Password Management

If authentication fails due to a rejected password policy, CAS is able to intercept that request and allow the user to update the account password in place. The password management features of CAS are rather modest, and alternatively should the functionality provide inadequate for your policy, you may always redirect CAS to use a separate and standalone application that is fully in charge of managing the account password and associated flows.

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-pm-webflow</artifactId>
    <version>${cas.version}</version>
</dependency>
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implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pm-webflow:${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-pm-webflow"
}
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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)
        
        Including this module in the CAS WAR overlay is optional and unnecessary. This module is automatically included
        and bundled with the CAS server distribution and there are alternative options baked in to allow one to replace
        this module with another. The entry below is listed for reference only.
    */
    implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pm-webflow"
}
:information_source: YAGNI

You do not need to explicitly include this module in your configuration and overlays. This is just to tell you that it exists.

Configuration

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

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

cas.authn.pm.core.enabledFlag to indicate if password management facility is enabled.
false
Required

Flag to indicate if password management facility is enabled.

Type
Boolean
Default
false
Defined by
PasswordManagementCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.core.password-policy-patternA String value representing password policy regex pattern.
^(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*\d)(?=.*[$@$!%*?&])[A-Za-z\d$@$!%*?&]{8,10}
RequiredRegex

A String value representing password policy regex pattern. Minimum 8 and Maximum 10 characters at least 1 Uppercase Alphabet, 1 Lowercase Alphabet, 1 Number and 1 Special Character.

Type
String
Default
^(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*\d)(?=.*[$@$!%*?&])[A-Za-z\d$@$!%*?&]{8,10}
Defined by
PasswordManagementCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.core.auto-loginFlag to indicate whether successful password change should trigger login automatically.
false

Flag to indicate whether successful password change should trigger login automatically.

Type
Boolean
Default
false
Defined by
PasswordManagementCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.core.password-policy-character-setThe character set that CAS may use to generate and suggest new passwords.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789![]{}()%&*$#^<>~@|

The character set that CAS may use to generate and suggest new passwords.

Type
String
Default
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789![]{}()%&*$#^<>~@|
Defined by
PasswordManagementCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.core.password-policy-password-lengthThe password length used by CAS when suggesting generated passwords.
10

The password length used by CAS when suggesting generated passwords.

Type
Long
Default
10
Defined by
PasswordManagementCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.history.core.enabledFlag to indicate if password history tracking is enabled.
false

Flag to indicate if password history tracking is enabled.

Type
Boolean
Default
false
Defined by
PasswordHistoryCoreProperties
cas.authn.pm.webflow.enabledWhether webflow auto-configuration should be enabled.
true

Whether webflow auto-configuration should be enabled.

Type
Boolean
Default
true
Defined by
WebflowAutoConfigurationProperties
cas.authn.pm.webflow.orderThe order in which the webflow is configured.
0

The order in which the webflow is configured.

Type
Integer
Default
0
Defined by
WebflowAutoConfigurationProperties

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.

Password policy

Password Policy Strategies

If the password policy strategy is to be handed off to a Groovy script, the outline of the script may be as follows:

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import java.util.*
import org.ldaptive.auth.*
import org.apereo.cas.*
import org.apereo.cas.authentication.*
import org.apereo.cas.authentication.support.*

List<MessageDescriptor> run(final Object... args) {
    def (response,configuration,logger,applicationContext) = args
    logger.info("Handling password policy [{}] via ${configuration.getAccountStateHandler()}", response)

    def accountStateHandler = configuration.getAccountStateHandler()
    return accountStateHandler.handle(response, configuration)
}

The parameters passed are as follows:

Parameter Description
response The LDAP authentication response of type org.ldaptive.auth.AuthenticationResponse
configuration The LDAP password policy configuration carrying the account state handler defined.
logger The object responsible for issuing log messages such as logger.info(...).
applicationContext The Spring ApplicationContext that allows one to interact with the runtime.

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

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.

Password Reset

Please see this guide for more details.

Account Management

CAS may also allow individual end-users to update certain aspects of their account that relate to password management in a mini portal like setup, such as resetting the password or updating security questions, etc. Please see this guide for more details.

Forgot Username

To learn more, please see this guide.

Password History

To learn more, please see this guide.

Storage

User accounts can be found via the following ways.

Storage Instructions
JSON See this guide.
Groovy See this guide.
LDAP See this guide.
JDBC See this guide.
REST See this guide.
Custom See this guide.