ADFS2.0 and the maximum number of groups

Another subtle issue with ADFS2.0. This time it turned out that the maximum allowed token size is set rather low to 8192 bytes. This means that ADFS is fixed to issue at most two federation cookies to persist its internal user session.

What if the token should be larger, for example user belongs to many security groups?

Well, ADFS just doesn’t issue its own cookies. As a result, user inputs her correct credentials and instead being redirected to a RP application, the ADFS login page is rendered (as there are no cookies indicating a correct authentication) again. The RP is even not hit at all.

In one of our environments, it turned out that somewhere around 100 security groups was the limit. For users with more groups, the login page is rendered forever, accepting credentials but returing to the very same page.

Fortunately, the limit can be changed. Unfortunately, it is stored in a internal class. To raise the limit, reflection has to be used. Put this in ADFS’s global.asax or even in the static constructor of the login page (FormsSignIn.aspx.cs):

public partial class FormsSignIn : FormsLoginPage

{

    // Static constructor, added to the existing class

    static FormsSignIn()

    {

            // raise the limit of the internal cookie size 

            Type federationPassiveAuthentication =

                typeof( FormsLoginPage ).Assembly.GetType( 

                    "Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web.FederationPassiveAuthentication" );

            federationPassiveAuthentication.InvokeMember( "SsoMaxSize",

                System.Reflection.BindingFlags.SetProperty |

                System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public |

                System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static,

                null,

                federationPassiveAuthentication,

                new object [] { 100000u } // new limit

                );           

    }

    // The untouched code

    protected void Page_Load( object sender, EventArgs e )

    {

    }

    ... untouched code follows

Looks ugly but works. With this technique, we are able to get ADFS to issue the maximum allowed number of cookies until ultimately the “Request Headers too long” exception is raised by IIS indicating that there are too many cookies to be handled.

(and unfortunately, I was not able to work this around)

In our scenario, this change allows users to have up to 300 security groups.

C# Puzzle No.23 (intermediate)

Closures are interesting and helpful. In short, closure is a function that can be exposed to the outside world that captures part of its external environment, even though the environment could be private to outside world.

This puzzle involves following short snippet inspired by the Javascript: Definitive Guide book

// create array of 10 functions

static Func<int>[] constfuncs()

{

    Func<int>[] funcs = new Func<int>[10];

    for ( var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

    {

        funcs[i] = () => i;

    }

    return funcs;

}

...

var funcs = constfuncs();

for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

    Console.WriteLine( funcs[i]() );

// output:

// 10

// 10

// ...

// 10

Side note: closures in Javascript work very similar and the output of corresponding Javascript snippet would be the same

function constfuncs() {

  var funcs = [];

  for(var i = 0; i < 10; i++)

  {

    funcs[i] = function() { return i; };

  }

  return funcs;

}

var funcs = constfuncs();

for ( var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

    console.log( funcs[i]() );

End of side note

Your task here is not only to explain the behavior (easy part) but also correct the inner loop of the constfuncs method so that the code outputs

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

More specifically, you are allowed to modify only this line of code

funcs[i] = () => i;

You are free to propose a solution for the JavaScript version as well. The book doesn’t provide one, if you are interested.

Basic tests in Apache JMeter part 2/2

In the previous post we have recorded a basic JMeter test. This time we start with adding an assertion to validate test results.

Multiple assertions can be added to each requests. However, in our simple demo we need a single assertion on the last request just to check whether or not the user is succesfully logged into the application.

Right click the last request and add a Response Assertion. In my particular case, the last page renders the message with the logged in user name. In the response assertion page I add a Pattern to test, the message I expect to see at the last page of the session. If you run the test now it will most probably fail, as the controller lacks the cookie manager, so add one (Add/Config Element/HTTP Cookie Manager) and check the “Clear cookies at each iteration?” checkbox at the cookie manager configuration tab.

The screenshot shows the Response Assertion configuration tab with the pattern to test set to my custom expected message (it says “The logged in user is <username>” in Polish).

