Different approaches for finding users within Active Directory - asp.net

I'm a newbie to AD programming, but after a couple of weeks of research have found the following three ways to search for users in Active Directory using the account name as the search parameter:
Option 1 - FindByIdentity
Dim ctx As New PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, Environment.MachineName)
Dim u As UserPrincipal = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.SamAccountName, "MYDOMAIN\Administrator")
If u Is Nothing Then
Trace.Warn("No user found.")
Else
Trace.Warn("Name=" & u.Name)
Trace.Warn("DisplayName=" & u.DisplayName)
Trace.Warn("DistinguishedName=" & u.DistinguishedName)
Trace.Warn("EmployeeId=" & u.EmployeeId)
Trace.Warn("EmailAddress=" & u.EmailAddress)
End If
Option 2 - DirectorySearcher
Dim connPath As String = "LDAP://" & Environment.MachineName
Dim de As New DirectoryEntry(connPath)
Dim ds As New DirectorySearcher(de)
ds.Filter = String.Format("(&(objectClass=user)(anr={0}))", Split(User.Identity.Name, "\")(1))
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name")
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("displayName")
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("distinguishedName")
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("employeeId")
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("mail")
Dim src As SearchResult = ds.FindOne()
If src Is Nothing Then
Trace.Warn("No user found.")
Else
For Each propertyKey As String In src.Properties.PropertyNames
Dim valueCollection As ResultPropertyValueCollection = src.Properties(propertyKey)
For Each propertyValue As Object In valueCollection
Trace.Warn(propertyKey & "=" & propertyValue.ToString)
Next
Next
End If
Option 3 - PrincipalSearcher
Dim ctx2 As New PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, Environment.MachineName)
Dim sp As New UserPrincipal(ctx2)
sp.SamAccountName = "MYDOMAIN\Administrator"
Dim s As New PrincipalSearcher
s.QueryFilter = sp
Dim p2 As UserPrincipal = s.FindOne()
If p2 Is Nothing Then
Trace.Warn("No user found.")
Else
Trace.Warn(p2.Name)
Trace.Warn(p2.DisplayName)
Trace.Warn(p2.DistinguishedName)
Trace.Warn(p2.EmployeeId)
Trace.Warn(p2.EmailAddress)
End If
All three of these methods return the same results, but I was wondering if any particular method is better or worse than the others?
Option 1 or 3 seem to be the best as they provide strongly-typed property names, but I might be wrong? My overall objective is to find a single user within AD based on the user principal value passed via the web browser when using Windows Authentication on a site (e.g. "MYDOMAIN\MyUserAccountName")

For me 1 and 3 are quite the same. In Querying an LDAP in C# answer, I introduce a third way using managed code which is low level (native LDAP) protocol with System.DirectoryServices.Protocols (S.DS.P).
I don't know if your purpose is just to authenticate a user or authenticate a user and retrieve some datas (profile) from Active-Directory, but keep in mind that a LDAP query is first a query, and the old fashion (your solution 2) let's you specify the properties you retrieve. Before choosing, make some test on a performance point of view.
If you just want to authenticate you can compare native LDAP and user Principal responses from another article

Related

Redirecting a user to appropriate page is not redirecting correctly. Any ideas?

