSF 2.2?" article of my fellow Arjan Tijms explains the need pretty clearly:
LifeCycle
Identify client windows via a Window Id
Arguably one of the biggest problems that has been plaguing web application development since its inception is the inability to distinguish requests originating from different windows of a single browser. Not only has an actual solution been long overdue, it has taken a long time to realize this even was a problem.
The root of the problem, as always, is that the HTTP protocol is inherently stateless while applications in general are not. There is the concept of a cookie though, which is overwhelmingly the mechanism used to distinguish requests from different users and to implement things like a session scope where on its turn the bulk of login mechanisms are based on.
While a cookie does work for this, it’s global per browser and domain. If a user opens multiple tabs or windows for the same domain then requests from those will all send the same cookie to the server. Logging in as a different user in a different window for the same website is thus not normally possible, and having workflows (involving post-backs, navigation) in different windows can also be troublesome because of this.
In JSF there are various solutions that are somehow related to this. The view scope effectively implements a session per window as long as the user stays on the same page and does only post-backs. The Flash is used for transferring data between different pages (presumably within the same window) when navigation is done via Redirect/GET. There’s a wide variety of scopes implemented by third parties that do something similar.
All of these have some implicit notion or assumption of the concept of a ‘client window’, but there is no explicit API for this.
JSF 2.2 will introduce support for two different aspects of this:
Identification of an individual window: the Client Window Id
API and life-cyle awareness of the window concept
Apparently you've configured your application as such.
See also:
What's new in JSF 2.2? - Lifecycle - Identify client windows via window Id
What's new in JSF 2.2? - Navigation - Faces Flow
I've been asked by a freelancer friend of mine to join him on a JSF 2.0 project, and I'm slowly picking up speed and putting the pieces together. Coming from a Windows Forms .NET world, I have a lot to learn to say the least.
My major concern is with the lack of apparent consensus on how to protect a JSF application.
Some methods have been proposed here on SO, including using Spring security, Seam security, custom phase listeners, or simply using the rendered="#{...}" attribute to show/hide components based on user authentication.
I have tried to implement some of these methods, for example Spring security, only to find out that it gets easily defeated by the JSF navigation mechanism that forwards to views instead of redirecting. In other words, Spring security will work fine if the user types in the url of a secured page directly, but not if a h:commandButton's action takes him there.
In view of this, some have suggested to force a redirect by using "faces-redirect=true", but we feel that this could become a performance issue as this causes 2 requests from the browser each time.
On the other hand, I gave up trying to implement Seam security after getting so many missing dependencies errors.
The best solution I have found so far is a custom phase listener from Duncan Mills - Effective Page Authorization In JavaServer Faces, but I'm not 100% convinced this should be used on public facing JSF applications.
So finally, what does this leave us with ? I know this is a pretty wide open ended question, but I honestly have no clue where to go next. I'm pretty sure I have followed the different tutorials to the letter, for example Spring tutorials, but I'm still not satisfied with the way it works.
Could anyone at least confirm/infirm the fact that Spring security is supposed to work across JSF forwards, as I've seen many posts by others having the same issue ? That would at least give me a direction to keep going.
Thank you.
Combination of servlet filter for page validation (applied to the faces servlet), identity session bean (storing user attributes e.g. Role, login id) and a few methods for entitlement checks (e.g. isAdmin(), canViewRecord(recordID)) well ised throughout your page.
You see, when it comes to security I opt for not leaving it in anybody else's hand. also, I validate in several places (hiding a component won't keep folks from forging the right POST request to trigger specific bean methods so watch out).
When I work with JSF I use spring-security.
About the behavior that you comment that spring security allows redirections done with commands button, is weird you must have a wrong configuration because it seams working fine in my project (I just tested).
In any case you can also use the spring security tags to render or not components according to the user's role.
This is a project that can help you to implement the tags.
http://www.dominikdorn.com/facelets/
Hope this helps..