Delegated Authentication
CAS can act as a client (i.e. service provider or proxy) using the Pac4j library and delegate the authentication to:
- CAS servers
- SAML2 identity providers
- OAuth2 providers such as Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, etc
- OpenID Connect identity providers such as Google, Apple
- ADFS
Support is enabled by including the following dependency in the WAR overlay:
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<dependency>
<groupId>org.apereo.cas</groupId>
<artifactId>cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow</artifactId>
<version>${cas.version}</version>
</dependency>
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implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow:${project.'cas.version'}"
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dependencyManagement {
imports {
mavenBom "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-bom:${project.'cas.version'}"
}
}
dependencies {
implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow"
}
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dependencies {
/*
The following platform references should be included automatically and are listed here for reference only.
implementation enforcedPlatform("org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-bom:${project.'cas.version'}")
implementation platform(org.springframework.boot.gradle.plugin.SpringBootPlugin.BOM_COORDINATES)
*/
implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow"
}
The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:
cas.authn.pac4j.core.groovy-authentication-request-customizer.location=
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 ofinotify 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 .
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.groovy-provider-post-processor.location=
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 ofinotify 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 .
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.groovy-redirection-strategy.location=
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 ofinotify 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 .
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.encryption.key=
The encryption key is a JWT whose length is defined by the encryption key size setting.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.signing.key=
The signing key is a JWT whose length is defined by the signing key size setting.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.discovery-selection.json.location=
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 ofinotify 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 .
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.discovery-selection.selection-type=MENU
Indicate how the selection and presentation of identity providers would be controlled. Available values are as follows:
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.replicate-sessions=true
Indicates whether profiles and other session data, collected as part of authentication flows and protocol requests that are kept by the container session, should be replicated across the cluster using CAS and its own ticket registry. Without this option, profile data and other related pieces of information should be manually replicated via means and libraries outside of CAS.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.alg=
The signing/encryption algorithm to use.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.enabled=true
Whether crypto operations are enabled.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.encryption.key-size=512
The encryption key size.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.signing.key-size=512
The signing key size.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.strategy-type=ENCRYPT_AND_SIGN
Control the cipher sequence of operations. The accepted values are:
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.allowed-ip-addresses-pattern=
A regular expression pattern that indicates the set of allowed IP addresses, when This settings supports regular expression patterns. [?].
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.auto-configure-cookie-path=true
Decide if cookie paths should be automatically configured based on the application context path, when the cookie path is not configured.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.domain=
Cookie domain. Specifies the domain within which this cookie should be presented. The form of the domain name is specified by RFC 2965. A domain name begins with a dot (.foo.com) and means that the cookie is visible to servers in a specified Domain Name System (DNS) zone (for example, www.foo.com, but not a.b.foo.com). By default, cookies are only returned to the server that sent them.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.geo-locate-client-session=false
When set to
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.http-only=true
true if this cookie contains the HttpOnly attribute. This means that the cookie should not be accessible to scripting engines, like javascript.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.max-age=-1
The maximum age of the cookie, specified in seconds. By default,
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.name=
Cookie name. Constructs a cookie with a specified name and value. The name must conform to RFC 2965. That means it can contain only ASCII alphanumeric characters and cannot contain commas, semicolons, or white space or begin with a
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.path=
Cookie path. Specifies a path for the cookie to which the client should return the cookie. The cookie is visible to all the pages in the directory you specify, and all the pages in that directory's subdirectories. A cookie's path must include the servlet that set the cookie, for example, /catalog, which makes the cookie visible to all directories on the server under /catalog. Consult RFC 2965 (available on the Internet) for more information on setting path names for cookies.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.pin-to-session=true
When generating cookie values, determine whether the value should be compounded and signed with the properties of the current session, such as IP address, user-agent, etc.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.same-site-policy=
If a cookie is only intended to be accessed in a first party context, the developer has the option to apply one of settings SameSite=None , to designate cookies for cross-site access. When the SameSite=None attribute is present, an additional Secure attribute is used so cross-site cookies can only be accessed over HTTPS connections. Accepted values are:
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.secure=true
True if sending this cookie should be restricted to a secure protocol, or false if the it can be sent using any protocol.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.cache-duration=PT8H
Control the expiration policy of the cache that holds onto the results. This settings supports the
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.cache-size=100
Control the size of the delegated identity provider cache that holds identity providers. This setting specifies the maximum number of entries the cache may contain. Note that the cache may evict an entry before this limit is exceeded or temporarily exceed the threshold while evicting. As the cache size grows close to the maximum, the cache evicts entries that are less likely to be used again. For example, the cache may evict an entry because it hasn't been used recently or very often.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.discovery-selection.json.principal-attribute=
The name of the principal attribute whose values will be compared against the key pattern defined in the configuration rules. If a match is found, then the provider configuration block will be used as the selected provider. The matching routine will examine all attribute values linked to the principal attribute to find any acceptable match. When this setting left undefined, then the resolved principal id for the given user identifier will be used to locate the provider.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.lazy-init=true
Whether initialization of delegated identity providers should be done eagerly typically during startup.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.name=
The name of the authentication handler in CAS used for delegation.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.order=
Order of the authentication handler in the chain.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.principal-id-attribute=
The attribute to use as the principal identifier built during and upon a successful authentication attempt.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.typed-id-used=false
When constructing the final user profile from the delegated provider, determines if the provider id should be combined with the principal id.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.encryption.key=
The encryption key is a JWT whose length is defined by the encryption key size setting.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.signing.key=
The signing key is a JWT whose length is defined by the signing key size setting.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.alg=
The signing/encryption algorithm to use.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.enabled=true
Whether crypto operations are enabled.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.encryption.key-size=512
The encryption key size.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.signing.key-size=512
The signing key size.
