Search Database Authentication

Searches for a user record by querying against a username and password; the user is authenticated if at least one result is found.

The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.encoding-algorithm=
  • The encoding algorithm to use such as MD5. Relevant when the type used is DEFAULT or GLIBC_CRYPT. When used with PasswordEncoderTypes#PBKDF2, it should be one of PBKDF2WithHmacSHA1, PBKDF2WithHmacSHA256 or PBKDF2WithHmacSHA512.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.type=NONE
  • Define the password encoder type to use. Type may be specified as blank or NONE to disable password encoding. It may also refer to a fully-qualified class name that implements the Spring Security's PasswordEncoder interface if you wish you define your own encoder.

    The following types may be used:
    • NONE: No password encoding (i.e. plain-text) takes place.
    • DEFAULT: Use the DefaultPasswordEncoder of CAS. For message-digest algorithms via character-encoding and encoding-algorithm.
    • BCRYPT: Use the BCryptPasswordEncoder based on the strength provided and an optional secret.
    • SCRYPT: Use the SCryptPasswordEncoder.
    • PBKDF2: Use the Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder based on the strength provided and an optional secret.
    • STANDARD: Use the StandardPasswordEncoder based on the secret provided.
    • SSHA: Use the LdapShaPasswordEncoder supports Ldap SHA and SSHA (salted-SHA). The values are base-64 encoded and have the label {SHA} or {SSHA} prepended to the encoded hash.
    • GLIBC_CRYPT: Use the GlibcCryptPasswordEncoder based on the encoding-algorithm, strength provided and an optional secret.
    • org.example.MyEncoder: An implementation of PasswordEncoder of your own choosing.
    • file:///path/to/script.groovy: Path to a Groovy script charged with handling password encoding operations.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.groovy.location=
  • Transform usernames using a Groovy resource. The location of the resource. Resources can be URLs, or files found either on the classpath or outside somewhere in the file system.

    In the event the configured resource is a Groovy script, specially if the script set to reload on changes, you may need to adjust the total number of inotify instances. On Linux, you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf: fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256.

    You can check the current value via cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances.

    In situations and scenarios where CAS is able to automatically watch the underlying resource for changes and detect updates and modifications dynamically, you may be able to specify the following setting as either an environment variable or system property with a value of false to disable the resource watcher: org.apereo.cas.util.io.PathWatcherService.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.SpringResourceProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].driver-class=
  • The JDBC driver used to connect to the database.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].field-password=
  • Password column name.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].field-user=
  • Username column name.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password=
  • The database connection password.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].table-users=
  • Table name where accounts are held.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].url=
  • The database connection URL.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].user=
  • The database user.

    The database user must have sufficient permissions to be able to handle schema changes and updates, when needed.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value. In other words, you should only include this field in your configuration if you need to modify the default value or if you need to turn on the feature controlled by the setting.

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.character-encoding=UTF-8
  • The encoding algorithm to use such as 'UTF-8'. Relevant when the type used is DEFAULT.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.hash-length=16
  • When used by PasswordEncoderTypes#ARGON2, it indicates the hash strength/length.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.iterations=310000
  • When used by PasswordEncoderTypes#PBKDF2, it indicates the required number of iterations.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.secret=
  • Secret to use with PasswordEncoderTypes#STANDARD, PasswordEncoderTypes#PBKDF2, PasswordEncoderTypes#BCRYPT, PasswordEncoderTypes#GLIBC_CRYPT password encoders. Secret usually is an optional setting.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].password-encoder.strength=16
  • Strength or number of iterations to use for password hashing. Usually relevant when dealing with PasswordEncoderTypes#BCRYPT, PasswordEncoderTypes#PBKDF2 or PasswordEncoderTypes#GLIBC_CRYPT. When used by PasswordEncoderTypes#ARGON2 or PasswordEncoderTypes#PBKDF2, it indicates the salt strength.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PasswordEncoderProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.blocking-pattern=
  • A regular expression that will be used against the username to match for blocking/forbidden values. If a match is found, an exception will be thrown and principal transformation will fail.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.case-conversion=NONE
  • Indicate whether the principal identifier should be transformed into upper-case, lower-case, etc. Available values are as follows:

