What version of websphere are you using? (eg: Single Server Edition or Advanced Edition version 3.5, or 4.0) If you are using Advanced edition, you can configure "single signon" for a web domain. 1) you use an LDAP server for authentication and assign the userids to groups for role mapping. 2) you configure the single signon domain for something like ".mycompany.com". 3) your users login to your "gateway" application. (eg mainsite.mycompany.com) 4) WebSphere generates a LTPAToken cookie with the .mycompany.com set as the cookie domain. (this contains your encrypted security credentials) 5) your app does a sendredirect() to something like https://app1.mycompany.com/mainservlet 6) the LTPAToken flows to the new servlet. 7) since websphere honors the LTPAToken, your security context is set up for you. ie websphere knows what your userid is and what ldap groups you belong to. Since the LTPAToken is encrypted, your not sending your user and roles as http parameters through the network, hence they can't be easily forged.
IBM has websphere "handbooks" for versions 3.5 and 4.0 published as "redbooks". John Zerbe - Mellon Financial Corp. Information Technology Solutions - Middleware Team Phone: 412-234-1048 E-Mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] AIM: 153-1315 -----Original Message----- From: alexandre bord [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 4:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Unusual (?) security management Hello, We are developping an J2EE application which uses Servlets / JSP and EJBs The login process is not a classic (?) one : all users login in a WebApp. They are showed the apps they are allowed to use. When they choose one app, they are forwarded to the Login.jsp of the specific web application (other Web server). The HTTP parameters are the username and the user roles. We would like to make our Application Server (Websphere) be aware of this, so we could propagate on the EJB layer. We develop only our WebApp, and so can not modify the login process, nor could retrieve user roles in any other way than the HTTP parameters to Login.jsp Awaiting for your ideas, Best regard Alexandre ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff SERVLET-INTEREST". Archives: http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/servlet-interest.html Resources: http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/external-resources.html LISTSERV Help: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/user/user.html DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee. Access, copying or re-use of the e-mail or any information contained therein by any other person is not authorized. If you are not the intended recipient please notify us immediately by returning the e-mail to the originator. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff SERVLET-INTEREST". Archives: http://archives.java.sun.com/archives/servlet-interest.html Resources: http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/external-resources.html LISTSERV Help: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/user/user.html
