I am using Application_PostAuthenticateRequest event in global.asax to create custom IPrincipal object
void Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
if (Context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated == true)
if (Context.User.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Forms")
{
Context.User = new CustomPrincipal(Context.User);
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = Context.User;
}
}
to use in my application where I want get some more information about logged user. I thought it would be called one time when user authenticates but I noticed that it is called on every page request couple times for the same logged user. I found that even requesting image from AppThemes calls this method!
Where should I create that object instead to avoid calling this method multiple times for each user?
I found an answer to my question.
In loggin_in event I should save authentication cookie (I can store all information that I later need in my customPrincipal in UserData property) and in Application_PostAuthenticateRequest I should create CustomPrincipal from that cookie.
That way this event fires every request but I don't hit database - I read data from cookie.
I followed http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2004/02/02/effectiveformsauth.html
In my case code is:
void Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
HttpCookie authCookie = Context.Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName];
if (authCookie == null)
return;
FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);
string[] customData = authTicket.UserData.Split(new Char[] { '|' });
if (Context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated == true)
{
if (Context.User.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Forms")
{
Context.User = new CustomPrincipal(customData, Context.User);
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = Context.User;
}
}
}
Context.User does not save the new principal across requests; you have to create the custom principal on every request. So it may be best to leave this code here. Otherwise, it will revert to FormsPrincipal or WindowsPrincipal, depending on application authentication mode.
HTH,
Brian
Related
I have an MVC4 site and have recently noticed some unexpected behaviour regarding Roles which Im sure is something I have either misunderstood or overlooked but I cant see the problem yet so here goes;
On Login I create an authticket including the roles information in Userdata.
In Application_AuthenticateRequest I retrieve the Role data and assign it to the CurrentUser.
Notwithstanding I suspect I should be using an Authorize mechanism, can anyone see why when I later check User.IsInRole() it times out trying to hit SqlServer presumably because it thinks it is acting as the RoleProvider (its not set in config), why is it not just getting it from the Current User as assigned in the Global.asax?
TIA,
dan
[snipped from my Application_AuthenticateRequest]
try
{
if (HttpContext.Current.User != null && HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
{
var currentUser = HttpContext.Current.User;
var formsId = currentUser.Identity as FormsIdentity;
var ticket = formsId.Ticket;
string userData = ticket.UserData;
var rolesString = userData.GetValueFromKeyValuePairs<string>("roles", "|");
var rolesList = rolesString.SplitAndType<string>("|").Select(s => s.ToLower().Replace(" ", ""));
if (rolesList.Count() > 0)
{
HttpContext.Current.User = new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity(ticket.Name), rolesList.ToArray());
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
if (Debugger.IsAttached)
{
throw ex;
}
}
Ok, so I was setting the User roles at the wrong point in the lifecycle and they were being overwritten, moving the code verbatim to this event ensures it is not overwritten.
Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
I am successfully working with a custom principal in ASP.NET, but my custom principal loads database data and I don't want that happening on every request into the system.
I load my custom principal in the Global.ascx file in the Application_OnPostAuthenticateRequest, but it appears session state is not available here. Where am I suppose to stick it after the first request into the system so that I don't have to keep recreating it from scratch?
protected void Application_OnPostAuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
IPrincipal principal = HttpContext.Current.User;
if(principal.Identity.IsAuthenticated == true && principal.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Federation")
{
CustomPrincipal customPrincipal = null;
IClaimsPrincipal claimsPrincipal = (IClaimsPrincipal)principal;
if (claimsPrincipal == null)
{
throw new ApplicationException("We should have a claims principal at this point");
}
customPrincipal = new CustomPrincipal(claimsPrincipal);
HttpContext.Current.User = customPrincipal;
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = customPrincipal;
}
}
Use the Cache instead of session
LoginPage.aspx:-
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Context.Items["Username"] = txtUserId.Text;
Context.Items["Password"] = txtPassword.Text;
//
FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(1, Context.Items["Username"].ToString(), DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10), true, "users", FormsAuthentication.FormsCookiePath);
// Encrypt the cookie using the machine key for secure transport
string hash = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(ticket);
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(
FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, // Name of auth cookie
hash); // Hashed ticket
// Set the cookie's expiration time to the tickets expiration time
if (ticket.IsPersistent) cookie.Expires = ticket.Expiration;
Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
Response.Redirect("Default.aspx");
}
Global.asax file:-
void Application_AuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (HttpContext.Current.User != null)
{
if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
{
if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity is FormsIdentity)
{
FormsIdentity id =
(FormsIdentity)HttpContext.Current.User.Identity;
FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = id.Ticket;
// Get the stored user-data, in this case, our roles
string userData = ticket.UserData;
string[] roles = userData.Split(',');
HttpContext.Current.User = new System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal(id, roles);
Response.Write(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name);
Response.Redirect("Default.aspx");
}
}
}
}
I get the following error after signing in
This webpage has a redirect loop.