    • NONE: No conversion.
    • LOWERCASE: Lowercase conversion.
    • UPPERCASE: Uppercase conversion.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.pattern=
  • A regular expression that will be used against the provided username for username extractions. On a successful match, the first matched group in the pattern will be used as the extracted username.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.prefix=
  • Prefix to add to the principal id prior to authentication.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-transformation.suffix=
  • Suffix to add to the principal id prior to authentication.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.authentication.PrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.keep-alive-time=0
  • This property controls the keepalive interval for a connection in the pool. An in-use connection will never be tested by the keepalive thread, only when it is idle will it be tested. Default is zero, which disables this feature.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.max-size=18
  • Controls the maximum number of connections to keep in the pool, including both idle and in-use connections.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.max-wait=PT2S
  • Sets the maximum time in seconds that this data source will wait while attempting to connect to a database.

    A value of zero specifies that the timeout is the default system timeout if there is one; otherwise, it specifies that there is no timeout.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.maximum-lifetime=PT10M
  • This property controls the maximum lifetime of a connection in the pool. When a connection reaches this timeout, even if recently used, it will be retired from the pool. An in-use connection will never be retired, only when it is idle will it be removed.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.min-size=6
  • Controls the minimum size that the pool is allowed to reach, including both idle and in-use connections.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.name=
  • Set the name of the connection pool. This is primarily used for the MBean to uniquely identify the pool configuration.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.suspension=
  • Whether or not pool suspension is allowed.

    There is a performance impact when pool suspension is enabled. Unless you need it (for a redundancy system for example) do not enable it.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].pool.timeout-millis=1000
  • The maximum number of milliseconds that the pool will wait for a connection to be validated as alive.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.ConnectionPoolingProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search=
  • Settings related to search-mode jdbc authentication. Searches for a user record by querying against a username and password; the user is authenticated if at least one result is found.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.JdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].autocommit=
  • The default auto-commit behavior of connections in the pool. Determined whether queries such as update/insert should be immediately executed without waiting for an underlying transaction.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].batch-size=
  • A non-zero value enables use of JDBC2 batch updates by Hibernate. e.g. recommended values between 5 and 30.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].credential-criteria=
  • A number of authentication handlers are allowed to determine whether they can operate on the provided credential and as such lend themselves to be tried and tested during the authentication handler selection phase. The credential criteria may be one of the following options:

    • 1) A regular expression pattern that is tested against the credential identifier.
    • 2) A fully qualified class name of your own design that implements Predicate.
    • 3) Path to an external Groovy script that implements the same interface.

    This settings supports regular expression patterns. [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].data-source-name=
  • Attempts to do a JNDI data source look up for the data source name specified. Will attempt to locate the data source object as is.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].ddl-auto=
  • Hibernate feature to automatically validate and exports DDL to the schema. By default, creates and drops the schema automatically when a session is starts and ends. Setting the value to validate or none may be more desirable for production, but any of the following options can be used:

    • validate: Validate the schema, but make no changes to the database.
    • update: Update the schema.
    • create: Create the schema, destroying previous data.
    • create-drop: Drop the schema at the end of the session.
    • none: Do nothing.

    Note that during a version migration where any schema has changed create-drop will result in the loss of all data as soon as CAS is started. For transient data like tickets this is probably not an issue, but in cases like the audit table important data could be lost. Using `update`, while safe for data, is confirmed to result in invalid database state. validate or none settings are likely the only safe options for production use.

    For more info, see this.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].default-catalog=
  • Qualifies unqualified table names with the given catalog in generated SQL.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].default-schema=
  • Qualify unqualified table names with the given schema/tablespace in generated SQL.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].dialect=
  • The database dialect is a configuration setting for platform independent software (JPA, Hibernate, etc) which allows such software to translate its generic SQL statements into vendor specific DDL, DML.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].fail-fast-timeout=
  • Set the pool initialization failure timeout.