I understand that there are several resources on how to redirect a user to a specific page based on his or her access level.
My issue is that my has some flaws preventing it from working correctly.
Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Here is what we are trying to do.
We have employees with grievances. These employees are provided with a link to access and file their grievances.
Once the employee has filed his/her grievance, then the employee's manager would then log in and will be redirected to a page that shows all employees who have filed grievances so they review their grievances and determine whether or not the employees are approved to meet a board to review their cases and this is where I am stuck.
There are two tables that I didn't design. So, I am trying to make the best of what I am handed.
One table, called Employee has employee username (employeeID) and password (ssn).
The other table called Details has employeeID (related to Employee table) and ManagerID also related to Employee table by EmployeeID
Once a user files his/her grievance and submits it, his/her manager's ID (EmployeeID) is saved to the details table as ManagerID.
The idea is that once a manager logs into the system and his/her ID (ManageID) is present in details table, s/he will be redirected to a page called Decision.aspx.
When I attempted coding it, everyone, including Managers are being redirected to the same page called LetterOfIntent.aspx.
Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
Code is below:
StrSQL = "Select Dept, division, divisionManager, EmployeeName,Employee.EmpID, Email, SSN,Category FROM Employee e,Details d Where e.empID = d.managerID OR e.empID = #empid and SSN=#Password"
' Initialize Database Connection
Dim connStr As String = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("constr").ConnectionString
Dim conn As New SqlConnection(connStr)
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand(StrSQL, conn)
'We use parametized query to prevent sql injection attack
Dim p1 As New SqlParameter("#enpid", StrUser)
Dim p2 As New SqlParameter("#Password", StrPass)
cmd.Parameters.Add(p1)
cmd.Parameters.Add(p2)
While dr.Read()
If dr("empid") <> "" And dr("ssn") <> "" Then
Session("fullname") = dr("empName")
Session("dept") = dr("Dept")
Session("password") = dr("SSN")
Session("Email") = dr("Email")
Session("division") = dr("division")
Session("empid") = dr("empid")
Session("managerID") = dr("managerId")
Session("Cat") = dr("Category")
BValid = True
Else
End If
End While
' This handles all response per validation
If BValid = True Then
If Session("Cat") = "Pending" Then
Response.Redirect("~/pending.aspx")
ElseIf Session("Cat") = "In Progress" Then
Response.Redirect("~/inprogress.aspx")
ElseIf Session("managerID") <> "" And Session("empid") = Session("managerID") Then '***This is a manager, send him/her to Decision page
Response.Redirect("~/Decision.aspx")
Else '***Ok, this is an employee trying to file grievance, send him to LetterofInternt page.
Response.Redirect("~/LetterOfIntent.aspx?myname= " & Session("empid") & "")
End If
'If all else fails, then reject their athentication attempt and let them know.
ElseIf BValid = False Then
lblMsg.ForeColor = Color.Red
lblMsg.Text = "Login failed. "
End If
I suspect that you need to ToString each of the values you're putting into session, like this:
Session("Cat") = dr("Category").ToString()
You'd need to put some null checking around each one but given the information it seems like its probably you're issue.

User details stored in separate table ASP.NET Identity

I am a complete beginner at ASP.net(and this forum) i am using Visual studio 2013 and have created created another table in the created database using the package manager console.
How do i go about placing the information into this new table? (I am looking to store firstname and last name in a separate table)
The create account button is below:
Protected Sub CreateUser_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Dim userName As String = UserNameCtrl.Text
Dim Firstnane As String = firstnamectrl.Text
Dim manager = New UserManager
Dim User = New ApplicationUser() With {.UserName = userName}
Dim result = manager.Create(User, Password.Text)
If result.Succeeded Then
IdentityHelper.SignIn(manager, User, isPersistent:=False)
IdentityHelper.RedirectToReturnUrl(Request.QueryString("ReturnUrl"), Response)
Else
ErrorMessage.Text = result.Errors.FirstOrDefault()
End If
End Sub
Any pointers in the right direction, hints or suggested reading would be very helpful.
If I understand correctly, this link may be of some help:
http://www.codeguru.com/vb/gen/vb_database/adonet/article.php/c15033/A-Basic-VBNET-ADONET-Tutorial-Adding-Deleting-and-Updating.htm
It is for a windows form application, but it should translate pretty well if you're using web forms. Basically, you just want to make a connection to the database during the button click event (the simplest way I know of to make this connection is using ADO.NET), and pass the values of the first and last name in a SQL query to the sql server.
You would be building the sql query as a string, and concatenating your vb variables into that string. Something like; "Insert into table xxx(firstname, LastName) values " & Firstname & ", " & Lastname...

