How to authenticate soap based java web services?

Question

I am developing Soap based web services using Java. Can anyone please let me know how to authenticate the client who is consuming the web services?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Different ways and different types of security we can implement: Message-level security

• Transport-level security: Such as HTTP Basic/Digest and SSL
• Message level security: Such as WS-Security, XML digital signature, XML Encryption,XKMS (XML Key Management Specification), XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language), SAML (Secure Assertion Markup Language), ebXML Message Service, The Liberty Alliance Project. for more detals
• Access control security:A security role is a privilege granted to users or groups based on specific conditions.

---

Most commonly we use WS-Security for SOAP Web Services. A WS-security profile determines how WS-security is enabled.

1. WSS X.509 Token Profile: Use the X.509 framework for a WSS X.509 security profile.
2. WSS UsernameToken Profile: When specifying the X.509 Token Profile, you can also supply a UsernameToken in the SOAP request.

example:

<wsse:UsernameToken xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd" wsu:Id="SecurityToken-6138db82-5a4c-4bf7-915f-af7a10d9ae96">
  <wsse:Username>user</wsse:Username>
  <wsse:Password Type="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordDigest">CBb7a2itQDgxVkqYnFtggUxtuqk=</wsse:Password>
  <wsse:Nonce>5ABcqPZWb6ImI2E6tob8MQ==</wsse:Nonce>
  <wsu:Created>2010-06-08T07:26:50Z</wsu:Created>
</wsse:UsernameToken>

The above element includes into SOAP header as follows:

SOAPEnvelope envelope = smc.getMessage().getSOAPPart().getEnvelope();
    SOAPHeader header = envelope.addHeader();
    SOAPElement security = header.addChildElement("Security", "wsse", "http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd");
    SOAPElement usernameToken = security.addChildElement("UsernameToken", "wsse");
    SOAPElement username = usernameToken.addChildElement("Username", "wsse");
    username.addTextNode(user);

    SOAPElement password = usernameToken.addChildElement("Password", "wsse");
    password.setAttribute("Type", "http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-username-token-profile-1.0#PasswordDigest");
    password.addTextNode(encodedPass); //encodedPass = Base64 ( SHA-1 ( nonce + created + password ) )

    SOAPElement nonce =
        usernameToken.addChildElement("Nonce", "wsse");
    nonce.addTextNode(Base64.encodeBytes(nonceString.getBytes()));

    SOAPElement created = usernameToken.addChildElement("Created", "wsu","http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd");

    created.addTextNode(creatTime);

---

The following example is simple adding user and password to HTTP header only.

• Application Authentication with JAX-WS Here’s a detail example to show you how to handle application level authentication with JAX-WS.
• Container Authentication with JAX-WS + (Tomcat version) Here’s a detail example to show you how to implement container authentication with JAX-WS, under Tomcat.

Application Authentication with JAX-WS using WebServiceContext interface

WebServiceImpl.java

package com.javacodegeeks.enterprise.ws;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.annotation.Resource;
import javax.jws.WebService;
import javax.xml.ws.WebServiceContext;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;

@WebService(endpointInterface = "com.javacodegeeks.enterprise.ws.WebServiceInterface")
public class WebServiceImpl implements WebServiceInterface {

    @Resource
    WebServiceContext webServiceContext;

    @Override
    public String getHelloWorldAsString(String str) {

        MessageContext messageContext = webServiceContext.getMessageContext();

        // get request headers
        Map<?,?> requestHeaders = (Map<?,?>) messageContext.get(MessageContext.HTTP_REQUEST_HEADERS);
        List<?> usernameList = (List<?>) requestHeaders.get("username");
        List<?> passwordList = (List<?>) requestHeaders.get("password");

        String username = "";
        String password = "";

        if (usernameList != null) {
            username = usernameList.get(0).toString();
        }

        if (passwordList != null) {
            password = passwordList.get(0).toString();
        }

                // of course this is not real validation
                // you should validate your users from stored databases credentials
        if (username.equals("nikos") && password.equals("superpassword")) {

            return "Valid User :"+str;

        } else {

            return "Unknown User!";
        }
    }
}

WebServiceClient.java

package com.javacodegeeks.enterprise.ws.client;

import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
import javax.xml.ws.BindingProvider;
import javax.xml.ws.Service;
import javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext;
import com.javacodegeeks.enterprise.ws.WebServiceInterface;

public class WebServiceClient{

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        URL wsdlUrl = new URL("http://localhost:8888/webservice/helloworld?wsdl");    
        //qualifier name ...
        QName qname = new QName("http://ws.enterprise.javacodegeeks.com/", "WebServiceImplService");
         Service service = Service.create(wsdlUrl, qname);

        WebServiceInterface sayHello = service.getPort(WebServiceInterface.class);
        Map<String, Object> requestContext = ((BindingProvider)sayHello).getRequestContext();

        requestContext.put(BindingProvider.ENDPOINT_ADDRESS_PROPERTY, "http://localhost:8888/webservice/helloworld?wsdl");

        Map<String, List<String>> requestHeaders = new HashMap<String, List<String>>();
        requestHeaders.put("username", Collections.singletonList("nikos"));
        requestHeaders.put("Password", Collections.singletonList("superpassword"));
        requestContext.put(MessageContext.HTTP_REQUEST_HEADERS, requestHeaders);

        System.out.println(sayHello.getHelloWorldAsString("- This is Java Code Geeks"));

    }
}