I need to have 2 separate logins for my asp.net web site. Firstly I need to block access to the site entirely and show an unstyled log-in page (so it doesnt show the layout of the site).
This login is only needed whilst the website is in development.
Secondly, I need another login for a "members area" of the site. This is part of the functional site and will be permanent.
I'm at a loss as how to manage these 2 logins. I had first thought of using Windows authentication to allow preview access to the site and then forms authetication for the members part but according to IIS7 I "cant run Challenge based and Log-in redirect based authentication simultaneously".
Any thoughts?
well it is as you've read, you can only set it to either windows or forms auth in a web app, in your case I would've chosen forms auth since it allows you to do pretty much all you'll ever need.
Win auth in my opinion is only a good choice if its gonna be something that is closed and not accessible to anyone else but company, even then I would consider forms auth since I feel I have better control over everything. If you absolutely need both you would need to make them into separate apps.
I implemented something similar from code based on session.
At begin of requests (actually, in basepage.oninit) I am checking if key present in session. If not, I am redirecting user to DeveloperPassword page.
When user enter correct password, he can use other pages as well as windows forms login. For live environment, I use empty password and ignore this check from code.
There is a similar question here:
IIS7: Setup Integrated Windows Authentication like in IIS6
But I think the solution is maybe not what you want.
I assume you just want to restrict people from accessing your development site. If you have a limited number of testes, why not just restrict the IP address? You can do that in IIS7.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Basically I went with using Forms Authentication and a single login page.
When the site is first viewed, the login page is shown with all the styling and header/footer removed.
Once logged in, any subsequent visits to the the login page (to access the member area) show the styling header/footer.
if (!HttpContext.Current.Request.IsAuthenticated)
{
Header1.Visible = false;
Footer1.Visible = false;
Label1.Visible = false;
}
Related
I have an existing Wordpress site. The plan is to rebuild the site using the cakePHP framework. Due to time restrictions, I want to replace individual sections of the Wordpress site one at a time. This will mean that both apps will be running side by side for a certain period of time. I need to control access to the cakePHP app using the authorization provided by Wordpress. I'm not sure the best way to go about doing this. I've seen similar questions asked a lot, but I have not yet found a clear solution.
I'm thinking about two approaches:
Plan A:
Configure Cake to look for Wordpress's authorization cookies.
configure Cake to look at Wordpress's database.
Borrow some of Wordpress's authorization logic to teach Cake's Auth component how to authenticate WP users.
Plan B:
set up an authorization API on my Wordpress site.
set up separate auth component in cake.
ping the WP endpoint when a user hits a protected page in the cake app and then manually log in the user. (This would create a second set of auth cookies)
Do either of these sound like the right approach? Is there a better way to do this?
Helpful references: Article about Cake session handling, Cake Auth component documentation, Cake Auth tutorial, brief overview of WP authorization, a more in depth look at wordpress authorization
UPDATE
We've started working on this, and it seems like it will work, but there is a very tricky aspect involving password hashing that warrants its own question. If you're following this thread, you may want to have a look.
I once had a similar situation: Cross framework authentication zend + codeigniter which was few months ago...
Anyways, this is what I will prefer:
set up an authorization API on my Wordpress site.
set up separate auth component in cake.
ping the WP endpoint when a user hits a protected page in the cake app and then manually log in the user. (This would create a second set of auth cookies)
Here, I would suggest a slight change which is do-able.
Make sure, you have a token system of SSO. As in, when person is logged in on Wordpress, set another cookie which will have a token: Token will be username + password (hashed) + secret key, which will be same between Wordpress and CakePHP. On either site, look up for cookie and manually log the user in or just perform a database look up. Hashing is important for that cookie!
However, if the site is using different domains, you might need to re-strategize:
I had different domains once. At the login or unauthorized page, I would ping the other website and bring up their login box. On the other website if the user is logged in, they get post login page and if request URI has sent a token, we perform normal operation and return the authorized token to this (current) domain.
In simple words:
Site A = WordPress & Site B = CakePHP
Site B hits a page where authorization is required then, ping Site A for a login (as it happens when u do Login-with-Facebook sort), which will request via a Token (private key) and REQUEST_URI which will be part of SSO verification table on Site A, if person is already logged in then, Site A will return (via POST) a token, which further will be decrypted via (private key) of Site B and log the user in. Private key of B and A will be same.
Hope this was understandable.
Questions? :)
Answer to your questions in comment:
Ideally, why we use SSO? We use it because of many constraints. For example: You have a database of say... a million row with more than thousand tables, you need to add a module over ur huge app already... so, instead, you will use another database... SSO will return user information, which can further be replicated. For example, when you click on 'Login with Facebook', it returns requested information, like email address, or user's name or even profile picture. Which can further be added to our database... Keeping different databases is strongly recommended :)
To your 2nd and 3rd question: Should both sites reference the same users table in the database? different databases is recommended unless, you are using the same data. Or say changing the software platform.
