Simple Multifactor Authentication - Communication Strategy

Users may be notified of CAS-issued tokens via text messages and/or email. The authenticated CAS principal is expected to carry enough attributes, configurable via CAS settings, in order for CAS to properly send text messages and/or email to the end-user. Tokens may also be shared via notification strategies back by platforms such as Google Firebase, etc.

To learn more about available options, please see this guide or this guide, or this guide.

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.mfa.simple.mail.attribute-name=
  • Principal attribute names that indicates the destination email address for this message. The attributes must already be resolved and available to the CAS principal. When multiple attributes are specified, each attribute is then examined against the available CAS principal to locate the email address value, which may result in multiple emails being sent.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.from=
  • Email from address.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.subject=
  • Email subject line.

    The subject can either be defined verbaitm, or it may point to a message key in the language bundle using the syntax #{subject-language-key}. This key should point to a valid message defined in the appropriate language bundle that is then picked up via the active locale. In case where the language code cannot resolve the real subject, a default subject value would be used.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.sms.attribute-name=
  • Principal attribute names that indicates the destination phone number for this SMS message. The attribute must already be resolved and available to the CAS principal.

    This setting supports the Spring Expression Language.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.sms.SmsProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.sms.from=
  • The from address for the message.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.sms.SmsProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.sms.text=
  • The body of the SMS message.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.sms.SmsProperties.

    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.mfa.simple.mail.bcc=
  • Email BCC address, if any.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.cc=
  • Email CC address, if any.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.html=false
  • Indicate whether the message body should be evaluated as HTML text. The application of this setting depends on the email provider implementation and may not be fully supported everywhere. This is typically relevant for the default org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.priority=1
  • Set the priority (X-Priority header) of the message. Values: 1 (Highest), 2 (High), 3 (Normal), 4 (Low), 5 (Lowest). The application of this setting depends on the email provider implementation and may not be fully supported everywhere. This is typically relevant for the default org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.reply-to=
  • Email Reply-To address, if any.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.text=
  • Email message body. Could be plain text or a reference to an external file that would serve as a template.

    If specified as a path to an external file with an extension .gtemplate, then the email message body would be processed using the Groovy template engine. The template engine uses JSP style <% %> script and <%= %> expression syntax or GString style expressions. The variable out is bound to the writer that the template is being written to.

    If using plain text, the contents are processed for string subtitution candidates using named variables. For example, you may refer to an expected url variable in the email text via ${url}, or use ${token} to locate the token variable. In certain cases, additional parameters are passed to the email body processor that might include authentication and/or principal attributes, the available locale, client http information, etc.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.mfa.simple.mail.validate-addresses=false
  • Set whether to validate all addresses which get passed to this helper. The application of this setting depends on the email provider implementation and may not be fully supported everywhere. This is typically relevant for the default org.springframework.mail.javamail.JavaMailSender.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.email.EmailProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

    The following settings may also need to be defined to describe the mail server settings:

  • spring.mail.default-encoding=UTF-8
  • Default MimeMessage encoding.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.host=
  • SMTP server host. For instance, 'smtp.example.com'.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.jndi-name=
  • Session JNDI name. When set, takes precedence over other Session settings.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.password=
  • Login password of the SMTP server.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.port=
  • SMTP server port.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.properties=
  • Additional JavaMail Session properties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.protocol=smtp
  • Protocol used by the SMTP server.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.test-connection=false
  • Whether to test that the mail server is available on startup.

    How can I configure this property?

  • spring.mail.username=
  • Login user of the SMTP server.

    How can I configure this property?

    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.

    :information_source: Note

    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.