If you run the test now and check the results tree, you will most probably see a green icon beside all requests which is a notification of success. Play with the assertion pattern to verify that the assertion really works – a failed assertion marks the request with a red icon at the results tree view.

The last element of the tutorial is modification of POST requests. In my particular scenario, one of the responses returns a SAML token which should be posted in the very next request. However, the recorded session replays the same token every time, the token that was returned in the response body during the recording of my session. This is because JMeter only records and replays requests and it has no knowledge that one of returned parameters should be POSTed in the next request. Because of that, my recorded session works correctly for few hours and then the SAML token will no longer be accepted by the target server (the server will complain that the token is too old).

I start by locating the request that returns the SAML token. I can use the View Results Tree which shows detailed requests and responses. Here it is, the SAML returned in the response of one of my Default.aspx pages:

I right click the node corresponding to the request under my controller and add a post processor (Add/Postprocessors/Regular Expression Extractor). The postprocessor allows me to provide a regular expression and assign its match value to a variable I can use in consecutive requests. At the postprocessor configuration tab I provide necessary parameters: name – SAMLToken, regular expression – name=”wresult” value=”(.*)” /><input (to capture the whole SAML token), template – $1$, match – 1, default value – NOVALUE (more on the extractor here).

Then I go to the very next request (LoginPage.aspx) and at the Parameters tab I inspect the list of posted parameters. In my example there are three parameters sent to the server, wa, wresult and wctx, all three have fixed values taken from the recorded session. I am going to modify the wresult parameter to refer to the newly created variable, SAMLToken.

I have two options, I can provide a bare value (${SAMLToken}) or an unescaped value (${__unescapeHtml(${SAMLToken})}, I choose the latter.

And this is it, the token value read from the response is correctly referenced in the consecutive request. There are other JMeter fuctions that can be used there.

I can now configure the thread group to simulate more concurrent users and verify the correctness and the performance under different load conditions.

Basic tests in Apache JMeter part 1/2

Apache JMeter is a fine tool for different types of web tests – compatibility, performance, integration. This post is about recording, running and parametrizing basic tests.

First, start by running JMeter, you start with an empty Test Plan. Give it a name and add a Thread Group to the Test Plan (right click the Test Plan node and select Add/Threads/Thread Group).

Thread Group represents a set of “users”. As you can see, you can modify the number of threads (users) and the ramp-up period. This is handy for testing your application for multiple concurrent clients.

Next step would be to set up an HTTP Proxy Server and a Recording Controller. These two will allow me to “record” the browser’s session instead of creating all requests manually.

Right-click the WorkBench node and add a Non-Test Element, HTTP Proxy Server. Add a Recording Controller to the Thread Group. In the HTTP Proxy’s settings tab, select the newly created Recording Controller as the target controller.

Now start the proxy (Start button at the bottom of the settings tab), open up my web browser (any browser will do) and set the proxy to http://localhost:8080. If you are on Firefox, remember to set the proxy for each protocol (including HTTPS) (Tools/Options/Advanced/Network):

Now navigate to a web site you want to test. Each action is recorded under the recording controller.

To be able to replay the sequence of tests and see the results, add a listener to the thread group, the View Results Tree listener. Now you can click the Start button (or select Run/Start from the menu) and click your listener to see the replayed session. Use the Clear All button (Run/Clear All) to clear the listener.

In the next post we will create basic assertions and also modify the flow so that values returned from requests are used in consecutive posts.

X509Certificate2 certificate conversions

X509 certificates are useful for many common tasks. Some time ago I’ve blogged on how to create certificates programatically and how to sign and verify XML data in an interoperable way.

There are some common tasks about certificates. Let’s begin.