UserName and UserPassword Verification function

i'm afraid to use User forms data to query the database for user login, since the company has only 20 employees, I'm thinking of this function but I'm no sure if this still a easy code to crack for any no so good hacker user
Private Function VerifyCredentials(ByVal User As String, ByVal Password As String) As Boolean
Dim verification As Boolean = False
Dim _conString As String = WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings
("YounnectionString").ConnectionString
'Initialize connections variables
Dim cnn As New SqlConnection(_conString)
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand
cmd.Connection = cnn
cnn.Open()
'No data from the form are used on the SQL Server
cmd.CommandText = "Select UserName, UserPassword from tblUsers;"
Dim cmdReader As SqlDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()
'compare the data from the server with the data from the form, it so not matter what the user send from the form
While cmdReader.Read()
If Trim(User) = Trim(cmdReader("UserName"))
AndAlso Trim(Password) = Trim(cmdReader("UserPassword")) Then
verification = True
End If
End While
' this method may result on performance problems if your tblUsers is too big,
'afther all it is the entrance and most of the companies
'just has several hundred users
cmdReader.Close()
cmd.CommandText = ""
cnn.Close()
Return verification
End Function
Please some one check this code and give me better solution, this company was hack ones and the developer was fired. I'm dont know about security but they want a solution while hire a expert. thanks
You are just storing plain text password. Once your database is compromised, you do not have time to notify users.
You need to store hashed password with salt. Although, it can still be cracked (it takes times) but you still have sometime to notify users to change the password.
For ASP.Net, the easiest way will be to use
ASP.NET Universal Providers or
ASP.NET Identity
Let the database filter for you.
Change the query to
"Select UserName, UserPassword from tblUsers
WHERE UserName = " & Trim(User) & " AND UserPassword = " & Trim(Password)
And then, if there is some result the authentication is correct, and if there's no result, obviusly you have to return false, so simply do
Return cmdReader.Read()
Use it
Introducing ASP.NET Identity – A membership system for ASP.NET applications
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/06/27/introducing-asp-net-identity-membership-system-for-asp-net-applications.aspx

ASP.net Coding User Roles into Login Page

I've developed a login page, which functions off of a stored procedure. The login part functions well, however, the website will consist of roles that will determine what page the user is directed to once they are logged into the secure section. The columns I’m focusing on in the database / table are:
Guid -0 column
Login_name -9th column
Login_Pwd -10th column
Role_ID -11th column / Contains a value of 1 or a 2
What I’m trying to do is: get the login page to distinguish between the users with a Role_ID of 1 and those that have a Role_ID of 2. But, currently, when I log into the page, I’m directed to the SecurePage.aspx regardless of what Role ID the user has. Could I please get some direction on this?
This is my Stored Procedure:
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[Check_Users]
#Login_name as varchar(100),
#Login_Pwd as varchar(50)
AS
/* SET NOCOUNT ON */
SELECT * FROM SupplierCompany WHERE Login_name=#Login_name AND Login_Pwd=#Login_Pwd
RETURN
This is the code behind my login button:
Try
Dim con As New SqlConnection(GetConnectionString())
con.Open()
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand("Check_Users", con)
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
Dim p1 As New SqlParameter("Login_name", username.Text)
Dim p2 As New SqlParameter("Login_Pwd", password.Text)
cmd.Parameters.Add(p1)
cmd.Parameters.Add(p2)
Dim rd As SqlDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()
If rd.HasRows Then
rd.Read()
lblinfo.Text = "You are Authorized."
FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(username.Text, True)
Response.Redirect("securepages/SecurePage.aspx")
Else
lblinfo.Text = "Invalid username or password."
End If
'check the Role of the usre logging in
While (rd.Read())
Session("numrecord") = rd.GetValue(0).ToString()
rd.GetValue(11).ToString()
If rd.GetValue(11).ToString() = 1 Then
Response.Redirect("securepages/SecurePage.aspx")
ElseIf rd.GetValue(11).ToString() = 2 Then
Response.Redirect("securepages/newShipment.aspx")
End If
End While
Catch
Finally
End Try
..Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Inside your If rd.HasRows Then you redirect to the SecurePage, so I'm guessing it doesn't even reach the while. Try removing the Response.Redirect("securepgaes/SecurePage.aspx") inside this if, and adding the while loop there, like this:
If rd.HasRows Then
rd.Read()
lblinfo.Text = "You are Authorized."
FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(username.Text, True)
'Response.Redirect("securepages/SecurePage.aspx") Remove this line
'check the Role of the user logging in
While (rd.Read())
Session("numrecord") = rd.GetValue(0).ToString()
rd.GetValue(11).ToString()
If rd.GetValue(11).ToString() = 1 Then
Response.Redirect("securepages/SecurePage.aspx")
ElseIf rd.GetValue(11).ToString() = 2 Then
Response.Redirect("securepages/newShipment.aspx")
End If
End While
Else
lblinfo.Text = "Invalid username or password."
End If
Where have you defined the code to redirect the logged in user?
The Login control by default will try and redirect you to a destination page once successful. I would think you should hook in to the OnLoggedIn event and redirect the page before the server has a chance to do it for you.
As an alternative if that doesn't work you could try building your own 'Login Control' - since you are using a stored procedure to validate users anyway, it's not a huge leap to dump a few textboxes on the page and go that way. At least then you don't need to worry about overriding the default behaviour. I believe ASP.NET provides a bunch of SPs you can use which will validate user passwords and such - check it out on the server (they are all like dbo.aspnet_*.

