APEREO CASDocumentation

Enterprise Authentication for All Earthlings and Beyond

Identity, Single Sign-On and Access Management
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Grouper Attribute Resolution

The following configuration describes how to fetch and retrieve attributes from Grouper attribute repositories.



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<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apereo.cas</groupId>
    <artifactId>cas-server-support-grouper</artifactId>
    <version>${cas.version}</version>
</dependency>





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implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-grouper:${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-grouper"
}





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dependencies {
    /*
        The following platform references are included automatically and are listed 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-grouper"
}

This option reads all the groups from Grouper for the given CAS principal and adopts them as CAS attributes under a grouperGroups multi-valued attribute.

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

cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.idA value can be assigned to this field to uniquely identify this resolver.
no default

A value can be assigned to this field to uniquely identify this resolver.

Type
String
Default
none
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties
cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.orderThe order of this attribute repository in the chain of repositories.
0

The order of this attribute repository in the chain of repositories. Can be used to explicitly position this source in chain and affects merging strategies.

Type
Integer
Default
0
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties
cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.parametersCustom parameters defined as a Map to pass onto the attribute repository which ultimately will be passed onto the grouper client.
no default

Custom parameters defined as a Map to pass onto the attribute repository which ultimately will be passed onto the grouper client. Key is the parameter name and value is the parameter value.

Type
Map<String,String>
Default
none
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties
cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.stateWhether attribute resolution based on this source is enabled.
active
Whether attribute resolution based on this source is enabled. Available values are as follows:
  • ACTIVE: Active and enabled repository, and is invoked by default automatically.
  • DISABLED: Attribute repository is disabled and will not be used to resolve people and attributes.
  • STANDBY: Repository is in a semi-enabled state, waiting to be called only on-demand when explicitly asked for and will not be registered into the resolution plan.
Type
AttributeRepositoryStates
Default
active
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties
cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.subject-typeIndicate how the username passed to the attribute repository should be set and treated by the grouper client to look up records.
SUBJECT_ID

Indicate how the username passed to the attribute repository should be set and treated by the grouper client to look up records.

Accepted values are: SUBJECT_IDENTIFIER, SUBJECT_ATTRIBUTE_NAME, SUBJECT_ID.

Type
String
Default
SUBJECT_ID
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties
cas.authn.attribute-repository.grouper.username-attributeThe attribute name that would be used to look up and determine the user id from the query map.
username

The attribute name that would be used to look up and determine the user id from the query map. The value linked to this attribute would be used as the username or subject by the attribute repository to pass on to the ultimate source to locate the user record.

Type
String
Default
username
Defined by
GrouperPrincipalAttributesProperties

Required settings may be needed to activate or affect the feature; review them even when they have a default. Optional settings only need to be set to change a default or to turn on the behavior they control. Third party settings belong to libraries such as Spring Boot that CAS builds on; their own documentation may have more detail.

Notes on configuration

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, especially 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.

You will also need to ensure grouper.client.properties is available on the classpath (i.e. src/main/resources) with the following configured properties:



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# grouperClient.webService.url = http://192.168.99.100:32768/grouper-ws/servicesRest
# grouperClient.webService.login = banderson
# grouperClient.webService.password = password

You may also consider externalizing the Grouper client configuration file by modifying /src/main/resources/grouper.client.properties to contain the following:



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grouperClient.config.hierarchy = classpath:/grouper.client.base.properties,file:/etc/cas/config/grouper.client.properties

…where /etc/cas/config/grouper.client.properties would then contain the actual Grouper related settings.

Troubleshooting

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



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...
<Logger name="edu.internet2.middleware" level="debug" additivity="false">
    <AppenderRef ref="casConsole"/>
    <AppenderRef ref="casFile"/>
</Logger>
...