The webpage at http://localhost:1067/Default.aspx has resulted in too many redirects. Clearing your cookies for this site or allowing third-party cookies may fix the problem. If not, it is possibly a server configuration issue and not a problem with your computer.
This is the rough idea of what your module should look like. Your module will run on every request. You don't invoke it or pass anything to it, it just automatically fires whenever a request is made that ASP.Net is set to process.
Your module will do two things, 1) authenticate a user in the login page, 2) authenticate a user on subsequent pages. The first step is to subscribe to the BeginRequest method which will be given the current HttpApplication as the first parameter. From there you need to determine if the user is on your login page or not. If they're not on your login page, check your session or cookie or querystring token, or whatever you're using to make sure that they're still valid. If they're invalid, bounce them back to the login page.
If they're on your login page and have made a POST, look at the raw form fields and validate them. TextBoxes, checkboxes, etc don't exist here, only raw form fields. If they're valid, set your authentication token however you want (session, cookies, etc). If they're invalid, either redirect to the login page or inject a "try again" message or something.
Also, if you double-post a message please reference it so that we can follow the chain of what was already said.
class MyModule : IHttpModule
{
void IHttpModule.Init(HttpApplication context)
{
//Subscribe to the BeginRequest event
context.BeginRequest += new EventHandler(this.Application_BeginRequest);
}
private void Application_BeginRequest(Object source, EventArgs e)
{
//Initialize our variables, null checks should be put here, too
HttpApplication app = (HttpApplication)source;
HttpContext context = app.Context;
System.Web.SessionState.HttpSessionState s = context.Session;
//Normally our module needs to validate every request to make sure our request is still authenticated.
//The exception to that rule is on our logon page where they obviously don't have credentials yet.
if(!context.Request.FilePath.ToLowerInvariant().StartsWith("/login.aspx")){
//If we're here then we're not on the logon page, validate our current session according to whatever logic we want
if (s != null && s["isvalid"] == "true"){
return;
}else{
context.Response.Redirect("/login.aspx");
}
}else{
//If we're here then we're on the login page itself. If there's a post, assume that they've hit the login button
if (context.Request.HttpMethod == "POST")
{
//Whatever your form variables are called
string username = context.Request.Form["username"];
string password = context.Request.Form["password"];
//Your own validation logic would go here
if (MyCustomLogin.IsUserValid(username, password))
{
s["isvalid"] = "true";
context.Response.Redirect("/Home.aspx");
}else{
s["isvalid"] = "false";
context.Response.Redirect("/login.aspx?error=invalid_login");
}
}else{
//If we're here then the request is probably a GET or HEAD which would be from a person
//initially browsing to our page so just do nothing and pass it through normally
}
}
}
}
There is no direct way to have access to this information in the module (for authenticated user, you can access the username via the context, but not the password). The module checks if a request is carrying required authentication information and serve or deny the request based on that. Unless you deliberately from the login page collect this information and store somewhere where you can access it in the module, e.g session. But ideally, storing password is not widely recommended, collect it use it for authentication and destroy.
You might ideally throw more light on the reason why you want to have access to this information in the module and guys can then suggest methods to accomplish it.
Edited, after Chandan comment:
#Chandan, your comment here suggest to me what you want to do is use httpmodule for your authentication as against using standard form authentication. If I am on track, then you can check this project on codeproject at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/web-security/AspNetCustomAuth.aspx. Goodluck
Can anybody help me to find out solution of following problem.
In ASP.NET website: at Application_OnPostAuthenticate() event, whatever code i write is executed for every request. therefore due to this customidentity object, countryid and weatherid is called everytime for each request (call for database for value). It effect response time of page and unneccessary code execute.
void Application_OnPostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Get a reference to the current User
IPrincipal objIPrincipal = HttpContext.Current.User;
// If we are dealing with an authenticated forms authentication request
if ((objIPrincipal.Identity.IsAuthenticated) && (objIPrincipal.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Forms"))
{
CustomPrincipal objCustomPrincipal = new CustomPrincipal();
objCustomPrincipal = objCustomPrincipal.GetCustomPrincipalObject(objIPrincipal.Identity.Name);
HttpContext.Current.User = objCustomPrincipal;
CustomIdentity ci = (CustomIdentity)objCustomPrincipal.Identity;
HttpContext.Current.Cache["CountryID"] = FatchMasterInfo.GetCountryID(ci.CultureId);
HttpContext.Current.Cache["WeatherLocationID"] = FatchMasterInfo.GetWeatherLocationId(ci.UserId);
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = objCustomPrincipal;
}
}
To solve this problem when i try tochange code as follows
HttpContext.Current.Session.Add("test", FatchMasterInfo.GetWeatherLocationId(ci.UserId);); in place of cache i found foolowing error
"Object refrence not set to the instance of object"
I don't know whether we can store session variable inside Application_OnPostAuthenticate() event or not?
