SOAP Authentication

Verify and authenticate credentials where CAS acts as a SOAP client. Credentials are submitted to the SOAP endpoint whereupon authentication, the expected response is to return a username, a set of attributes and possibly a status that is loosely based on HTTP status codes which might help determine the account status.

The current schema is as such:

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<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns:tns="http://apereo.org/cas"
           targetNamespace="http://apereo.org/cas"
           elementFormDefault="qualified">

    <xs:element name="getSoapAuthenticationRequest">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="username" type="xs:string"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
    <xs:element name="getSoapAuthenticationResponse">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="attributes" type="tns:MapItemType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
                <xs:element name="status" type="xs:int"/>
                <xs:element name="username" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
                <xs:element name="message" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
    <xs:complexType name="MapItemType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="key" type="xs:anyType"/>
            <xs:element name="value" type="xs:anyType"/>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>

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-soap-authentication</artifactId>
    <version>${cas.version}</version>
</dependency>
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implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-soap-authentication:${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-soap-authentication"
}
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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-soap-authentication"
}

Configuration

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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.principal-transformation.groovy.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 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.core.authentication.GroovyPrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.soap.url=
  • URL of the SOAP endpoint.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.soap.SoapAuthenticationProperties.

    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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.name=
  • The name of the authentication handler.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.soap.SoapAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.soap.order=
  • The order of this authentication handler in the chain.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.soap.SoapAuthenticationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

    CAS takes advantage of Apache Groovy in forms of either embedded or external scripts that allow one to, by default, dynamically build constructs, attributes, access strategies and a lot more. To activate the functionality described here, you may need to prepare CAS to support and integrate with Apache Groovy.

    Please review this guide to configure your build.

  • cas.authn.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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?

    If you need to design your own password encoding scheme where the type is specified as a fully qualified Java class name, the structure of the class would be similar to the following:

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    package org.example.cas;
    
    import org.springframework.security.crypto.codec.*;
    import org.springframework.security.crypto.password.*;
    
    public class MyEncoder extends AbstractPasswordEncoder {
        @Override
        protected byte[] encode(CharSequence rawPassword, byte[] salt) {
            return ...
        }
    }
    

    If you need to design your own password encoding scheme where the type is specified as a path to a Groovy script, the structure of the script would be similar to the following:

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    import java.util.*
    
    byte[] run(final Object... args) {
        def (rawPassword,generatedSalt,logger,applicationContext) = args
        logger.debug("Encoding password...")
        return ...
    }
    
    Boolean matches(final Object... args) {
        def (rawPassword,encodedPassword,logger,applicationContext) = args
        logger.debug("Does match or not ?");
        return ...
    

    To prepare CAS to support and integrate with Apache Groovy, please review this guide.

  • cas.authn.soap.principal-transformation.groovy.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 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.core.authentication.GroovyPrincipalTransformationProperties.

    How can I configure this property?

  • cas.authn.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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.soap.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?

    Authentication handlers that generally deal with username-password credentials can be configured to transform the user id prior to executing the authentication sequence. Each authentication strategy in CAS provides settings to properly transform the principal. Refer to the relevant settings for the authentication strategy at hand to learn more.

    Authentication handlers as part of principal transformation may also be provided a path to a Groovy script to transform the provided username. The outline of the script may take on the following form:

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    String run(final Object... args) {
        def (providedUsername,logger) = args
        return providedUsername.concat("SomethingElse")
    }
    

    To prepare CAS to support and integrate with Apache Groovy, please review this guide.

    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.

    The status returned in the SOAP response as interpreted as one of the following values:

    Code Result
    200 Successful authentication.
    403 Produces a AccountDisabledException
    404 Produces a AccountNotFoundException
    423 Produces a AccountLockedException
    412 Produces a AccountExpiredException
    428 Produces a AccountPasswordMustChangeException
    Other Produces a FailedLoginException

    Troubleshooting

    To enable additional logging, configure the log4j configuration file to add the following levels:

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    ...
    <Logger name="org.springframework.ws" level="debug" additivity="false">
        <AppenderRef ref="casConsole"/>
        <AppenderRef ref="casFile"/>
    </Logger>
    <Logger name="org.apache.ws" level="debug" additivity="false">
        <AppenderRef ref="casConsole"/>
        <AppenderRef ref="casFile"/>
    </Logger>
    <Logger name="org.apache.wss4j" level="debug" additivity="false">
        <AppenderRef ref="casConsole"/>
        <AppenderRef ref="casFile"/>
    </Logger>
    ...