How to put a password on a WCF Service?

Question

I'm working on a WCF Service that is called by our other softwars to send bug information to our database. The problem is that, since it is an online service, it isn't safe, so I was wondering if it's possible to the service to request a password (i.e. when we call the service, we have to configure the password or something like that).

I googled about it, but it all seemed so complex for such a simple thing ... can you guys help me out?

Edit:

The idea is to authenticate through my software, without the need of a user login.

Answer 1

You can use the ASP.NET Membership provider to authenicate clients. There is an article on MSDN describing how to achieve that.

Answer 2

Another option is to implement your own security. Here's a basic example.

WCF Service

In your service, change it's ServiceBehavior's InstanceContextMode to PerSession and ConcurrencyMode to Single

[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.PerSession, ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Single)]
public class SomeService : ISomeService
{ 
    // ...
}

Add a Username and Password property in your service.

public string UserName { [OperationContract] get; [OperationContract] set; }
public string Password { [OperationContract] get; [OperationContract] set; }

Add a private method for checking a security.

public void CheckSecurity()
{
    if ((this.UserName == null || this.Password == null) ||
        this.UserName == "username" && this.Password == "password"))
    {
        throw new FaultException("Unknown username or incorrect password.");
    }
}

Then call the CheckSecurity method in each of your service class constructor method.

public SomeServiceMethod1()
{
    this.CheckSecurity();

    // some method codes
}

Client Application

In your client application code, set the service username and password for every instance, or create a static class that will do this for you.

You might also try to use encryption in the username and password to add security.

Note that this is just to add another option for you that might fit your needs but you should always try to use the Microsoft way of doing things.