Should I copy the site-specific user rows into separate user tables for each app? Yes, that should happen automatically. Once you are registered on a main site, nothing happens, things should happen once you are logged in already and then go to site B... Once logged in, user info can always be requested :) That way, new site will have active users ! 2 birds?
Don't complicate (bother) yourself with how what works but, concentrate on how, what is achievable in short period. SSO - Logged in - Restricted page - Look out for log ins - Either login - If already logged in - fetch user info - If user info exists - login via secondary site OR set the new user info . Done!
We developers love flow charts! Don't we? I just created one:
Further answers:
Does the "Fetch User Info" stage mean that we take the user info from the site which is logged in, and create a new user (row) automatically in the other site?
Ideally, you will ask permission from the user before they 'allow' their info to be used but, it varies how your privacy policies are.
In other words, one site handles all the registration/user-creation and the other site just waits for that user to show up and trigger automatic creation. OR at the moment a user registers on the one site, BOTH databases get a user row inserted?
one site handles all the registration/user-creation and the other site just waits for that user to show up and trigger automatic creation. You can have both. Sign up on your website and also a trigger based automatic creation. Depends on your strategy. OR at the moment a user registers on the one site, BOTH databases get a user row inserted? That would be a horrible practice! It will kill the motive of SSO. Motive of SSO is to create an auth family which can be used by users so that they do not have to register every now and then for different websites. update only one database at a time and other when required :)
Questions? :)
I have done this once. I don't have the snippets and/or any references to anything. But thought it might be helpful.
Configure WP and CakePHP both to use same session, you can do this by session id and session name,
When User registers for your website, register them using both WP and CakePHP,
Choose one framework that will handle login view from the front end. I had chosen CakePHP as I was more proficient with it, once the login is successful locate the same user in other framework's DB and authenticate the user using their authentication system.
Hope this helps !!!
Suggestions:
If you are building a closed system, meaning you have to be signed in to access anything useful in the site, then you can use CAS . I know it's used by mainly universities, but for closed systems it works.
( If you need to handle anonymous users the suggestions below might help)
Keep it simple and, similar to Part A of your plan, have a cookie ( visible by both cake and wordpress ) that simply states if a user is logged in. The cookie should be created/checked by both cake and WP. Cake does not need to look at WP's DB. The cookie can have information on how the users in each system are mapped.
Have a central login screen, this is similar to what CAS does. But please build your own. CAS does not handle anonymous users. I am currently creating a central login screen for work. It's simple. The central login screen will handle all authentication and create the cookie visible to both WP and cake. This would mean that the login link for WP and cake will redirect a user to a common page. The link will need to provide a callback URL so that after the user authenticates successfully, he is redirected back to the original service. You will need to decide on a central DB for user authentication.
The cookie approach has following bonus:
It's a lightweight solution and can be wrapped with an on/off switch. In WP, simply wrap the cookie logic with a wp_options value.
You can use WP's and cake's authentication system. no need to work with API's and/or sessions. No need to couple applications by looking at each other's DB.
You can keep roles and permissions native, meaning WP will work with it's own roles and permissions system and your cake application will work with it's system.
Adding a new "service" to your platform is as simple as "create/check for a cookie" then use the system out-of-the-box auth system to log the user in.
Single Sign On is as simple as creating a cookie. Single Sign Off would be deleting the cookie.
I can definitely go into more detail on each suggestion if you're interested.
I'm trying to implement a web-view web part in sharepoint that will load up a small 'widget'y type thing I've got hosted on our local IIS. I desire to only show this web part to particular users, but cannot use the 'target audiences' feature of Sharepoint as we only use Foundation an the feature isn't present.
I'm currently attempting to use Windows authentication on the page, and it works fine for allowed users seamlessly infact - however, I was hoping there was a way if the user is denied, they don't get a popup asking for credentials, it would just redirect them to a blank page, thus the web part 'doesn't show' for them.
Is this possible using Windows authentication or do I need to use forms authentication against Active Directory and make them use a form to login? Can Forms Authentication be configured to seamlessly use AD groups and only show a login page when 'denied'?
Cheers
After trying about a million different solutions that all basically led back to the problem of..
It's a pain to check if a user is authenticated before the 401 error is sent - as there is an initial 401 sent to the browser which then prompts for it for authentication..
I came up with a quick and dirty solution, as the project is small and not worth investing much more in.
I placed a very simple check in the page_load event like so, that checks for username if it isn't a postback (first load), and redirects if the static user list isn't found. Far far far from prfect, but it'll do.
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
var user = Request.LogonUserIdentity.Name.ToLower().ToString();
if (user != "domain\\user")
{
Response.Redirect("/path/to/redirect/to.html");
}
}
Here is the scenario...
I have a site:
http://internet.com
and I set a token(cookie, something like that) from http://internet.com when a user has SUCCESSFULLY logged in.
I also have http://web.internet.com.
On http://web.internet.com I want to display data to users that have that token/cookie/etc available to them.
