A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control: Authentication and Authorization for Services and the Web

by Baier, Dominick

• ISBN13: 9780735640597
• ISBN10: 0735640599
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• Publisher: Microsoft Pr

Summary

As systems have become interconnected and more complicated, programmers needed ways to identify parties across multiple computers. One way to do this was for the parties that used applications on one computer to authenticate to the applications (and/or operating systems) that ran on the other computers. This mechanism is still widely used-for example, when logging on to a great number of Web sites. However, this approach becomes unmanageable when you have many co-operating systems (as is the case, for example, in the enterprise). Therefore, specialized services were invented that would register and authenticate users, and subsequently provide claims about them to interested applications. Some well-known examples are NTLM, Kerberos, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Most enterprise applications need some basic user security features. At a minimum, they need to authenticate their users, and many also need to authorize access to certain features so that only privileged users can get to them. Some apps must go further and audit what the user does. On Windowsr, these features are built into the operating system and are usually quite easy to integrate into an application. By taking advantage of Windows integrated authentication, you don't have to invent your own authentication protocol or manage a user database. By using access control lists (ACLs), impersonation, and features such as groups, you can implement authorization with very little code. Indeed, this advice applies no matter which OS you are using. It's almost always a better idea to integrate closely with the security features in your OS rather than reinventing those features yourself. But what happens when you want to extend reach to users who don't happen to have Windows accounts? What about users who aren't running Windows at all? More and more applications need this type of reach, which seems to fly in the face of traditional advice. This book gives you enough information to evaluate claims-based identity as a possible option when you're planning a new application or making changes to an existing one. It is intended for any architect, developer, or information technology (IT) professional who designs, builds, or operates Web applications and services that require identity information about their users.

Author Biography

Dominick Baier splits his time between being an independent security consultant and an instructor for DevelopMentor - teaching and authoring the ASP.NET and the .NET security curriculum. He has a degree in computer science (German Diplom Ingenieur), is a certified BS7799/ISO17799 Lead Auditor and speaks at various conferences (WinDev, DevWeek, ADC) about application security. When not teaching he spends his time researching security, doing audits and penetration tests and helps other developers around the world to build more secure applications. Dominick maintains a security blog at http://www.leastprivilege.com.

Vittorio Bertocci is a Senior Architect Evangelist in the Windows Azure Platform Evangelism team with Microsoft® Corp. After four years in the Italian Microsoft Consulting Services, Vittorio moved to the U.S. headquarters in Redmond, where he has spent the past four years helping customers deploy solutions based on identity and access management, SOA, and services. He currently focuses on all things identity, working with the developer's community, large enterprises and partners. Vittorio is a published author; he frequently speaks about identity at international conferences and maintains a popular blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/vbertocci.

Keith Brown is a co-founder of Pluralsight, a premier Microsoft® .NET training provider. Keith is the author of Pluralsight's Applied .NET Security course as well as several books, including The .NET Developer's Guide to Windows® Security, which is available both in print and on the Web. Learn more at www.pluralsight.com/keith

Matias Woloski is an Enterprise Architect at Southworks S.R.L. He's been involved in software development for 6 yeasr. Currently, he's working with the patterns & practices team at Microsoft® in a Scrum-driven project. He maintains a blog at http://blogs.southworks.net/mwoloski/

Eugenio Pace works in the Software and Services group for the Microsoft® Architecture Strategy team. He develops architecture guidance to help ISVs, Hosters and Companies, build, run and consume software delivered as a service. His blog can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop/

Table of Contents

Foreword
Kim Cameron	p. ix
Stuart Kwan	p. xi
Preface
Who This Book Is For	p. xii
Why This Book Is Pertinent Now	p. xiv
A Note About Terminology	p. xiv
How This Book Is Structured	p. xvi
What You Need to Use the Code	p. xxi
Who's Who	p. xix
Acknowledgements	p. xxi
An Introduction to Claims
What Do Claims Provide?	p. 1
Not Every System Needs Cliams	p. 2
Claims Simplify Authentication Logic	p. 3
A Familiar Example	p. 3
What Makes a Good Claim?	p. 5
Understanding Issuers and ADFS	p. 6
User Anonymity	p. 7
Implementing Claims-Based Identity	p. 7
Add Logic to Your Applications to Support Claims	p. 7
Acquire or Build an Issuer	p. 8
Configure Your Application to Trust the Issuer	p. 8
Configure the Issuer to Know About the Application	p. 9
A Summary of Benefits	p. 10
Moving On	p. 10
Claims-Based Architectures
A Closer Look at Claims-Based Architectures	p. 12
Browser-Based Applications	p. 13
Smart Clients	p. 20
Federating Identity Across Realms	p. 22
The Benefits of Cross-Realm Identity	p. 23
How Federated Identity Works	p. 24
Home Realm Discovery	p. 26
Design Considerations for Claims-Based Applications	p. 28
What Makes a Good Claim?	p. 28
How Can You Uniquely Identify One User From Another?	p. 29
How Can You Get a List of All Possible Users and All Possible Claims?	p. 29
Where Should Claims Be Issued?	p. 30
Claims-Based Single Sign-On for the Web
The Premise	p. 33
Goals and Requirements	p. 35
Overview of the Solution	p. 36
Inside the Implementation	p. 38
a-Expense Before Claims	p. 39
a-Expense with Claims	p. 41
a-Order Before Claims	p. 48
a-Order with Claims	p. 49
Signing Out of an Application	p. 50
Setup and Physical Deployment	p. 50
Using a Mock Issuer	p. 50
Isolating Active Directory	p. 51
Converting to a Production Issuer	p. 52
Enabling Internet Access	p. 52
Variation-Moving to Windows Azure	p. 52
More Information	p. 56
Federated Identity for Web Applications
The Premise	p. 57
Goals and Requirements	p. 58
Overview of the Solution	p. 58
Benefits and Limitations	p. 63
Inside the Implementation	p. 63
Setup and Physical Deployment	p. 63
Using Mock Issuers for Development and Testing	p. 63
Establishing Trust Relationships	p. 64
More Information	p. 65
Federated Identity for Web Services
The Premise	p. 67
Goals and Requirements	p. 68
Overview of the Solution	p. 68
Inside the Implementation	p. 70
Implementing the Web Service	p. 70
Implementing the Active Client	p. 72
Implementing the Authorization Strategy	p. 75
Debugging the Application	p. 76
Setup and Physical Deployment	p. 77
Configuring ADFS 2.0 for Web Services	p. 77
Federated Identity with Multiple Partners
The Premise	p. 81
Goals and Requirements	p. 82
Overview of the Solution	p. 83
Using Claims in Fabrikam Shipping	p. 86
Inside the Implementation	p. 88
Setup and Physical Deployment	p. 97
Establishing the Trust Relationship	p. 97
User-Configurable Claims Transformation Rules	p. 99
Using Fedutil	p. 101
Message Sequences	p. 103
The Browser-Based Scenario	p. 104
The Active Client Scenario	p. 116
Industry Standards	p. 123
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)	p. 123
WS-Federation	p. 123
WS-Federation: Passive Requestor Profile	p. 123
WS-Security	p. 124
WS-SecureConversation	p. 124
WS-Trust	p. 124
XML Encryption	p. 124
Certificates	p. 125
Certificates for Browser-Based Applications	p. 125
On the Issuer (Browser Scenario)	p. 127
On the Web Application Server	p. 127
Certificates for Active Clients	p. 128
On the Issuer (Active Scenario)	p. 128
On the Web Service Host	p. 130
On the Active Client Host	p. 132
Glossary	p. 133
Index	p. 143
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