To access a system store and enumerate it:

X509Store store = new X509Store( StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser );

store.Open( OpenFlags.ReadOnly );

foreach ( var cert in store.Certificates )

{

    Console.WriteLine( cert.ToString() );

}

To access a file system store (*.pfx) and enumerate certificates:

X509Certificate2Collection store = new X509Certificate2Collection();

store.Import( @"c:\filename.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.DefaultKeySet );

foreach ( var cert in store.OfType<X509Certificate2>() )

{

    Console.WriteLine( cert.ToString() );

}

To load a single certificate from a file system store (*.pfx):

X509Certificate2 cert = 

  new X509Certificate2( @"c:\filename.pfx", "password", X509KeyStorageFlags.MachineKeySet );

Console.WriteLine( cert.ToString() );

To export a X509Certificate2 object to a file store (*.pfx) (with private key and protected with a password):

X509Certificate2 cert = ...;

File.WriteAllBytes( "cert.pfx", cert.Export( X509ContentType.Pkcs12, "foo" ) );

To export only a public key of the X509Certificate2 to a file (*.cer):

X509Certificate2 cert = ...;

File.WriteAllText( "cert.cer", Convert.ToBase64String( cert.Export( X509ContentType.Cert ) ) );

And last but not least, if you have a certificate in Base64 form (for example from ADFS2 federation metadata), just create a blank text file with *.cer extension, copy the base64 certificate, save. The file can be used from within the Windows shell.

(a side note here: although most web sources claim that base64 encoded certificates in text form need the ----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- preamble and -----END CERTIFICATE----- at the end, this is not necessary).

For example, a first googled certificate from here stored in a cert.cer text file

and double clicked from the OS shell opens up as

MSB3147: Could not find required file 'setup.bin' on a x64 machine [.NET 4.5, cont.]

Over two years ago I’ve blogged on how to workaround the problem with building ClickOnce applications on a x64 build server. The solution was to manually create a registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\GenericBootstrapper\4.0 and add the Path value c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\ to it.

This worked for 2 years and last week we were hit with the issue once again. Reason? Well, .NET 4.5 has been installed on the server.

It seems that .NET 4.5 changes the way applications are built (new version of msbuild?). It no longer expects the old v7.0A SDK, instead it expects the v8.0A SDK.

Unfortunately, according to this table, there is no official installer for the v8.0A SDK. It is installed with VS2012 Update 2.

The solution was to:

1) Manually copy the contents of the c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\Bootstrapper\Engine folder from a dev machine to the build server

2) Manually create a registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\GenericBootstrapper\11.0 with Path set to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\Bootstrapper\

Important note! Although the setup.bin is physically inside the Bootstrapper\Engine subfolder, the Path points to Bootstrapper rather than Bootstrapper\Engine.

Important note 2! For some reason, the bootstrapper key corresponding to the v7.0A SDK has 4.0 suffix while the key corresponding to the v8.0A SDK ends with 11.0. A lot of unnecessary confusion and I am glad this works despite all this confusion.

Basic Authentication Module with custom Membership Provider

The goal of this post is to document the “not-quite-practical” possibility of replacing Forms Authentication Module with a “401 Challenge”-Authentication-Module but still be able to use a custom membership provider.

The clarification could possibly dispel a common confusion – in ASP.NET the 401 Challenge authentication is often confused with Windows authentication scheme. The problem stems from the fact that the authentication module and the membership provider are two distinct responsibilities:

- your authentication could be “401 Challenge” based or cookie based (or even anything-else-based)

- your users credentials can be validated against AD or against a custom user store

Now, if you think about it, 4 combinations sound to make sense:

Membership Authentication	Windows membership	Custom membership
302 Redirect (cookie)	ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider <authentication mode="Forms">	Any custom membership provider <authentication mode="Forms">
401 Challenge	Windows authentication <authentication mode="Windows">	???

You can have cookie based (forms) authentication with any membership provider, including the built-in ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider. You can have “401 Challenge” based authentication with Windows accounts.

But what about “401 Challenge” based authentiaction with a custom membersip provider? ASP.NET has no built-in solution for this. You can have 401 Challenge-based authentication only for Windows accounts, in windows authentication mode.

This is why some people think that 401 Challenge basic authentication is only possible with Windows accounts.

Does it make sense?