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cas.authn.pac4j.core.session-replication.cookie.crypto.strategy-type=ENCRYPT_AND_SIGN
Control the cipher sequence of operations. The accepted values are:
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This CAS feature is able to accept signing and encryption crypto keys. In most scenarios if keys are not provided, CAS will auto-generate them. The following instructions apply if you wish to manually and beforehand create the signing and encryption keys.
Note that if you are asked to create a JWK of a certain size for the key, you are to use the following set of commands to generate the token:
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wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apereo/cas/master/etc/jwk-gen.jar
java -jar jwk-gen.jar -t oct -s [size]
The outcome would be similar to:
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{
"kty": "oct",
"kid": "...",
"k": "..."
}
The generated value for k
needs to be assigned to the relevant CAS settings. Note that keys generated via
the above algorithm are processed by CAS using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES
) algorithm which is a
specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Configuration Metadata
The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.
Be Selective
This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.
YAGNI
Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.
Naming Convention
Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty
, cas.some-property
, cas.some_property
are all valid names. While all
forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where
this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those
that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.
When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value
.
The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the
actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions
) MUST remain in camelCase mode.
Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas
. All other settings are controlled and provided
to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with
the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition
or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the
way you intend.
Validation
Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.
Indexed Settings
CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value
. The index [0]
is meant to be
incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.
The client issuing the authentication request can be of any type (SAML, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, etc) and is allowed to submit the authentication request using any protocol that the CAS server supports and is configured to understand. This means that you may have an OAuth2 client using CAS in delegation mode to authenticate at an external SAML2 identity provider, another CAS server or Facebook and in the end of that flow receiving an OAuth2 user profile. The CAS server is able to act as a proxy, doing the protocol translation in the middle.
Identity Provider Registration
Please see this guide.
Profile Attributes
In CAS-protected applications, through service ticket validation, user information are pushed to the CAS client and therefore to the application itself.
The identifier of the user is always pushed to the CAS client. For user attributes, it involves both the configuration at the server and the way of validating service tickets.
On CAS server side, to push attributes to the CAS client, it should be configured in the expected service:
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{
"@class" : "org.apereo.cas.services.CasRegisteredService",
"serviceId" : "sample",
"name" : "sample",
"id" : 100,
"description" : "sample",
"attributeReleasePolicy" : {
"@class" : "org.apereo.cas.services.ReturnAllowedAttributeReleasePolicy",
"allowedAttributes" : [ "java.util.ArrayList", [ "name", "first_name", "middle_name" ] ]
}
}
Discovery Selection
Please see this guide.
Authentication Policy
Please see this guide.
Provisioning
Please see this guide.
Post Processing
Please see this guide.
Webflow
Certain aspects of the webflow configuration for delegated authentication can be controlled via the following settings:
The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:
cas.authn.pac4j.webflow.enabled=true
Whether webflow auto-configuration should be enabled.
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cas.authn.pac4j.webflow.order=0
The order in which the webflow is configured.
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Configuration Metadata
The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.
Be Selective
This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.
YAGNI
Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.
Naming Convention
Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty
, cas.some-property
, cas.some_property
are all valid names. While all
forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where
this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those
that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.
When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value
.
The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the
actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions
) MUST remain in camelCase mode.
Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas
. All other settings are controlled and provided
to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with
the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition
or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the
way you intend.
Validation
Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.
Indexed Settings
CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value
. The index [0]
is meant to be
incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.
Troubleshooting
To enable additional logging, configure the log4j configuration file to add the following levels:
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...
<Logger name="org.pac4j" level="debug" additivity="false">
<AppenderRef ref="casConsole"/>
<AppenderRef ref="casFile"/>
</Logger>
...