WCF Authentication - An error occurred when verifying security for the message

Question

I have a problem connecting to my WCF service with clientCredentialType="UserName".

When I run the code below I get an error

FaultException: An error occurred when verifying security for the message.

When playing around with some of the binding values I also get Access is denied..

Fiddler says there is no authorization header and I cannot find the username or password in the request either.

Here are excerpts from my config:

  <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
    <services>
      <service name="InventoryServices.MobileAPI"  behaviorConfiguration="customBehaviour">
        <endpoint address=""
                  binding="basicHttpBinding"
                  bindingConfiguration="secureHttpBinding"
                  contract="InventoryServices.IMobileAPI"/>

        <endpoint address="mex"
                  binding="mexHttpsBinding"
                  contract="IMetadataExchange" />
      </service>
    </services>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="customBehaviour">
          <serviceSecurityAudit auditLogLocation="Application" serviceAuthorizationAuditLevel="Failure" messageAuthenticationAuditLevel="Failure" suppressAuditFailure="true" />
          <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the value below to false and remove the metadata endpoint above before deployment -->
          <serviceMetadata httpsGetEnabled="true"/>
          <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information -->
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
          <serviceCredentials>
            <userNameAuthentication userNamePasswordValidationMode="Custom"
               customUserNamePasswordValidatorType="InventoryLibrary.Helpers.UserAuthentication,InventoryLibrary"/>
          </serviceCredentials>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
    <bindings>
      <basicHttpBinding>
        <binding name="secureHttpBinding">
          <security mode="TransportWithMessageCredential">
            <transport clientCredentialType="Basic" proxyCredentialType="Basic" realm="MyRealm"/>
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default"  />
          </security>
        </binding>
      </basicHttpBinding>
    </bindings>

My username/password validator looks like so:

  public class UserAuthentication : UserNamePasswordValidator {
        public override void Validate(string userName, string password) {

            EntitiesContext db = new EntitiesContext();
            db.Logs.Add(new DomainModels.Log() {
                DateLogged = DateTime.Now,
                Message = "hit auth",
                Type = DomainModels.LogType.Info
            });
            db.SaveChanges();

            try {

                if (userName == "test" && password == "test123") {
                    Console.WriteLine("Authentic User");
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex) {
                throw new FaultException("Unknown Username or Incorrect Password");
            }
        }
    }

I have this as a simple test on my service:

[OperationContract]
[XmlSerializerFormat]
void Test();

[PrincipalPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "test")]
public void Test() {

}

I have a self signed SSL certificate on my server and I can access my service/metadata.

Then I have added a service reference in a console application, and attempt to connect to the service with this code below:

class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {

        Stuff.InitiateSSLTrust();

        BasicHttpBinding binding = new BasicHttpBinding();
        binding.Security.Mode = BasicHttpSecurityMode.Transport;
        binding.Security.Transport.Realm = "MyRealm";

        ServiceReference1.MobileAPIClient serviceProxy = new ServiceReference1.MobileAPIClient(binding, new EndpointAddress("https://xx.xx.xx.xx/InventoryServices.MobileApi.svc"));

        serviceProxy.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName = "test";
        serviceProxy.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password = "test123";

        try {

            var a = serviceProxy.Login("a", "b");
        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
            var ex2 = ex;
        }
    }
}

public class Stuff {
    public static void InitiateSSLTrust() {
        try {
            //Change SSL checks so that all checks pass
            ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback =
                new RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(
                    delegate { return true; }
                );
        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
        }
    }
}

I've checked the event viewer on the server and this error appears with each request:

MessageSecurityException: Security processor was unable to find a security header in the message. This might be because the message is an unsecured fault or because there is a binding mismatch between the communicating parties. This can occur if the service is configured for security and the client is not using security.

Answer 1

You are specifying the client side to use BasicHttpSecurityMode.Transport whereas the service is expecting BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportWithMessageCredential. This is a problem because the service is looking for the client credentials in the SOAP Message Header and the client will not send them with the binding configured this way.

Hence, this is why the username/password pair is not present in the Message Header as you are witnessing. So the event viewer was correct that there was a binding mismatch between the communicating parties.

Also set the ClientCredentialType on the client to BasicHttpMessageCredentialType.UserName for Message level security. By default BasicHttpBinding uses None which are anonymous clients.

Here's a code snippet describing the above changes:

var basicHttpBinding = new BasicHttpBinding(
                              BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportWithMessageCredential);
basicHttpBinding.Security.Message.ClientCredentialType = 
                                     BasicHttpMessageCredentialType.UserName;

Answer 2

This can also be caused by the time being out of sync between client and server. If a certificate or signed token is invalid based off of time, the same An error occurred when verifying security for the message. message may be returned.