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John,

VCL can be set up to allow both CAS and the local accounts.  I'll try to 
explain that sometime next week.

Is there a URL users can be redirected to (such as a CAS server) from the VCL 
site to auth to CAS and then get redirected back to the VCL site after 
authenticating?  If so, that would be the easier way.  If not, a subdirectory 
can be CAS protected and then VCL can set its own authentication cookie.

Josh

On Friday January 14, 2011, John Ma wrote:
> Josh,
> 
> I got it working by following your guideline. Thanks a lot.
> 
> However, this implementation blocked access to the 'local account'
> authentication method. I feel it desirable to keep the select auth page (
> /index.php?mode=selectauth ), to allow 'local account' authentication and
> to serve as VCL's home page.
> 
> CAS has this module https://wiki.jasig.org/display/CASC/phpCAS which
> provides API for PHP client. I think phpCAS maybe what I needed but I
> don't have the confidence about the actual plumbing. Could you have a
> quick look of phpCAS and suggest a path to integrate it into VCL?
> 
> Thanks,
> John Ma
> Marist College
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From:   Josh Thompson <josh_thomp...@ncsu.edu>
> To:     vcl-dev@incubator.apache.org
> Date:   01/12/2011 01:32 PM
> Subject:        Re: CASify VCL 2.2
> 
> 
> 
> - gpg control packet
> John,
> 
> After doing some reading about CAS, it sounds like it is very similar to a
> 
> home grown web authentication solution we use here at NCSU.  The basic
> idea of
> our system is to protect the vcl directory with a .htaccess file.  If the
> users are not authenticated to our system, they get redirected to an
> authentication server that provides them with an encrypted authentication
> cookie that an apache module on the web server hosting VCL can then
> decrypt to
> verify that the users are authenticated.
> 
> I have our system set up so that it gets the userid using that system (it
> also
> sets $_SERVER['REMOTE_USER']).  Then, I connect to our campus ldap server
> to
> look up more information about the user.  However, that part could be
> optional
> for you if you only need the userid.  A nice benefit of using ldap is that
> you
> can automatically populate the user into certain groups in VCL so that the
> 
> first time a user logs in, that user will already have access to anything
> his
> or her groups have access to.  Without that, you'll either need to have
> the
> user log in first or manually add an entry for the user to the vcl.user
> table
> before the user can be granted access to anything in VCL.
> 
> Here are the first steps I'd suggest to get CAS working with VCL.  Having
> not
> tried it myself, there's probably something I'm missing; so, it may take
> some
> back in forth emails to get it fully worked out.
> 
> 1) save the attached file (casauth.php) to .ht-inc/authmethods/casauth.php
> 2) create a new entry in the vcl.affiliation table (I'll call it Marist,
> and
> assume the id associated with the new entry is 3)
> 3) create a new entry in $authMechs in .ht-inc/conf.php similar to this:
> 
>   "Marist CAS" => array("type" => "CAS",
>                         "affiliationid" => 3)
> 4) create entries in $affilValFunc, $addUserFunc, $addUserFuncArgs,
> $updateUserFunc, and $updateUserFuncArgs in .ht-inc/conf.php similar to
> the
> following:
> 
>   $affilValFunc = array(1 => create_function('', 'return 0;'),
>                         3 => create_function('', 'return 0;'));
>   $addUserFunc = array(1 => create_function('', 'return 0;'),
>                        3 => 'addCASUser');
>   $addUserFuncArgs = array(3 => 'Marist CAS');
>   $updateUserFunc = array(1 => create_function('', 'return 0;'),
>                           3 => 'updateCASUser');
>   $updateUserFuncArgs = array(3 => 'Marist CAS');
> 5) add require_once(".ht-inc/authmethods/casauth.php"); to the end of .ht-
> inc/conf.php
> 6) protect the vcl directory on the web server with an appropriate
> .htaccess
> file such that users must be authenticated to CAS to be able to view the
> index.php page
> 7) modify vcl/.ht-inc/utils.php as follows:
>  a) in initGlobals, comment out everything between '# start auth check'
> and '#
> end auth check'
>  b) add these lines above or below what you just commented out:
>    $authed = 1;
>    $userid = "{$_SERVER['REMOTE_USER']}@Marist";
> 
> Give that a try and let me know how things work out.
> 
> Josh
> 
> On Tuesday January 04, 2011, John Ma wrote:
> > Hi community,
> > 
> > I am attempting to integrate VCL2.2 with CAS (http://www.jasig.org/cas)
> > and wondering whether someone could provide a brief introduction of
> 
> VCL's
> 
> > authentication mechanism.
> > 
> > I want to keep VCL user table for authorization but off load
> > authentication to CAS. I am familiar with CAS and know the basics of PHP
> > and Perl programming.
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > 
> > John Ma
> > sys admin
> > Marist College


- -- 
- -------------------------------
Josh Thompson
VCL Developer
North Carolina State University

my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu
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