    • Any value greater than zero will be treated as a timeout for pool initialization. The calling thread will be blocked from continuing until a successful connection to the database, or until the timeout is reached. If the timeout is reached, then a PoolInitializationException will be thrown.
    • A value of zero will not prevent the pool from starting in the case that a connection cannot be obtained. However, upon start the pool will attempt to obtain a connection and validate that the connectionTestQuery and connectionInitSql are valid. If those validations fail, an exception will be thrown. If a connection cannot be obtained, the validation is skipped and the the pool will start and continue to try to obtain connections in the background. This can mean that callers to DataSource#getConnection() may encounter exceptions.
    • A value less than zero will not bypass any connection attempt and validation during startup, and therefore the pool will start immediately. The pool will continue to try to obtain connections in the background. This can mean that callers to DataSource#getConnection() may encounter exceptions.
    Note that if this timeout value is greater than or equal to zero (0), and therefore an initial connection validation is performed, this timeout does not override the connectionTimeout or validationTimeout; they will be honored before this timeout is applied. The default value is one millisecond.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].fetch-size=
  • Used to specify number of rows to be fetched in a select query.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].generate-statistics=
  • Allow hibernate to generate query statistics.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].health-query=
  • The SQL query to be executed to test the validity of connections. This is for "legacy" databases that do not support the JDBC4 Connection.isValid() API.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].idle-timeout=
  • Controls the maximum amount of time that a connection is allowed to sit idle in the pool.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].isolate-internal-queries=
  • This property determines whether data source isolates internal pool queries, such as the connection alive test, in their own transaction.

    Since these are typically read-only queries, it is rarely necessary to encapsulate them in their own transaction. This property only applies if #autocommit is disabled.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].isolation-level-name=
  • Defines the isolation level for transactions.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].leak-threshold=
  • Controls the amount of time that a connection can be out of the pool before a message is logged indicating a possible connection leak.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].name=
  • Name of the authentication handler.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].order=
  • Order of the authentication handler in the chain.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].physical-naming-strategy-class-name=
  • Fully-qualified name of the class that can control the physical naming strategy of hibernate.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].principal-attribute-list=
  • List of column names to fetch as user attributes. This is only effective in scenarios where the JDBC authentication method is able to execute a SQL query against a database table and return results. Authentication methods that merely check for the user account's existence or verify the user with just a simple bind are not able to fetch attributes.

    Attributes name are separated by a comma and may use a "directed list" syntax where the allowed syntax would be column-name->cas-attribute.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].propagation-behavior-name=
  • Defines the propagation behavior for transactions.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].properties=
  • Additional settings provided by Hibernate (or the connection provider) in form of key-value pairs.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].read-only=
  • Configures the Connections to be added to the pool as read-only Connections.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.jdbc.search[0].state=
  • Define the scope and state of this authentication handler and the lifecycle in which it can be invoked or activated. Available values are as follows:

    • ACTIVE: Active authentication handler, and is invoked by default automatically to verify credentials globally.
    • STANDBY: Authentication handler is in a semi-enabled state, waiting to be called only on-demand when explicitly asked for.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.jdbc.authn.SearchJdbcAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

    Control global properties that are relevant to Hibernate, when CAS attempts to employ and utilize database resources, connections and queries.

  • cas.jdbc.case-insensitive=false
  • When choosing physical table names, determine whether names should be considered case-insensitive.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.jdbc.gen-ddl=true
  • Whether to generate DDL after the EntityManagerFactory has been initialized creating/updating all relevant tables.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.jdbc.physical-table-names=
  • Indicate a physical table name to be used by the hibernate naming strategy in case table names need to be customized for the specific type of database. The key here indicates the CAS-provided table name and the value is the translate physical name for the database. If a match is not found for the CAS-provided table name, then that name will be used by default.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.jdbc.show-sql=false
  • Whether SQL queries should be displayed in the console/logs.

    How can I configure this property?