Here is the use-case
user logs into http://internet.com (asp.net framework hosted on different server - this is our primary product that requires a subscription / username & login )
user then has access to a section that is hidden from plublic view on http://web.internet.com (wordpress site hosted on goDadday - this site contains a knowledge base that we do not want to make public unless they have done [XXXXX] )
both sites are hosted independently of each other and do not share a common username and password
======
Another scenario is to set up wordpress to allow a specific section as a jsonp response. but only if the user is logged in at http://internet.com to allow the user to have access to the jsonp response located at http://web.internet.com
Any ideas from you beautiful people?
It really depends on the level of security you require. You can log a user in to a Wordpress site without a password by using wp_set_auth_cookie, however if you are just validating that a user is logged into the ASP.NET site and then using JSONP to load a page that set's the auth cookie, it will work, however you definitely have some security gaps.
A better solution would be to set a domain level cookie for .internet.com with a token that can be read by any server in your domain. The Wordpress site could then check is_user_logged_in(), and if not take that cookie value and make a back end call to the ASP.NET site to verify its authenticity, and then call wp_set_auth_cookie(). A simple web service would likely be the best option. You would still need some level of mapping between usernames on the ASP.NET and Wordpress site however to know which user_ID to pass.
Im building an ASP website with user login. Does any one knows what is the best and must secure way to make login page and make pages restricted access? I know some ways and used them for some website but sometimes they were not that secure. There is couple access level for this website. Admin, User, Sales Team, and couple more. Thanks.
you can use session variables to store user level and then on asp code define what user can or can not see.
Or in database, I assume, you have field where level of access is defined as well.
Basically make your security level part of SQL query and show only data user should be able to see.
Basically you should have level of access in database, login page verify credentials and then store user level in session variable.
On any given page, while header loads, ASP retrives session variable and compare it to database.
If user have clearance to see that data he will if not-- display message that he is not authorized or redirect somewhere else where he can be.
Add an include file at the top of your ASP pages which is executed before any of the page's code. This way you can write your security code once, and apply it to all of your pages.
Assuming you are using IIS as your web server, you can let it handle your website security by using the different available authentication methods.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/9b619620-4f88-488b-8243-e6bc7caf61ad.mspx?mfr=true
http://www.authenticationtutorial.com/tutorial/
Perhaps the best authentication method for you would be Windows Integrated Authentication since it allows you to create groups (or maybe use the existing ones) to give access to certain directories or pages.
I'm thinking of creating a diagnostics page for an ASP.NET app, which would be mostly intended for admin use to get more information about the application for diagnosing problems.
Examples of the info the page might have :
System.Environment.MachineName (might be useful in web farm scenarios)
System.Environment.Version
Environment.UserName
database name
current user's session ID
Some of the info on this page might be sensitive from a security perspective.
If you've done this sort of page before, what sort of security did you put on access to this page ? .
EDIT :
I should add - occasionally it might be useful to see this page whilst logged in as a specific (i.e. real) end user. e.g. say a problem can only be reproduced when logged in as a particular user. Being able to see the diagnostics page for that user might be useful. e.g. knowing the current session ID might be helpful for debugging.
EDIT 2 :
I'm starting to think that this diagnostics page should in fact be two different pages. One to display stuff which is the same for all users (e.g. database name, CLR version), and another for stuff which can vary by session (e.g. browser info, session ID).
Then you could lock down security more for the first page.
Yes, I've added this sort of page before (and found it useful). The security was pretty simple: the page contained a password form. The server-side code checked this password against a configured value and, if correct, displayed the real content and set a value in the user's session to say that they've been authenticated as a developer, so that they're not prompted again next time.
I suppose there was also a little security by obscurity, since the URL of the page wasn't published anywhere.
I was also careful not to reveal anything really sensitive on the page. For example, it allowed viewing our application config values, but masked out anything with "password" in it - hey, if we really want to see the password we can open a remote desktop session to the server.
There's also a couple of other ways you could do this:
If your web application has user authentication, restrict access to this page by checking that the user is flagged as an administrator or belongs to some kind of admin role.
Use a simple if (Request.IsLocal) ... type check, though the downside of this is that you still have to connect to the server and browse the website locally - which might not always be possible. However, this does still have the benefit of being able to easily view key system settings.
Personally, I've used a combination of both methods where a local request always allows access, and non-local requests require an admin user - eg. if (!Request.IsLocal && !IsAdminUser()) throw new SecurityException().
Also, I'm in agreement with Evgeny - be careful not to reveal anything really sensitive on this page (such as application connection strings or passwords).
use forms authentication and setup a user or two with access to that page. that way you can change passwords and revoke access once the site is deployed.
It sounds like you want a robust solution for your error page. I would take a look at open source projects like Elmah (http://code.google.com/p/elmah/) for a good example of a robust error page which includes configurable security. To give you an idea, here is a post on configuring Elmah which takes you through setting up the security. The security I have tested allows me to use my domain credentials to login.