I am upgrading a site to use MVC and I am looking for the best way to set up Authentication.
At this point, I have the log-in working off of Active Directory: validating a username and password, and then setting the Auth cookie.
How do I store the user's role information at time of log-in, in order for my controllers to see those roles as the user navigates through the site?
[Authorize(Roles = "admin")]
I have no problem getting a list of roles from Active Directory. I just don't know where to put them so that the controllers will see them.
Roles are added to the IPrincipal of the HttpContext. You can create a GenericPrincipal, parse the list of roles in the constructor and set it as HttpContext.User. The GenericPrincipal will then be accessible through User.IsInRole("role") or the [Authorize(Roles="role")] attribute
One way of doing this (in C#) is to add your roles as a comma separated string in the user data parameter when creating your authentication ticket
string roles = "Admin,Member";
FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(
1,
userId, //user id
DateTime.Now,
DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(20), // expiry
false, //do not remember
roles,
"/");
HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName,
FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(authTicket));
Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
Then access the role list from the authentication ticket and create a GenericPrincipal from your Global.asax.cs
protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e) {
HttpCookie authCookie =
Context.Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName];
if (authCookie != null) {
FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket =
FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);
string[] roles = authTicket.UserData.Split(new Char[] { ',' });
GenericPrincipal userPrincipal =
new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity(authTicket.Name),roles);
Context.User = userPrincipal;
}
}
When you authenticate your user, you generate a new GenericPrincipal instance. The constructor takes an array of strings which are the roles for the user. Now set HttpContext.Current.User equal to the generic principal and write the auth cookie, and that should do it.
For those of you using MVC 4 or Greater you will need to take Jaroslaw Waliszko's advice when making use of David Glenn's answer:
"I've tested it in ASP.NET MVC 4 and I suggest to use Application_PostAuthenticateRequest instead. Otherwise the generic principal will be overridden." – Jaroslaw Waliszko Sep 7 at 16:18
So as stated above, all you need to do is replace the Application_AuthenticateRequest method name with Application_PostAuthenticateRequest to get this to work. Worked like a charm for me! If I was allowed to upvote Jaroslaw and David, I would.
I'd be inclined to just create a custom role provider. Example here:
http://www.danharman.net/2011/06/23/asp-net-mvc-3-custom-membership-provider-with-repository-injection/
Could you not drop in either an authorization store role manager or find (e.g. on Codeplex) or write another Role Provider that works with Active Directory to get the groups information?
This would save you the hassle of authenticating the user, getting their roles, and then re-passing that information into the constructor, and would all happen automatically for you as part of the framework.
Related
I am building an intranet application using ASP.NET MVC 4 with Windows authentication. In the global.asax file, I have implemented this method:
protected void WindowsAuthentication_OnAuthenticate(object sender, WindowsAuthenticationEventArgs args)
In this method, I create a new ClaimsIdentity and set args.User to it, just like the example on MSDN. Later on in the application, in one of the Controllers, I need to get some data from the database. Since I already had an API action that does this, I call that API (synchronously) from my Controller.
The API gets the claims for the current user using the ApiController.User property. Here though, the claims are not the ones I set in global.asax. In fact, they are the claims that were in place on the user before this request.
The strange thing (to me) is that the next time I make a call to the application, the new claims are in place. So in my case, I change the claims that later on decide which buttons should be visible to a user, but only after the user makes another request to the application, these buttons are updated.
How can I make sure that the claims that I set in global.asax immediately take effect?
Extra info:
I don't set the claims on every request. When this method executes, I check a number of things to see if the user is still valid: cookie, user isn't anonymous, and user is still "valid". The latter is decided by cache - I keep a list of users that are still valid and if someone updates their permissions through a user interface, they become invalidated and will receive new claims in their next request.
I've attached a debugger and I see my code getting executed, the principal gets all the claims I want it to have while still in this method. When I reach a controller action, ApiController.User has the claims it had on the request before this one. When I make another request, the authentication method is skipped (because the user name is now in the cache), and in the controller the ApiController.User has the correct claims.
You need to set both the members to make it work.
