Spring 3 and NTLM authentication

Question

I am using a spring 3 web application, as Spring 3 doesn't support NTLM authentication, what are the other alternatives that can be used along with Spring security? So that users are authenticated to application when they log into Active Directory?

Kerberos solution is not an option at the moment, NTLM is the only option.

Any help is highly appreciable.

Thanks

Answer 1

The simplest way to solve your problem is the following:

1) Install Apache Web Server and configure to use NTLM authentication using modntlm

http://modntlm.sourceforge.net/ (Similar you can use Kerberos authentication using mod_auth_kerb using http://modauthkerb.sourceforge.net/)

2) Configure mod_jk to your Selvlet container (JBoss or Tomcat) http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/generic_howto/proxy.html After the successful authentication Apache sends the REMOTE_USER header to the servlet container. The header (according the name) contains a user name of the authenticated user Ensure you configure tomcatAuthentication="false" to allow Apache to allow apache to send the REMOTE_USER header

3) Implement and configure in Spring Security your own PreAuthenticatedProcessingFilter: http://static.springsource.org/spring-security/site/docs/3.1.x/reference/springsecurity-single.html#d0e6167 It should be very similar to the Request-Header Authentication filter: http://static.springsource.org/spring-security/site/docs/3.1.x/reference/springsecurity-single.html#d0e6295 In addition, you should omit a domain name from the user name. The user name is sent in the REMOTE_USER header after NTLM or Kerberos authentication.