You could try doing this a bit later in the request, such as in the PreRequestHandlerExecute event:
protected void Application_PreRequestHandlerExecute(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
IPrincipal objIPrincipal = HttpContext.Current.User;
if ((objIPrincipal.Identity.IsAuthenticated) && (objIPrincipal.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Forms"))
{
HttpSessionState session = HttpContext.Current.Session;
CustomPrincipal objCustomPrincipal = new CustomPrincipal();
if (session[objIPrincipal.Identity.Name] == null)
{
// get data from database or wherever
objCustomPrincipal = objCustomPrincipal.GetCustomPrincipalObject(objIPrincipal.Identity.Name);
CustomIdentity ci = (CustomIdentity)objCustomPrincipal.Identity;
Object countryID = FatchMasterInfo.GetCountryID(ci.CultureId);
Object weatherLocationID = FatchMasterInfo.GetWeatherLocationId(ci.UserId);
// save in session (not cache as cache is application-wide, not per-user):
session.Add(objIPrincipal.Identity.Name, objCustomPrincipal);
session.Add(objIPrincipal.Identity.Name + "_CountryID", countryID);
session.Add(objIPrincipal.Identity.Name + "_WeatherLocationID", weatherLocationID);
}
else
{
// already have custom principal object in session
objCustomPrincipal = (CustomPrincipal)session[objIPrincipal.Identity.Name];
}
// set the custom principal object to context/thread
HttpContext.Current.User = objCustomPrincipal;
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = objCustomPrincipal;
}
}
You probably don't want to access the session in any event that happens in every request. Some requests don't even have session (for instance, a lot of web service calls, or calls to WebResource.axd that load static resources).
Before adding value to cache object, check if it already exists in the cache.
You might not have session state enabled. Does it work anywhere else (like in a web form's display)?
Look for a <sessionState> element under your system.web element in web.config make sure it's turned on (set it to InProc unless you have a web farm).
In an ASP.net application I'm using a Login control with a custom membership provider that I wrote. What I want to do is to set Thread.CurrentPrincipal to my custom Principal object, just after the user is authenticated.
I'm using the setter: Thread.CurrentPrincipal and it sets the Principal object for me but, on all the consequent threads this CurrentPrincipal is overridden with the default one.
Here is my code for the Authenticate event of the Login control:
protected void Login1_Authenticate(object sender, AuthenticateEventArgs e)
{
string username = Login1.UserName;
string password = Login1.Password;
if (Membership.ValidateUser(username, password))
{
var login = sender as Login;
var phoenixIdentity = new PhoenixIdentity("B", "Forms" , true);
var principal = new PhoenixPrincipal(phoenixIdentity);
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = principal;
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetThreadPrincipal(principal);
HttpContext.Current.User = principal;
e.Authenticated = true;
}
}
For example, imagine that I login with the username A, everything goes well... Validation passes, but I hardcode the user with the username B in the Identity object which is set to the Principal object I set as the CurrentPrincipal object.
When I check which user is set to the CurrentPrincipal Identity at the end of this method it says it's user B. But when I load another page and then check what the Identity of the CurrentPrincipal is, it says it's user A.
So, how can I make my CurrentPrincipal object to be persistent across all other threads, and where/when does this Login control set the CurrentPrincipal object of the Thread?
Tadas is not wrong, FormsAuthentication correctly implemented will not cause this problem.
Your page is accessible even without login, only in the login page, your thread's principle is set manually by you, but when you hit the other URL, it sure doesnt call your login page and remember each page runs on its own different thread. If you request first page and set thread principle and you request second page in same browser instance, it may or may not be the exact same thread.
This is how FormsAuthentication works,
It checks if Auth Cookie is set or not, it then directs user to login page
Login page must validate and set auth cookie, like FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie
Before every page access, Step 1 is executed.
After successful validation of Auth Cookie, ASP.NET internally sets the current user and all differnet parameters according to your membership component.
ASP.NET Global.asax file can give you some events where in you can plugin your code to check just after authentication is successful you can change your current user, remember setting your current principle on login page will not help
We had similar issue when we were using session to store certain important information, after auth sessions were not rebuilt, so we wrote a HTTP Module, and in it's init method, we attached AfterRequestAcquired event and in this event you can write your code to instantiate all your important user related variables.
You can handle FormsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate(object sender, FormsAuthenticationEventArgs e) (in Global.asax) and set CurrentPrincipal here.
void FormsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate(object sender, FormsAuthenticationEventArgs e)
{
var phoenixIdentity = new PhoenixIdentity("B", "Forms" , true);
var principal = new PhoenixPrincipal(phoenixIdentity);
e.User = principal;
}
This is what I did in FormsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate method:
if (FormsAuthentication.CookiesSupported)
{
if (Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName] != null)
{
try
{
FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket =
FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName].Value);
var myIdentity = new GenericIdentity("B");
var principal = new GenericPrincipal(myIdentity, new string[]{"rola1"});
e.User = principal;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Decrypt method failed.
}
}
}
else
{
throw new HttpException("Cookieless Forms Authentication is not " +
"supported for this application.");
}
it seems that it's working what it should do... It's just that if I put my custom principal/identity pair as e.User, then I have serialization problem which I need to fix next... Thank you guys...