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = principal;
HttpContext.Current.User = principal;
I don't think you can access your claims in the same request that you set them. Try to redirect after setting your claims.
I'm doing something similar. Here is my code, i hope it would be helpful.
protected void Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var clamisIdentityBuilder = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService<IClaimsIdentityBuilder>();
var transformer = new ClaimsTransformer(clamisIdentityBuilder);
var principal = transformer.Authenticate(string.Empty, ClaimsPrincipal.Current);
// user if authenticated but Claims could not be created (they are not available in cache nor DB)
if (principal == null)
{
var cacheProvider = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService<ICacheProvider>();
cacheProvider.Clear();
FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
Response.Clear();
string redirectUrl = FormsAuthentication.LoginUrl;
Response.Redirect(redirectUrl);
}
else
{
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = principal;
HttpContext.Current.User = principal;
}
}
I'm following this article in which is described how to assign roles to users when theiy log-in using forms authentication:
public void Application_AuthenticateRequest( Object src , EventArgs e )
{
if (!(HttpContext.Current.User == null))
{
if (HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.AuthenticationType == "Forms" )
{
System.Web.Security.FormsIdentity id;
id = (System.Web.Security.FormsIdentity)HttpContext.Current.User.Identity;
String[] myRoles = new String[2];
myRoles[0] = "Manager";
myRoles[1] = "Admin";
HttpContext.Current.User = new System.Security.Principal.GenericPrincipal(id,myRoles);
}
}
}
I put the role logic in the event handler, so I basically don't need a role provider. Nonetheless, in order to run this, appears that I must enable Role Provider in web.config. Sadly, if I just put:
<roleManager enabled="true"/>
it results in runtime errors related to a failed connection to the SQL server, like if I chose AspNetSqlRoleProvider as Role Provider.
What should I do to have roles working this way? How can I choose to use no role provider, or how should I implement a dummy one (if it makes any sense)?
You shouldn't need to enable roleManager in web.config - after all, people used to use roles with .NET 1.x before roleManager came along.
One thing that roleManager will do for you that you haven't done in your code is set Thread.CurrentPrincipal to HttpContext.Current.User. If you're relying on this (e.g. using PrincipalPermissionAttribute), then you need to add this:
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = HttpContext.Current.User;
Otherwise, I'd expect it to work: what symptoms are you seeing that makes you think it isn't working?
As for implementing a dummy RoleProvider, it's easy enough: for example see this MSDN article.
You only need to implement the GetRolesForUser and IsInRole methods; the other methods can simply throw NotSupportedException.
I'm using ASP.NET MVC3 with EF Code First. I'm new to both tech, so please be gentle!
I have a requirement that I will need additional properties for the User (such as company name, first/last name etc). I also need to be able to store the Membership information in databases other than SQL Server. So I am looking into custom membership user and provider classes. Except I just do not know how that would work with EF Code First.
My custom user class is extending MembershipUser. And I have a custom extension of the MembershipProvider class. Within the provider, I'd like to use my DBContext class to get User information, but I can't seem to get it working correctly. Please can somebody guide me?
Thanks
This is how I get the user in my implementation:
public override System.Web.Security.MembershipUser GetUser(string username, bool userIsOnline)
{
MyUser user = MyUserController.get(username);
if (user == null)
return null;
MembershipUser mUser = new MembershipUser("MyMembershipProvider",
user.Login,
user.Id,
user.Email,
null, null, true, false,
user.CreateDate,
DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now);
return mUser;
}
Is this what you are looking for?
Hope it helps.
I'm using asp.net and trying to assign roles for a user with forms authentication like this:
public ActionResult AdminLogin(string password, string username)
{
User _user = _us.GetUsers(username, password).FirstOrDefault();
if (_user != null)
{
string _username = _user.Username;
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(_username, false);
string[] _roles = _us.GetUserRoles(_username);
HttpContext.User = new GenericPrincipal(HttpContext.User.Identity, _roles);
return RedirectToAction("Index", "Admin");
When I debug HttpContext.User.Identity always is null, but _username and _roles contains the proper data. Howto fix this?
