Chapter 8. Security

The Simple LDAP authenticates connections against a Directory (LDAP).

To create a SimpleLDAPAuthenticationProvider the following mandatory fields are required:

Additionally, the following optional fields can be specified:

The LDAP Authentication Provider works in the following manner. If not in bind without search mode, it first connects to the Directory and searches for the ldap entity which is identified by the username. The search begins at the distinguished name identified by Search Context and uses the username as a filter. The search scope is sub-tree meaning the search will include the base object and the subtree extending beneath it.

If the search returns a match, or is configured in bind without search mode, the Authentication Provider then attempts to bind to the LDAP server with the given name and the password. Note that simple security authentication is used so the Directory receives the password in the clear.

By default, this authentication provider caches the result of an authentication for a short period of time. This reduces the load on the Directory service if the same credentials are presented frequently within a short period of time. The length of time a result will be cached is defined by context variable qpid.auth.cache.expiration_time (default to 600 seconds). The cache can be disabled by setting the context variable qpid.auth.cache.size to 0.

Kereberos Authentication Provider uses java GSS-API SASL mechanism to authenticate the connections.

Configuration of kerberos is done through system properties (there doesn't seem to be a way around this unfortunately).

    export JAVA_OPTS=-Djavax.security.auth.useSubjectCredsOnly=false -Djava.security.auth.login.config=qpid.conf
    ${QPID_HOME}/bin/qpid-server
  

Where qpid.conf would look something like this:

com.sun.security.jgss.accept {
    com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
    useKeyTab=true
    storeKey=true
    doNotPrompt=true
    realm="EXAMPLE.COM"
    useSubjectCredsOnly=false
    kdc="kerberos.example.com"
    keyTab="/path/to/keytab-file"
    principal="<name>/<host>";
};

Where realm, kdc, keyTab and principal should obviously be set correctly for the environment where you are running (see the existing documentation for the C++ broker about creating a keytab file).

spnego {
    com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
    useKeyTab=true
    storeKey=true
    doNotPrompt=true
    realm="EXAMPLE.COM"
    useSubjectCredsOnly=false
    kdc="kerberos.example.com"
    keyTab="/path/to/keytab-file-for-HTTP-principal"
    principal="HTTP/broker.org";
};

        export QPID_OPTS=-Dqpid.auth.gssapi.spnegoConfigScope=spnego -Djavax.security.auth.useSubjectCredsOnly=false -Djava.security.auth.login.config=qpid.conf
    

This authentication provider allows users to login to the broker using credentials from a different service supporting OAuth2. Unfortunately, the OAuth2 specification does not define a standard why to get the identity of a subject from an access token. However, most OAuth2 implementations provide such functionality, although in different ways. Qpid handles this by providing so called IdentityResolvers. Currently the following services are supported:

Since all of these, with the exception of CloudFoundry, are tied to a specific service they come with defaults for the Scope, Authorization-, Token-, and IdentityResolverEndpoint.

By default, this authentication provider caches the result of an authentication for a short period of time. This reduces the load on the OAuth2 service if the same token is presented frequently within a short period of time. The length of time a result will be cached is defined by context variable qpid.auth.cache.expiration_time (default to 600 seconds). The cache can be disabled by setting the context variable qpid.auth.cache.size to 0.

When requiring SSL Client Certificates be presented the External Authentication Provider can be used, such that the user is authenticated based on trust of their certificate alone, and the X500Principal from the SSL session is then used as the username for the connection, instead of also requiring the user to present a valid username and password.

Note: The External Authentication Provider should typically only be used on the AMQP/HTTP ports, in conjunction with SSL client certificate authentication. It is not intended for other uses and will treat any non-sasl authentication processes on these ports as successful with the given username.

On creation of External Provider the use of full DN or username CN as a principal name can be configured. If attribute "Use the full DN as the Username" is set to "true" the full DN is used as an authenticated principal name. If attribute "Use the full DN as the Username" is set to "false" the user name CN part is used as the authenticated principal name. Setting the field to "false" is particular useful when ACL is required, as at the moment, ACL does not support commas in the user name.

The Anonymous Authentication Provider will allow users to connect with or without credentials and result in their identification on the broker as the user ANONYMOUS. This Provider does not require specification of any additional attributes on creation.

The SCRAM SHA Providers uses the Broker configuration itself to store the database of users. The users' passwords are stored as salted SHA digested password. This can be further encrypted using the facilities described in Section 8.5, “Configuration Encryption”.

There are two variants of this provider, SHA1 and SHA256. SHA256 is recommended whenever possible. SHA1 is provided with compatibility with clients utilising JDK 1.6 (which does not support SHA256).

For these providers user credentials can be added, removed or changed using Management.

The Plain Provider uses the Broker configuration itself to store the database of users (unlike the PlainPasswordFile, there is no separate password file). As the name suggests, the user data (including password) is not hashed in any way. In order to provide encryption, the facilities described in Section 8.5, “Configuration Encryption” must be used.

For this provider user credentials can be added, removed or changed using Management.

This provider is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The Plain provider should be used instead.

The PlainPasswordFile Provider uses local file to store and manage user credentials. When creating an authentication provider the path to the file needs to be specified. If specified file does not exist an empty file is created automatically on Authentication Provider creation. On Provider deletion the password file is deleted as well.

For this provider user credentials can be added, removed or changed using Management.

# password file format
# <user name>: <user password>
guest:guest
        

MD5 Provider uses the Broker configuration itself to store the database of users (unlike the Base64MD5 Password File, there is no separate password file). Rather than store the unencrypted user password (as the Plain provider does) it instead stores the MD5 password digest. This can be further encrypted using the facilities described in Section 8.5, “Configuration Encryption”.

For this provider user credentials can be added, removed or changed using Management.

This provider is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The MD5 provider should be used instead.

Base64MD5PasswordFile Provider uses local file to store and manage user credentials similar to PlainPasswordFile but instead of storing a password the MD5 password digest encoded with Base64 encoding is stored in the file. When creating an authentication provider the path to the file needs to be specified. If specified file does not exist an empty file is created automatically on Authentication Provider creation. On Base64MD5PasswordFile Provider deletion the password file is deleted as well.

For this provider user credentials can be added, removed or changed using Management.

Composite Provider uses existing username / password authentication providers allowing to perform authentication against them in order defined. It can contains following authentication providers:

When performing authentication, composite provider checks presence of a user with a given username in the first delegate provider and if found, performs authentication. It should be considered, that in case of name collision (when delegate providers contains users with same username but different passwords), it's not guaranteed that authentication will succeed even with the correct credentials. Therefore username collision should be avoided, i.e. each delegate provider should contain users with unique usernames.

Composite provider exposes intersection of SASL mechanism provided by its delegates.