Good question. There are many drawbacks of the 401 Challenge authentication, just to name a few:

- the login window is not customizable, it is built into your web browser

- there is no easy way to signal “wrong credendials” (a new 401 is returned)

There are also pros:

- 401 Challenge can be used in “active” scenario, where a client (ajax? webapi client?) can carry credentials in the very first request, without the need to redirect-with-a-cookie and then carry-cookie-with-each-request. In fact, the authentication header is automatically handled by all web browsers.

How to do it?

The code below is based mostly on the WebApi authentication module by Mike Wasson from his entry on WebApi. Minor modifications introduces authorization handling (the authentication is required only when authorization fails) and a call to a membership provider.

/// <summary>

/// Based on http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/security/basic-authentication

/// </summary>

public class BasicAuthHttpModule : IHttpModule

{

    public void Init( HttpApplication context )

    {

        // Register event handlers

        context.AuthenticateRequest += OnApplicationAuthenticateRequest;

        context.EndRequest += OnApplicationEndRequest;

    }

    private static void SetPrincipal( IPrincipal principal )

    {

        Thread.CurrentPrincipal = principal;

        if ( HttpContext.Current != null )

        {

            HttpContext.Current.User = principal;

        }

    }

    private static bool AuthenticateUser( string credentials )

    {

        bool validated = false;

        try

        {

            var encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding( "iso-8859-1" );

            credentials = encoding.GetString( Convert.FromBase64String( credentials ) );

            int separator = credentials.IndexOf( ':' );

            string name = credentials.Substring( 0, separator );

            string password = credentials.Substring( separator + 1 );

            if ( Membership.ValidateUser( name, password ) )

            {

                var identity = new GenericIdentity( name );

                SetPrincipal( new GenericPrincipal( identity, null ) );

            }

        }

        catch ( FormatException )

        {

            // Credentials were not formatted correctly.

            validated = false;

        }

        return validated;

    }

    private static void OnApplicationAuthenticateRequest( object sender, EventArgs e )

    {

        var request = HttpContext.Current.Request;

        var user    = Thread.CurrentPrincipal;

        if ( !UrlAuthorizationModule.CheckUrlAccessForPrincipal( 

            request.Path, user, request.HttpMethod ) )

        {

            var authHeader = request.Headers["Authorization"];

            if ( authHeader != null )

            {

                var authHeaderVal = AuthenticationHeaderValue.Parse( authHeader );

                // RFC 2617 sec 1.2, "scheme" name is case-insensitive

                if ( authHeaderVal.Scheme.Equals( "basic",

                        StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase ) &&

                    authHeaderVal.Parameter != null )

                {

                    AuthenticateUser( authHeaderVal.Parameter );

                }

            }

        }

    }

    private static void OnApplicationEndRequest( object sender, EventArgs e )

    {

        var response = HttpContext.Current.Response;

        if ( response.StatusCode == 401 )

        {

            response.Headers.Add( "WWW-Authenticate",

                string.Format( "Basic realm=\"{0}\"", 

                    HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.Host ) );

        }

    }

    public void Dispose()

    {

    }

}

How to configure it?

There are two steps to configure the module. First, you register it for the processing pipeline:

<system.webServer>

    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">

        <add name="BasicAuthModule" type="The.Namespace.Here.BasicAuthHttpModule"/>

    </modules>

</system.webServer>

The other important moment of the configuration is turning off all other 401 Challenge handling modules in the application configuration in IIS:

As you can see, the only active authentication method is “Anonymous” (Włączone = Enabled, Wyłączone = Disabled).

What happens if you don’t turn off other 401 Challenge handling methods? Well, the pipeline just uses them and since all built in modules tie 401 Challenge to Windows authentication, the custom membership provider will not even be fired as the windows authentication will most probably reject provided credentials.

What now

You can test the implementation with an http debugger to see how 401 is returned, what browser does when it sees the status code and what goes to the server with the next request.

The basic 401 Challenge authentication scheme is just one of possible 401 Challenge flows. Other possibilities are Digest, Ntlm are Negotiate flows. Google for more details.