/M
Your action is setting the User IPrincipal for the current context. As soon as you redirect to your other action (and all subsequent requests) a new HttpContext is created with a null User IPrincipal.
What you could do is persist the information in the authentication cookie and then extract that data in the Application_AuthenticateRequest method in your Global.asax file and set the User property of the HttpContext there.
This answer contains more details and example code
I believe the issue is that you are just setting the user as authenticated, and therefore, the HttpContext is not updated yet since the auth cookie has not yet been set on the users side of the request.
I was struggling too.
I was trying to carryout my authentication and authorization inside a WCF service using standard ASP.Net Membership and Role providers.
I wanted to pass in credentials and a 'requested app' to determine if the user 'authenticated' for that app. (not the ASP.Net APP, but an app in my own database).
To do this, I wanted access to the roles, but didn't want to 'redirect' or have a second call to my WCF service.
Here is some code that works for me:
First I determine if the user is valid as follows:
if (Membership.ValidateUser(CompanyCn, CompanyPwd))
{
sbLogText.AppendFormat("\r\n\r\n\tValid User UID/PWD: '{0}'/'{1}'", CompanyCn, CompanyPwd);
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(CompanyCn, false);
}
Then the following code workes nicely for getting the list of roles:
List<string> roleList = new List<string>(Roles.GetRolesForUser(CompanyCn));
sbLogText.AppendFormat("\r\n\r\n\tUser ('{0}'): Roles ({1}):", CompanyCn, roleList.Count);
foreach (string s in roleList)
sbLogText.AppendFormat("\r\n\t\tRole: {0}", s);
simple question...
Given I have an ASP.NET site, which uses a [custom] RoleProvider,
Is there any way in which I can somehow "refresh" the provider without forcing the user to log out of the site and log back in?
I'm looking for something that would be akin to a fictional method
Roles.Refresh()
Specifically, I am looking at this for if an administrator changes a user's roles, the user sessions could maybe refresh themselves every 10 minutes or something.
I assume you have something like this in your web.config:
<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="..."
cacheRolesInCookie="true">
The roles are cached in a cookie , so you can force them to refresh by deleting the cookie. This method worked for me. I added the cookieName attribute so that I don't rely on asp.net's default. For your scenario, though, you may be able to just set the cookieTimeout attribute to something reasonable and be done with it.
This method won't update the roles immediately, of course. They will be updated on the next page load after you delete the cookie.
Refresh just need to delete the cookie:
For C#: Roles.DeleteCookie(); // Works as Roles.Refresh()
If you don't want to use cookies you can use Session object to cache the roles.
like this:
public override string[] GetRolesForUser(string username)
{
System.Web.SessionState.HttpSessionState Session = HttpContext.Current.Session;
if (Session["roles"] == null)
Session["roles"] = MyDataProvider.Security.GetRolesForUser(username);
return (string[])Session["roles"];
}
When you need to update the roles for this user you can do
Session["roles"] = null
depend on the custom role provider used.
Just call a "update my role" function on every request? (bad way but at least your sure to update it)
The roles are cached in a cookie (encrypted of course). The simplest solution will be to disable caching in the web.config file. You will loose some performance.
Else you must somehow resend the auth cookie. One major problem is that many browsers will not accept cookies on redirects with method post.
The other solution that worked for me:
1) In a aspx methodod log the user out and store the username in the session
//Add User to role reviewer and refresh ticket
Roles.AddUserToRole(User.Identity.Name, Constants.ROLE_REVISOR);
FormsAuthentication.SignOut();
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(User.Identity.Name, false); //Might work in some browsers
Session["REFRESHROLES"] = User.Identity.Name;
Response.Redirect("someprotectedurl?someid=" + someid);
2) In the loginpage sign the user in again if username is stored in session
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string returnUrl = Request.QueryString["ReturnUrl"];
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(returnUrl) == false)
{
if(Session["REFRESHROLES"] != null)
{
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Session["REFRESHROLES"].ToString()))
{
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(Session["REFRESHROLES"].ToString(), false);
Session.Remove("REFRESHROLES");
Response.Redirect(returnUrl);
return;
}
}