Exception thrown when using GData .NET Analytics API

I am facing an issue while trying to fetch data from GoogleAnalytics API on piece of code that has been working well just a couple of days ago.
For this I am referencing the following DLL's:
Google.GData.Analytics.dll
Google.GData.Client.dll
Google.GData.Extensions.dll
And I am using the following code:
Dim visits As String = String.Empty
Dim username As String = "myuser#mydomain.com"
Dim pass As String = "mypassword"
Const dataFeedUrl As String = "https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data"
Dim query As AccountQuery = New AccountQuery()
Dim service As AnalyticsService = New AnalyticsService("MyWebAnalyticsService")
service.setUserCredentials(username, pass)
Dim accountFeed As AccountFeed = service.Query(query) ''----------> Exception thrown in this line: GDataRequestException Execution of request failed: https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/accounts/default
I thought it had to do with a blocking to the account I was using but it wasn't the case because I verified registering the site for another analytics account and is still not working.
This code has been working flawlessly as I've said but all of a sudden has stopped doing so yesterday.
Could you please help me figuring out what's wrong?. Maybe the way the user credentials are set has changed and I am missing something.
Thank you very much for your help.
'----Update----
I managed to make it work and now I can query the visits for a desired domain. The code goes as follows:
Dim visits As String = String.Empty
Dim username As String = "myuser#mydomain.com"
Dim pass As String = "mypassword"
'Follow the instructions on https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/articles/gdata-migration-guide (Create a Project in the Google APIs Console) to generate your key
'Once you have it set it as part of the querystring to request our GA service
Dim gkey As String = "key=yourkeystring"
'Set the new URI to retrieve the feed data and append it the generated key
Dim dataFeedUrl As String = "https://www.google.com/analytics/feeds/data?" & gkey
'Create and authenticate on our service instance
Dim service As AnalyticsService = New AnalyticsService("MyAnaliticsService")
service.setUserCredentials(username, pass)
'Use the profile id for the account you want to get ths visits from, you can find it
'logging in your analytics account, select the desired domain on your list (blue link)
click on the administrator button and on the profiles tab find the profile
'configuration subtab, right there you will find the profile id in this case the eight characters long id 12345678
Dim query1 As DataQuery = New DataQuery(dataFeedUrl)
With query1
.Ids = "ga:12345678"
.Metrics = "ga:visits"
.Sort = "ga:visits"
.GAStartDate = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-1).AddDays(-2).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")
.GAEndDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")
.StartIndex = 1
End With
'Use the generated datafeed based on the former query to get the visits
Dim dataFeedVisits As DataFeed = service.Query(query1)
For Each entry As DataEntry In dataFeedVisits.Entries
Dim st As String = entry.Title.Text
Dim ss As String = entry.Metrics(0).Value
visits = ss
Next
I have the same problem and it looks like google recently shut down the feed. It is answered in another post. Issue com.google.gdata.util.ResourceNotFoundException: Not Found with Google Analytic
Please make sure you registered your project in the APIs Console and you are sending the API Key with your requests.
If that is not the issue, inspecting the inner exception will give you more details about the error. As an alternative, you can use Fiddler to capture the HTTP request and the response. The latter will include a more descriptive error message.

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